Rave or
rave party is a term first used in the 1980s and 90s to describe
dance partiesDance parties or rave parties are gatherings in private houses, bars, nightclubs or community centres where the guests informally dance to dance music such as pop, disco, electronica, house, techno and trance. The music for dance parties is usually selected and played by a disk jockey over a...
(often all-night events) with fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties
DJA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
s and other performers play
Electronic Dance MusicElectronic dance music is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
. Some examples include:
HouseHouse is a style of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American and Latino American communities, first in Chicago, then in New York City, New Jersey, Detroit and Miami...
,
TranceTrance is a style of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 155 BPM, short melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. Trance can be understood as a combination of...
,
TechnoTechno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, USA during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
,
JungleOldschool Jungle is the name given to a style of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, techno, rare groove and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is significant debate as to whether Jungle is a separate genre from Drum and Bass as some use the terms...
(often referred to as "
rave musicRave music consists of forms of electronic dance music that are associated with the rave scene.-Characteristics:Most often, the term is used to describe high in energy music, including some forms of trance music, that features samples, loops and synthesizers...
"),
with the accompaniment of
laser light showsA laser lighting display or laser light show involves the use of laser light to entertain an audience. A laser light show may consist only of projected laser beams set to music, or may accompany another form of entertainment, typically a dance concert or other musical performance.Laser light is...
, projected images and
artificial fogA fog machine or smoke machine is a device which emits a dense vapour that appears similar to fog or smoke. This artificial fog is most commonly used in professional entertainment applications, but smaller, more affordable fog machines are becoming common for personal use...
. Raving has an essential slogan word, "PLUR". PLUR stands for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect.
Presaging the word's subsequent 1980s association with electronic music, the word "rave" was part of the title of an electronic music performance event held on 28 January 1967 at London's Roundhouse titled the "Million Volt Light and Sound Rave". The event featured the only known public airing of an experimental sound collage created for the occasion by
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
and
John LennonJohn Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles...
during the early stages of the
Sgt. Pepper sessions - the legendary
Carnival Of Light"Carnival of Light" is an unreleased experimental piece by The Beatles. It was recorded on 5 January 1967, after the vocal overdubbing sessions for the song "Penny Lane"...
recording.
With the rapid change of British pop culture from the mod era of 1963–1966 to the
hippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district...
era of 1967 and beyond, the term fell out of popular usage. During the 1970s and early 1980s until its resurrection, the term was not in vogue, one notable exception being in the lyrics of the song "
Drive-In Saturday"Drive-In Saturday" is a song by David Bowie from his 1973 album Aladdin Sane. It was released as a single a week before the album and, like its predecessor "The Jean Genie", became a Top 5 UK hit.-Music and lyrics:...
" by
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
(from his 1973 album
Aladdin SaneAladdin Sane is an album by David Bowie, released by RCA Records in 1973 . The follow-up to his breakthrough The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, it was the first album Bowie wrote and released as a bona fide pop star...
) which includes the line "It's a crash course for the ravers." Its use during that era would have been perceived as a quaint or ironic use of bygone slang: part of the dated 1960s lexicon along with words such as "groovy". The perception of the word changed again in the late 1980s when the term was revived and adopted by a new youth culture, possibly inspired by the use of the term in Jamaica.
Early years
The late 1950s in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
saw the term "rave" used to describe the "wild
bohemianA Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region or Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic...
parties" of the
SohoSoho is an area in the centre of the West End of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is an entertainment district which for much of the later part of the 20th century had a reputation for its sex shops as well as its night life and film industry...
beatnikBeatnik, a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s, was a synthesis of the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s into violent film images and a cartoonish misrepresentation of the real-life people and the spirituality found in Jack Kerouac's...
underground. The word was later used in the burgeoning mod youth culture of the early 1960s as the way to describe any wild party in general. People who were gregarious party animals were described as "ravers". Pop musicians such as
Steve MarriottStephen Peter Marriott , popularly known as Steve Marriott, was a successful and versatile English singer-songwriter, guitarist and musician....
of
The Small FacesSmall Faces were an English rock group from East London, heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues. The group was founded in 1965 by members Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston ....
and Clare Willans were self-described "ravers".
In the mid to late 1980s a wave of psychedelic and other
electronic dance musicElectronic dance music is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
, most notably
acid houseAcid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed by mid-1980s DJs from Chicago who experimented with the Roland TB-303...
and Techno, emerged and caught on in the clubs, warehouses, and free-parties around
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
and later
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. These early raves were called Acid House Parties. They were mainstream events that attracted thousands of people (up to 25,000 instead of the 4,000 that came to earlier warehouse parties). Acid House parties were first re-branded "rave parties" in the media, during the summer of 1989 by
Neil Andrew MegsonGenesis Breyer P-Orridge is an English performer, musician, writer and artist. His early confrontational performance work in COUM Transmissions in the late 1960s and early 1970s along with the industrial band Throbbing Gristle, which dealt with subjects such as prostitution, pornography, serial...
during a television interview. In the UK, in 1988-89, raves were similar to football matches in that they provided a setting for working-class unification, in a time with a union movement in decline and few jobs, and many of the attendees of raves were die-hard football fans.
The lack of football rivalry at raves was due in large part to the Ecstasy taken by the "thugs" who would otherwise have relied on fighting for an adrenaline rush.
In the late 1980s, the word "rave" was adopted to describe the
subcultureIn sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong...
that grew out of the
acid houseAcid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed by mid-1980s DJs from Chicago who experimented with the Roland TB-303...
movement. Activities were related to the party atmosphere of
IbizaIbiza is an island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Iberian Peninsula Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses...
, a Mediterranean island frequented by British, Italians, and German youth on vacation. The fear that a certain number of rave party attendees used "
club drugClub drugs are a loosely-defined category of recreational drugs which are associated with discothèques in the 1970s and dance clubs, parties, and raves in the 1980s to the 2000s....
s" such as
MDMAMDMA is a psychoactive amphetamine drug with entactogenic, psychedelic, and stimulant effects....
,
cocaineCocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant...
, amphetamines and, more recently,
ketamineKetamine is a drug used in human and veterinary medicine developed by Parke-Davis in 1962. Its hydrochloride salt is sold as Ketanest, Ketaset, and Ketalar. Pharmacologically, ketamine is classified as an NMDA receptor antagonist...
, was taken by authorities as a pretext to ban those parties altogether.
British politicians responded with hostility to the emerging rave-party trend. Politicians spoke out against raves and began to fine anyone who held illegal parties. Police crackdowns on these often-illegal parties drove the scene into the countryside. The word "rave" somehow caught on in the UK to describe common semi-spontaneous weekend parties occurring at various locations linked by the brand new
M25 London OrbitalThe M25 motorway is a 117 mile orbital motorway which encircles Greater London, United Kingdom except for the tolled Dartford Crossing where it crosses the River Thames to the east of London...
motorway that ringed
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and the
Home CountiesThe "Home counties" refers to the counties that border or surround London, England but not including the United Kingdom's capital city itself. There is no exact definition of the term and the composition of the 'home counties' is sometimes a matter of debate....
. (It was this that gave the band
OrbitalOrbital are a British electronic duo from Sevenoaks, England, consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Their career initially ran from 1989 until 2004, but in 2008 they announced that they would be reforming and headlining The Big Chill, in addition to a number of other live shows in 2009...
their name.) These ranged from former warehouses and industrial sites, in London, to fields and country clubs in the countryside.
Electronic Music in general and also the "rave scene" was jump started in
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, Michigan and this is where the underground rave scene first originated. Numerous well-known DJ's such as
Richie HawtinRichard Hawtin is a English-Canadian electronic musician and internationally-touring DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s...
and
DJ GodfatherDJ Godfather is a Ghettotech music producer and disc jockey from Detroit, Michigan.His most notable mix is the "Godzilla "....
all got their start in the underground scene in Detroit. Today the rave scene is still kept alive in Detroit with the DEMF or
Detroit Electronic Music FestivalThe Detroit Electronic Music Festival , or "Tech Fest," and its successors comprise an annual series of electronic dance music showcases held in Detroit each Memorial Day weekend since 2000...
also known as the Movement. Popular DJ's from all over the world come to play on one of the multiple stages during this 3-day event at Hart Plaza in Detroit. In 2008 an estimated 90,000 people showed up over the 3-day weekend. To some this is the biggest Electronic Music Festival in the world still alive today.
The early rave scene also flourished underground in North American cities such as
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
, Halifax,
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
,San Diego and
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
and as word of the budding scene spread, raves quickly caught on in other major urban centres across the North American and European continents.
United Kingdom
From the
Acid HouseAcid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed by mid-1980s DJs from Chicago who experimented with the Roland TB-303...
scene of the late 1980s, the scene transformed from predominantly a London-based phenomenon to a UK-wide mainstream underground youth movement. By 1991, organisations such as
FantaziaFantazia is a dance organisation based in the UK. Founded in 1991 by James Perkins, it was set up at a time when breakbeat hardcore was on the ascendent within the rave scene, having grown out of the Acid House movement....
, Universe,
RaindanceRaindance may refer to:*Rain dancing*Raindance Communications*Raindance Film Festival*Raindance - A fictional character....
, and Amnesia House were holding massive legal raves in fields and warehouses around the country. One
FantaziaFantazia is a dance organisation based in the UK. Founded in 1991 by James Perkins, it was set up at a time when breakbeat hardcore was on the ascendent within the rave scene, having grown out of the Acid House movement....
party, called One Step Beyond, was an open-air, all-night affair that attracted 30,000 people. Other notable events included Vision at Pophams airfield in August 1992, with 40,000 in attendance and Universe's
Tribal GatheringTribal Gathering was a dance music festival that catered for different types of dance music cultures such as drum and bass, techno, rave and house. -History:...
in 1993.
In the early 1990s, the scene was slowly changing, with local councils passing by-laws and increasing fees in an effort to prevent or discourage rave organisations from acquiring necessary licenses. This meant that the days of legal one-off parties were numbered. By the mid-90s, the scene had fragmented into many different styles of dance music, making large parties more expensive to set up and more difficult to promote. The happy old skool style was replaced by the darker
jungleOldschool Jungle is the name given to a style of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, techno, rare groove and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is significant debate as to whether Jungle is a separate genre from Drum and Bass as some use the terms...
and the faster
happy hardcoreHappy Hardcore is a form of dance music typified by a very fast tempo , often coupled with solo vocals, and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of breakbeat hardcore, which tend to be "darker"...
. Although many ravers left the scene due to the split, promoters such as ESP Dreamscape and Helter Skelter still enjoyed widespread popularity and capacity attendances with multi-arena events catering to the various genres. Particularly notable events of this period included ESP's Dreamscape 20 on 9 September 1995 at Brafield aerodrome fields,
NorthantsNorthamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census...
and Helter Skelter's Energy 97 event on 9 Aug 1997 at Turweston Aerodrome, Northants.
The illegal
free partyA free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, which typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one system or of many and if the party...
scene also reached its zenith for that time after a particularly large festival, when many individual sound systems such as
BedlamBedlam Sound System was founded in Dalston, East London in 1992. It was a free tekno sound system run by Steve Bedlam and four other people. The first parties were organised in early 1992 and later that year Bedlam was present at the Castlemorton Common Festival.The Sound System then became well...
, Circus Warp, DIY, and
Spiral TribeSpiral Tribe is a free party soundsystem which existed in the first half of the 1990s, and became active again in 2007. The collective originated in west London and later travelled across Europe and North America. According to one member, the name came to him when he was at work, staring at a...
set up near
CastlemortonThe Castlemorton Common Festival was a week-long free festival and rave held in the Malvern Hills near Malvern, Worcestershire, England in 1992....
Common. In May 1992, the
governmentA government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws and regulations.....
acted. Under the
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the existing law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights and in greater penalties for certain "anti-social" behaviours...
, the definition of music played at a rave was given as:
Sections 63, 64 & 65 of the Act targeted
electronic dance musicElectronic dance music is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered
policeA police service is a public force empowered to enforce the law and provide security through the legitimized use of force.The term is most commonly associated with police services of a state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of...
to stop a rave in the open air when a hundred or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave. Section 65 allows any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a five-mile radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; non-compliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the
standard scaleThe standard scale is a system whereby financial criminal penalties in legislation have maximum levels set against a standard scale. Then, when inflation makes it necessary to increase the levels of the fines the legislators need to modify only the scale rather than each individual piece of...
(£1000). The Act was ostensibly introduced because of the noise and disruption caused by all night parties to nearby residents, and to protect the countryside. It has also been claimed that it was introduced to kill a popular youth movement that was taking many drinkers out of town centres, where they would drink taxable alcohol, and into fields to take untaxed
recreational drugsRecreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, approved medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear ....
.
After 1993, the main outlet for raves in the UK were a number of licensed venues, amongst them
Helter Skelter"Helter Skelter" is a song written by Paul McCartney, credited to Lennon/McCartney, and recorded by The Beatles on their eponymous LP The Beatles, better known as The White Album...
, Life at Bowlers (Trafford Park, Manchester), The Edge (formerly the Eclipse [Coventry]), The Sanctuary (Milton Keynes) and Club Kinetic. Events proved to be one of the main forces in rave, holding legendary events across the north-east and
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Initially playing Techno,
BreakbeatBreakbeat is a term used to describe a collection of sub-genres of electronic music, usually characterized by the use of a non-straightened 4/4 drum pattern...
, Rave and drum and bass, it later embraced
hardcore technoHardcore is a style of electronic music that originated in the early-to-mid-1990s in multiple locations including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK...
including
happy hardcoreHappy Hardcore is a form of dance music typified by a very fast tempo , often coupled with solo vocals, and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of breakbeat hardcore, which tend to be "darker"...
and
bouncy technoBouncy techno gabber, funcore, tartan techno- see terminology) is a rave hardcore dance music style that developed from around 1992, mostly emanating from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands...
. Judgement Day, History of Dance, and now REGENeration continued the Rezerection legacy. Scotland's clubs, such as the FUBAR in Stirling,
Hanger 13Hangar 13 was a Scottish hardcore rave venue in Ayr, Scotland. Situated in the former Pavilion dance hall situated on Ayr's Low Green. During the early 1990s, raves situated at this old Pavilion became the target of much police and media interest after three alleged ecstasy-related deaths...
in
AyrAyr is a town and port situated on the Firth of Clyde, in south-west Scotland. With a population of around 46,000, Ayr is the largest settlement in Ayrshire, of which it is the county town, and has held royal burgh status since 1205...
, and Nosebleed in
RosythRosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the 2007 population estimate, the town has a population of 12,865. The town was founded as a garden city and was built to form the coastal port of Dunfermline which began in 1909...
played important roles in the development of these dance music styles.
These were nearly all pay-to-enter events; however, it could be argued that rave organisers saw the writing on the wall and moved towards more organised and "legitimate" venues, enabling a continuation of large-scale indoor raves well into the mid-nineties. One might remember that the earliest house and acid house clubs were themselves effectively "nightclubs". Public perception of raves was also overshadowed in the press by the 1995 death of
Leah BettsLeah Sarah Betts was a schoolgirl from Latchingdon in Essex, England. She is notable for the extensive media coverage and moral panic that followed her death several days after her 18th birthday. On her birthday, November 11, she took an ecstasy tablet, and, four hours later, collapsed into a...
, a teenager who died after taking ecstasy; journalists and billboard campaigns focussed on drug use, despite Betts cause of death being
water intoxicationWater intoxication is a potentially fatal disturbance in brain functions that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water.Normal, healthy individuals have little reason to worry about accidentally consuming too...
in her home, not an ecstasy overdose at a rave.
Genuine illegal raves have continued throughout the UK to this day and unlicensed parties have been organised in venues including disused quarries, warehouses, and condemned night clubs. The rise of the Internet has both helped and hindered the cause, with much wider and more accessible communication resulting in bigger parties, but consequently increasing the risk of police involvement.
The 2006
M.I.A.Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam , better known by her stage name M.I.A., is an English songwriter, record producer, singer, fashion designer, and artist of Sri Lankan Tamil origin....
song "
XR2Kala is the second studio album by British musician M.I.A., released in August 2007. The album features musical styles ranging from dance music and alternative hip hop to urumee melam, a style native to the state of Tamil Nadu, South India. It was mainly written and produced by M.I.A...
" is an ode to the rave scene of early 1990s London.
Continental Europe
By 1987, a German party scene based around the
Chicago HouseHouse is a style of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American and Latino American communities, first in Chicago, then in New York City, New Jersey, Detroit and Miami...
sound was well established. The following year (1988) saw acid house making as significant an impact on popular consciousness in Germany as it had in England. In 1989 German DJs
WestbamWestBam, real name Maximillian Lenz is one of the most successful and popular techno DJs in Germany. His brother is Fabian Lenz, also known as DJ Dick....
and Dr. Motte established ‘UFO’, an illegal party venue, and co-founded the
Love ParadeThe Love Parade is a popular festival and parade that originated in 1989 in Berlin, Germany. It was held in Germany annually between 1989 and 2003, and then from 2006 to 2008...
. On the 9th of November 1989 the
Berlin Wall|-||-||-||-||}The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic completely encircling West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany...
fell, free underground Techno parties mushroomed in
East BerlinEast Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a de facto part of West Germany. Despite its status as part of an occupied city,...
, and a rave scene comparable to that in the UK was established. East German DJ
Paul van DykMatthias Paul, better known by his stage name Paul van Dyk is a Grammy Award–nominated artist, and one of the world's leading electronic dance music DJs and producers. He was named "World's No.1 DJ" by DJ Magazine in both 2005 and 2006, and has remained in the "Top 10" since 1998...
has remarked that the Techno based rave scene was a major force in re-establishing social connections between East and West Germany during the unification period.
In 1991 a number of party venues closed, including UFO, and the Berlin Techno scene centred itself around three locations close to the foundations of the Berlin Wall: the ‘E-Werk’, ‘Der Bunker' and the now legendary ‘Tresor’. In the same period German DJs began intensifying the speed and abrasiveness of the sound, as an acid infused techno began transmuting into
hardcoreHardcore is a style of electronic music that originated in the early-to-mid-1990s in multiple locations including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK...
. This emerging sound was influenced by Dutch
gabberGabber , is a style of electronic music and a subgenre of hardcore techno. "Gabber" is a Dutch word that literally means "buddy" or "friend"...
and Belgium hardcore. Other influences on the development of this style were European
Electronic Body MusicElectronic body music, EBM or Industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
groups of the mid 1980s such as
DAF-Science, nature and technology:* Decay accelerating factor, a protein involved in the complement system* Delayed auditory feedback, a device used to delay a person's voice to their own ear, which reduces stuttering and cluttering...
,
Front 242Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. During their most active period they influenced many electro-industrial and electronic artists.-Formation:When industrial music developed in England in the mid-1970s with Cabaret Voltaire and...
, and
Nitzer EbbNitzer Ebb are a British EBM group formed in 1982 by Essex school friends Vaughan Harris , Douglas McCarthy , and David Gooday...
. In Germany, fans referred to this sound as "Tekkno" (or "Bretter").
Across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, rave culture was becoming part of a new youth movement. DJs and electronic-music producers such as
WestbamWestBam, real name Maximillian Lenz is one of the most successful and popular techno DJs in Germany. His brother is Fabian Lenz, also known as DJ Dick....
proclaimed the existence of a "raving society" and promoted electronic music as legitimate competition for
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
. Indeed, electronic dance music and rave subculture became mass movements. Raves had tens of thousands of attendees, youth magazines featured styling tips, and television networks launched music magazines on House and Techno music. The annual
Love ParadeThe Love Parade is a popular festival and parade that originated in 1989 in Berlin, Germany. It was held in Germany annually between 1989 and 2003, and then from 2006 to 2008...
festivals in Berlin (in the Metropolitan Ruhr area onwards) attracted more than one million party-goers between 1997 and 2000. Meanwhile, the more commercial sound of
happy hardcoreHappy Hardcore is a form of dance music typified by a very fast tempo , often coupled with solo vocals, and sentimental lyrics. Its characteristically 4/4 beat "happy" sound distinguishes it from most other forms of breakbeat hardcore, which tend to be "darker"...
topped the music charts across Europe. Nowadays there are only a few popular raving acts on the case in Germany. The most famous group in there is
Scooter-Vehicles:* Air scooter, an ultralight helicopter of co-axial rotor configuration produced by the AirScooter Corporation* Diving scooter , an item of diving equipment used by scuba divers to increase their range while underwater* Ice scooter , a small, light vehicle able to travel quickly across...
.
United States of America
The upsurge in popularity of rave culture in the United States at a certain period in time often lends it characteristics common to a 'movement' or
subcultureIn sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong...
. Starting in the late 80s, rave culture began to filter through from English ex-pats and DJs who would visit Europe. Promoters like Dave and Patti Ryan of Life and CPU101 in Los Angeles,Branden Powers and Nicholas Luckinbill of San Diego's Global Underworld Network, creators of the legendary Narnia Festivals, Storm Raves(F.Bones & crew), Matt E. Silver in New York,DJ Mystic Bill of Vibe Alive in Chicago, and Kurt of "Drop Bass" and "Furthur Festivals" of Milwaukee were among some of the few successful promoters doing most popular raves in heavy attendance early on. American underground rave DJs from that time who would go onto international celebrity include artists like
MobyRichard Melville Hall , better known by his stage name Moby, is an American DJ, singer-songwriter, and musician....
,
Josh WinkJosh Wink is an electronic music DJ, label owner, producer, remixer, and artist. He is a native of Philadelphia, United States. A pioneering DJ in the American rave scene during the early 1990s, Wink was the most prominent exponent of the tribal forms of techno and house in the U.S...
,
DJ KeokiSuperstar DJ Keoki is an Electronic music DJ who was born in El Salvador, but raised in Hawaii. He had no experience as a DJ when he was branded Superstar DJ Keoki...
, DJ Carlos Soul Slinger, Frankie Bones(The god father of the American rave scene),
Doc MartinDoc Martin is a British television comedy drama starring Martin Clunes. Created by Dominic Minghella, it is filmed on location in and around the fishing village of Port Isaac, Cornwall, United Kingdom, with filming of most interior scenes and production carried out in a converted barn at a local farm...
, Jon Bishop , Mark E. Quark, Steve Pagan and others. During this time publications such as Milwaukee's "
Massive MagazineMassive Magazine was a Midwestern United States electronic music publication published by Matt Bonde of Mayville, Wisconsin. Issue #1 was released in 1993 and chronicled the evolution of rave zines that were being self-published by individuals during that time...
", Chicago's "Reactor" and "A Thousand Words" Chad, Los Angeles' "Urb", and San Francisco's "
XLR8RXLR8R is a magazine and website thatcovers music, culture, style, and technology. It was founded as anewsprint ‘zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in Seattle; the...
" magazines helped spread the scene from coast to coast and abroad. One of the first rave websites with event listings, music info and chemical information was hyperreal.org The popularity of rave music within the mainstream started in early to mid 1990s with such artists as
RozallaRozalla is a dance music performer from Zambia born to a Zambian mother and an English father. "The queen of rave" is best known for her 1991 hit "Everybody's Free "....
,
Praga KhanPraga Khan is an early techno music musician. His Belgian New Beat style stems back to the 1980s when techno came out of the Belgian underground.- Overview :...
,
The ProdigyThe Prodigy are an English electronic music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex, England. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and The Crystal Method, as well as other acts they are pioneers of the big beat electronic dance genre which achieved mainstream popularity in...
and
The ShamenThe Shamen were an experimental electronic music band, initially formed in Aberdeen, Scotland, by Colin Angus , Derek McKenzie , Keith McKenzie and Peter Stephenson in the 1980s as a psychedelic-influenced indie rock act...
among others. Because the movement and music both embrace and incorporate so many different elements, a common thread can be hard to find.
Some cultural tenets associated with rave culture are:
- Peace - to make peace with all people around them
- Love - to stay close to all people and care for them unconditionally
- Unity - to stand together for the universal cause of peace and love
- Respect - to understand the diversities of culture
The word "Responsibility" was added to the acronym
PLURPLUR or PLURR is an acronym that stands for "Peace Love Unity Respect", a credo or mantra of the rave culture. Many in the rave scene have heard this term at some time or another, although its common usage is relatively recent. Early 1990s and mid-1980s ravers often followed similar principles, but...
during the mid to late 90s to promote awareness of increased drug overdoses at raves. Groups that have addressed drug use at raves include the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund (EMDEF)
http://www.emdef.org, DanceSafe
http://www.dancesafe.org, and the Toronto Raver Info Project
http://www.tripproject.ca, all of which advocate harm reduction approaches to enjoying a rave.
Hippies of a New Era
American ravers, following their early UK & European counterparts, have been compared to both the hippies of the 1960s and the new wavers of the 1980s, due to their interest in non-violence and music.
In the 1990s, one of the most influential Rave organisers / promoters in America was San Diego's G.U.N. ,Global Underworld Network known as Nicholas Luckinbill and Branden Powers. They were made famous for organising and throwing the internationally known OPIUM and NARNIA raves that reached in size of 60,000 plus people in attendance, a feat unheard of at that time. Narnia which would become famous for a morning hand holding circle of unity was featured on Mtv and twice in LIFE magazine being honored with Event of the Year in 1995. Narnia quickly became known as the "Woodstock of Generation X". These festivals were mostly held on Indian Reservations and Ski Resorts during the Summer months and were headlined by well known DJs such as Doc Martin,Dimitri of Dee-lite,Afrika Islam and the Hardkiss brothers from San Francisco. They also featured exceptional local San Diego DJ's Jon Bishop, Steve Pagan,Alien Tom,Jeff Skot and Mark E. Quark. Global Underworld's events were the first prop heavy , themed parties in America. Global Underworld Network were also the first production company to throw Raves within Mexico, thus launching the entire rave culture movement within South America as well. The iconic fairy and pixie craze with ravers getting fairy tattoos and wearing wings to parties all started from an image of a winged fairy on the first Narnia flyer. The Crystal Method played their first out of town show for Global Underworld's Universary event. Fearing reprisals from the police Global Underworld Network advertised the event as "A thousand Points of Light" referring to the power of healing crystals and not the obvious drug reference of the Crystal Methods name. A fact that tickled the upcoming artist so much they would refer to it years later in their biography. The Chemical Brothers were also in awe of Nicholas and Branden's Global Underworld headquarters in downtown San Diego. A multi story building of the arts, much like Warhol's factory. There Global Underworld fed starving artists and provided space for all the arts. The Chemical Brothers played an intimate show at Global's offices in front of a few hundred lucky fans on the eve of a Global event that was shut down by the authorities. In an interview with Virgin Airways The Chemical Brothers referred to Global Underworld as a cult with cult like followers, a fact that wasn't to far from the truth. Nicholas Luckinbill step grandson of the late Lucille Ball and Branden Powers were the Tim Leary and Ken Keaseys of the Rave Generation, and were instrumental in creating their political movement called RTD or RIGHT TO DANCE. RTD was a non violent protest held in San Diego and later in Los Angeles on the steps of the Cities administrators proving that Rave was about community , peace, love and not a dirty word. These protest by Global Underworld helped lay the foundation for future growth within the rave scene. Almost 20 years to the date of their first party "The Birth of Baby X" Global Underworld has risen like a Phoenix from the ashes , reborn anew and is bringing back their world famous festival NARNIA in the Summer of 2010.
In contrast to many other "youth cultures," older people are often active members of the U.S. scene and are well represented at events. Certain facets of dance music culture in the UK, Europe and globally, are also welcoming to the older generation (especially the free party/squat party/gay scenes). However, rave and club culture remains on the whole very much a youth-driven movement in terms of its core fan base. Although rave parties are commonly associated with illegal activities (e.g. drug use), it should be noted that raves themselves are (often) legal gatherings.
Northern California scene
In late 80s and early 90s, there was a boom in rave culture in the Bay Area. At first, small underground parties sprung up all over the SOMA district in vacant warehouses, loft spaces, and clubs like DV8 and 1015 Folsom, and basement of Jessie Street that had permits to run to 6am as long as no alcohol was served. The zero alcohol rule fuelled the ecstasy-driven parties to a much larger crowd, and soon followed were the first large scale raves. Every weekend a few hundred revellers would show up at venues like the Townsend warehouse, the King Street garage, and other mid-size warehouse's located in the SOMA and south San Francisco area.
Rave crew's started to become famous not only for their quality of music and the smoothness of the parties thrown but also for the 'vibe'. Crews grew to legendary status at this time: 'the gathering', 'toontown', 'wiked', 'rave called sharon', 'the church', and 'osmosis'. Small underground raves were just starting out and expanding beyond SF to include the east bay, the south bay area including San Jose, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz beaches (where the notorious 'full moon raves' took place at Bonny Dune beach every month).
In late 1991 raves started to explode across northern California, and cities like Sacramento, Oakland, Silicon Valley were taking off every weekend. This proved to be the turning point in northern California's rave history. No longer were raves a secret, where one had to know the right people to gain access to map points. Now rave flyers were to be found up and down the Haight Street at stores like Anubis Warpus, Amoeba clothes, Behind The Post Office, and newly opened Housewares. Raves were exploding at an enormous rate and no longer were hundreds of revellers heading out, now there were thousands of ravers living for every weekend. The second generation of raves were just starting to be realised.
Toontown's NYE 91 rave, which took place in the basement of the Fashion Center in SF was the first 'true' massive in the bay area. Over 8,000 people helped welcome in the new year and at the same time put SF as a must visit city for the burgeoning world wide rave scene. Similarly, a year later, "The Gathering' held New Year's Eve of 1992 in Vallejo had over 12,000 people in attendance. The massive parties were taking place every weekend now from such disparate locations as outdoor fields to aeroplane hangers and hilltops that surround the valley.
San Francisco has long been a Mecca for ravers from all over the world and true to form a lot of the early promoters and DJs were from the UK and Europe. For almost ten years after the initial raves took place, one could find up to 2 to 4 parties happening a weekend and sometimes on the same night. There was no curfew in place, which allowed the SF scene to explode by the late 90's when venues would have up to 20,000 people every weekend; 'Homebase', and '85 & Baldwin' were the largest venues to be used in the Bay Area. Many amazing venues were used by crews that held clout or members that were tied to the city or knew the appropriate ways to navigate the permit maze. Thus, in the late 90's some of the most memorable raves took place in locations such as the SOMA art museum, 'Where the wild things are' museum on top of the Sony Metreon, and in the venerable Maritime hall that was used for many parties from 98-02. Some old locations appeared again brand new, such as the concourse that saw thousands of ravers in 92, now saw the same amount in late 99. The galleria that once held a 'concert' in 92 with artists such as Moby, Aphex twin, Prodigy, Space time continuum, was now used for a few one-off events that utilised all 5 floors of the building with a different music style on each floor.
The mid part of the 90's saw a general loss of the first generation of ravers, causing the scene to take a short dive. In this time, however, a new West coast sound was formed and developed by DJs such as jeno, tony, spun, galen, solar, harry who?, Rick Preston to name but a few. Venues and parties such as Stompy, Harmony, CloudFactory, Cyborganic lounge, Acme warehouse among many others started to fuse the Breakbeat sound from hardcore trax with the more melodic pace of house. West coast funky break-beat was born from this and stormed the dance scene. By the end of '94 all the people that had left a gap in the rave scene in '93 were long forgotten as twice as many people now found the new sounds completely and utterly funky. The LA Scene had promoters such as Vince Bannon and Phil Blaine throw gigs for Electronic acts like 808 State, Aphex Twin, Prodigy, and Massive Attack to name a few.
This time period saw the rise of the many facets of EDM. Now all jungle raves, or cybertrance, or Breakbeat, or just good house could be enjoyed by anyone willing to go out to any of these parties. Gone were the days of a basement, and red light and a feeling. Now one could pick an upscale club, or a warehouse, or illegal outdoors as many crews sprung forward and blossomed. Promoters started to take notice and put together the massives of the late 90's with many music forms under one roof for 12 hour events. It was not unheard of for almost 20,000 people to pack Homebase, or 85th/Baldwin for a nite of eternal dancing. SF was now a fabled and much talked about destination around the states, if not the world. DJs from all corners of the globe played in San Francisco.
The year 2000 saw the demise of massive raves as curfews were placed on permits handed out to promoters throwing parties. Instead of all night and into the next day, parties now had to end at 2 a.m. Two of the largest venues closed down soon after, and there wasn't enough momentum to sustain parties that catered to tens of thousands of people. As if a nail was drove into the coffin of the SF rave scene, the Homebase warehouse that held parties from 96-00 burned down to the ground in a spectacular 6 alarm fire in 04. Smaller, intimate venues continued just like they had from the start and underground raves became the norm in the years after the tech boom of the 1990s.
While San Francisco's crowd attendance and variety of DJs might have peaked, it still maintains a much smaller but dedicated cadre of various crews, DJs, promoters and producers. Every weekend, many events are still dedicated to the various forms of electronic music across the greater Bay Area.
Through the mid 90's and into the 00's the city of Seattle also shared in the tradition of West Coast rave culture. Though a smaller scene compared to San Francisco, Seattle also had many different rave crews, promoters, Djs, and fans. Candy Raver style, friendship and culture became particularly popular in the West Coast rave scene, both in Seattle and San Francisco. At the peak of West Coast rave, Candy Raver, and massive rave popularity (1996-1999,) it was common to meet groups of ravers, promoters, and Djs who frequently travelled between Seattle and San Francisco, which spread the overall sense of West Coast rave culture and the phenomenon of West Coast "massives".
Mid-west scene
Grave Rave, on 11 October 1992 marked the first major party crack down in the mid-west, when 973 people were arrested for attending a party at a warehouse in Milwaukee's Third Ward. Following the crackdown, most raves were promoted via fliers and distributed a phone number with an informational voice message. On the day of the party, the message changed to give the location of the map point. Upon showing up at the map point, ravers were able to purchase a map and ticket to the party. Midwest parties were commonly held at barns, camp grounds, and warehouses.
In 1995 the Detroit Police Department began sending the gang squad in to raid the parties with an unnecessary level of violence. Map points were moved, and shuttling in from remote parking lots didn't stop them. The major destructive force wasn't the police though, but the movement into legal clubs where adding alcohol changed the entire attitude and vibe of the community.
U.S. rave culture on the North-east Coast and Midwest in the 90s was unique in that the majority of ravers were young (under 25), and rejected the alcohol- and sex-based mainstream culture of clubs and bars.
By staging and attending raves in unlikely and non-traditional places (either legally or not), North-east Coast U.S. ravers avoided the prevalent alcohol- and sex-based culture that used to be predominant.
There is a common conception among some parts of the country, especially the North-east, that raves were a 1990s fad, with the common quip "People still go to raves?" The popularity of rave music and the culture of it continues to grow, especially in the
Pacific NorthwestThe Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. There are several partially overlapping definitions of the region, but they generally include the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and...
, North-eastern United States and in places like Southern Florida and Mendota Heights.
No longer considering itself as a "rave" scene, unless using the term "rave" in a sarcastic, yet, nostalgic way, Detroit has a very committed fan base for all-night Techno events, better known as "parties." The history of Techno music's origins and connotations still linger in Detroit and continue to inspire die-hard devotees who produce and progress the ideals of Techno and House gatherings under underground circumstances and production teams which are unique to Detroit. The Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) is an opportunity for visiting Techno tourists to experience the vibe of Detroit "parties," but the Detroit "party" scene continues year round for the locals who have, in many cases, been raised in the spirit and tradition of the Detroit Techno scene, usually for ten years or more.
Canada
Rave culture in Canada is more pervasive than in the USA. Raves have become increasingly mainstream, especially in
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
as well as the rest of the province of
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, with large commercial raves attracting major international DJs and much media attention. A number of Canadian DJs and producers have emerged from the Canadian rave scene to reach international acclaim, including
Richie HawtinRichard Hawtin is a English-Canadian electronic musician and internationally-touring DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s...
,
Max Graham Max Graham is a Canadian DJ, composer and producer who manages to transcend genres while producing international hits in the dance music scene. He is most famous for mixing Tranceport #4, playing sets at Atomic nightclub in Ottawa and remixing the classic song “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes...
,
Deadmau5Deadmau5 is a progressive house and electro house producer from Toronto, Canada. His extensive discography includes tracks such as "Arguru" and "Not Exactly", which have been included in compilation albums such as In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza, MixMag's Tech-Trance-Electro-Madness , and on Armin...
, and
TigaTiga or TIGA may refer to:* Tiga , Canadian DJ/producer* Tiga, pseudonym of Haitian artist Jean-Claude Garoute* Tiga Island, a small Melanesian island in the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia* Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture...
, among others.
Commercial Raves in Canada are concentrated in
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
,
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
,
EdmontonEdmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. The city is located on the North Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province, an area with some of the most fertile farmland on the prairies...
, Halifax,
SaskatoonSaskatoon is a city located in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians....
,
CalgaryCalgary is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, Canada.The Calgary census metropolitan area is the third most diverse in Canada in terms of visible minorities after Toronto and Vancouver when considering only CMAs with population greater than 200,000...
,
OttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada and a municipality within the Province of Ontario. Located in the Ottawa Valley in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, the city lies on the southern banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway forming the local boundary between the Provinces of Ontario and...
,
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
and
WinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, in south central Canada, near the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers...
, with the exception of house raves which can be found in smaller cities.
Quebec
Certain "raves", such as the Montreal Black and Blue even attract government funding from all levels of government; municipal, provincial and federal, as they are deemed to be cultural events. On 10 February 2007
indieIn popular music, independent music, often generally abbreviated as "indie", is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing....
rapHip hop music is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of loop, rapping, freestyle, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues...
duo
Grand BuffetGrand Buffet is a hip-hop duo from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, made up of Jackson O'Connell-Barlow and Jarrod Weeks . Their music is a unique brand of humorous, often satirical rap...
stated they had played a rave in
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
. The
Bal en BlancBal en Blanc is a huge rave party that is hosted annually, in April during Easter holiday weekend, in Montreal, Canada. It features headliner DJs from all over the world and attracts over 15,000 attendees. This event usually has two separate rooms, one catering to house music and the other to...
is another event in Montreal that attracts a wide variety of attendees from a wide demographic spectrum. These events have often been hailed as the biggest parties in the world, attracting more than 16,000 at a time. They are often held in government-run facilities such as the
Montreal Olympic StadiumThe Olympic Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada built as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It subsequently became the home of Montreal's professional baseball and Canadian football teams...
and the
Montreal Convention CentreThe Palais des congrès de Montréal is a convention and exhibition centre located at the north end of Old Montreal, in Montreal's borough of Ville-Marie. The Palais was constructed above the Ville-Marie Expressway, the main underground artery of Montreal’s downtown...
.
Montreal welcomes also more underground parties, none-commercial Raves, known from the Ravers as REAL Rave partie, as they are underground, small (between 200 to 800 people)and the place only announced 24h in advanced through "info-lines".Those underground parties were dominating until around 1996 when bigger parties began such as Black & Blue and came along with more than Ravers, but also the common citizen which was not well seen as the Ravers community had a specific taste in music, specific style, but mostly a specific "way of life". The "commercial business" was taking rights on their events.With the coming of other communities, we began to see more violence between partiers since, unlike Ravers, they don't apply the PLUR (Peace Love Unity Respect).
Candy raverA Kandi Kid is a rave attendee who exchanges or shares small gifts, primarily beads, necklaces, toys, bracelets, or stickers....
s are a common sight at Montreal parties, and usually dress up in wild clothes consisting of bright colours, fluffy leg warmers for the girls and
‘phat’ (excessively flared) pantsPhat pants or phatties are usually made of denim but can be made of any material, and are fitted at the waist, but get wider down the legs all the way to the ground where they enclose the feet due to their width. Phat pants are usually worn by ravers and can be used as a visual identifier...
for the guys. They are also the major users of glow sticks and are regarded as having started the
Chupa Chup lollipopChupa Chups is a lollipop company founded by Barcelona native Enric Bernat in 1958, and currently owned by the Dutch-Italian multinational corporation Perfetti Van Melle. The name is pronounced and comes from the Spanish verb chupar, meaning "to suck"....
phenomenon. These two items represent what Hebdige refers to as the magical appropriation of “humble objects” [in Brookman, 1998:51] that express resistance in a form of code, and act to reinforce the ‘subordinate’ status of the group. There is however a practical aspect to the use of Chupa Chups at raves, to prevent involuntary teeth grinding as a side effect of ecstasy use.
Ontario
In Toronto, raves remain more underground and only events catering to the gay community attract more mainstream attention. However, this wasn't always the case. During the late 90s and early 2000s, the Toronto rave scene was one of the largest in the world attracting international talent and worldwide attention. Many events were held at the Better Living Centre at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds and at the
International CentreThe International Centre is a convention centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 6900 Airport Road, near the Toronto Pearson International Airport....
near Toronto's airport. These events often attracted upwards of 20,000 people and would happen almost every weekend. Many other smaller events also happened every weekend along with the bigger events. Among the larger promoters were entities such as Pleasure Force, Chemistry, Destiny, Nitrous, Atlantis, Syrous, Delirium, Dose, Better Days, and Citrus; smaller promoters included Exodus, Sykosis, Infinity, Transcendence, Alien Visitation, and others. As the decade drew to a close, Toronto's rave scene began to suffer as increased scrutiny from public officials and the local media began to exert pressure on the scene as a result of the high profile drug death of Allen Ho at a rave in an underground parking garage in 1999. This made throwing large events in Toronto more difficult. Eventually, almost all the major rave promoters in Toronto quit throwing events with the exception of a few including Destiny productions and Hullabaloo productions, both of which continue today in some form.
Since then, Toronto has seen a rebirth in the popularity of dance music but in a different form than in the past. Most Rave type events happen inside clubs such as The Guvernment, The Docks and the Big Bop. These venues still attract international talent each week and can still draw thousands of attendees for the larger events. These venues cater to Toronto's dance scene, which is more splintered than it once was, with events that specialise in dance music sub genres such as Jungle, Breaks, Happy Hardcore, Techno and Trance. Sometimes events will cater to multiple genres such as Destiny productions which specialises in Jungle and Trance. Destiny is also known for hosting the "
World Electronic Music FestivalThe World Electronic Music Festival is an electronic music event held annually in Southern Ontario over a period of three days. It was run by Destiny Productions out of Toronto. World Electronic music Festival was the longest running music festival of its kind in Canada...
" that occurs in southern Ontario annually, in mid summer, which consists of a 3 day and 2 night camp-out style, multi-stage electronic music festival. It attracts large numbers of people from Canada as well as other countries such as the United States and UK. There is also an underground
FreeteknoFreetekno is the name of a cultural movement that is present in both Europe and North America. Freetekno sound systems or tribes form in loose collectives, frequently with anarchist philosophies...
scene in Toronto and Montreal which organises free events in obscure locations in Ontario and Quebec.
British Columbia
In Vancouver and the British Columbia area raves tend to be slightly more mainstream than in Toronto, but less so than in Montreal.
Vancouver has a long tradition of outdoor raves that occur in the picturesque areas surrounding the city. The most common place for such parties is Chilliwack, about an hour's drive outside of Vancouver, and particularly the Popkum native reserve. One of the most enduring and notorious of these parties was the Apex Project, which took place yearly in August for nearly a decade. The first Apex project occurred on Popkum reserve in 1998, attracting a couple thousand revellers. It was a free party hosted by a selection of different local events promoters who had agreed to collaborate for this one event. The Apex Project featured several sound stages and grew exponentially in the years immediately following the first event, but is unfortunately now defunct. Other major annual outdoor parties from this era included Magic Mountain, Summer Love, and Simple.
During 1998 - 2000, raves in Vancouver became increasingly popular and by the end of the 90's it was not uncommon for 4 or 5 different raves to occur in and around Vancouver every weekend, particularly in the summer months. Candy kids were a common site on Vancouver's main drag of Granville Street and stacks of rave fliers adorned nearly every clothing and music store in the area. During the 2000s, Vancouver's rave scene went into decline as attendance numbers dropped and the number of weekly parties withered.
Nova Scotia
In Nova Scotia raves started back in 1994 in the city of Halifax.
By 1998 they had blown up into major events taking place every Friday and Saturday at venues such as the Elegant Dump, the Playhouse (later renamed the Underground) and the Electropolis Motion Picture Studios, these events would draw thousands in attendance and would feature world class techno and trance artists.
Massive raves also took place in arenas owned by the city of Halifax until September 11 1999 when Jamie Brinton passed away at Liquid Groove's Temptation rave featuring Christopher Lawrence at the exhibition park arena, this causing the city to pull all venues from promoters and forcing the scene to move into night clubs.
Nova Scotia is also known for producing some of the best outdoor events in the country, the best known of them all would be the Evolve Festival which takes place every summer in Antigonish and draws five to seven thousand people each year.
Australia
Raves flourished in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
where raves were generally called Dance Parties.
In Sydney from 1983
Rat PartiesRat Parties were held in Sydney, Australia during the 1980s and marked the emergence of a consciousness that was fashion-aware, gay-friendly, hip to dance music and open, outrageous celebration...
saw the opening up of Sydney's underground gay dance party scene to a broader community where it found an enormous appetite. By 1990 the standard setting
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi GrasThe Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is an annual gay pride parade and festival for the LGBT community in Sydney, Australia, and is the largest such event in the world...
party, it's winter off-shoot Sleazeball and the regular Rat Parties which ran until 1992, were attracting huge crowds of gays and straights alike, while young entrepreneurs behind events like FUN, Sweatbox and Bacchanalia were booking inner city warehouses and tired old venues and transforming them into vibrant, packed party palaces. The DJ Peewee Ferris played at the first Sweatbox parties (Let them eat cake and Sign of the times) and RAT Parties from 1987. The biggest RAT Party was in 1999 with Grace Jones with 20,000 people at the Hordern Pavilion.
In
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
, the underground dance style called the "
Melbourne ShuffleThe Melbourne shuffle is a style of dance. The Melbourne shuffle originated in the late 1980s in the Melbourne underground scene. The basic movements in the dance are a fast heel-and-toe action with a style suitable for various types of electronic music. Some variants incorporate arm movements...
" originated at these parties. Some early parties such as
Every Picture Tells A StoryIn Melbourne, Australia, in 1992, the Melbourne Underground Development crew started a series of warehouse/rave parties that continued for almost 10 years, with 21 of their own Every Picture Tells A Story parties in total - drawing thousands of people to each event.- Every Picture and other M.U.D...
were broadcast live on free-to-air television from the party's own TV station. The Melbourne raves tended to have a greater amount of artwork, video art, decor and performance as the underground arts community of Melbourne was heavily involved in producing the parties. Fashion was also a very important component, as many party goers were in the fashion industry which is very large in Melbourne, and they designed and made their own 'party' clothes and accessories. The parties became a fashion show for the designers and created strong retail sales for their works. Often outstanding dancers were sponsored to wear designers' ranges at parties.
The Melbourne underground rave community was very large with its own street press, radio stations, TV shows, clothing shops, bars, cafes, theatres, performance venues, record labels, clothing labels, and free street raves such as the Brunswick Street festival (pictured) which regularly drew crowds of 100,000 people.
The first novel dedicated to the Australian rave and dance scene was set in Melbourne. Written by Tom Griffin and titled,
Playgrounds: a portrait of rave culturePlaygrounds: a portrait of rave culture, is a novel by Tom Griffin, about 90's dance and rave culture. Released in 2005, the novel is set during the peak period of the culture in the late 90's. Set in Melbourne, Australia, the novel explores the warehouse rave scene and incorporates references to...
, it was launched at a rave at Kryal Castle in 2005.
Driven by a need to be away from residential areas due to noise pollution complaints of residents, the Australian rave scene held their events in industrial areas. For the Sydney rave scene the industrial areas of the Western suburbs were quite common in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Following the 2000 Sydney Olympics the
Sydney Olympic ParkSydney Olympic Park is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sydney Olympic Park is located 16 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Auburn Council....
at Homebush proved a popular venue as it had ample large warehouse space available and the advantage of no close by residential areas. The "Superdome" at Olympic Park has hosted a number of events due to the large capacity. Events at these venues often have ample room for amusement rides, open air "chill out" areas and food stalls. Several amusement parks have hosted dance party events (
Wonderland SydneyWonderland Sydney was a theme park in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The park was the largest theme park in the southern hemisphere. It remained open for almost nineteen years and was the premier theme park in New South Wales for much of its life, but was closed in 2004 after becoming...
and
Luna Park SydneyLuna Park Sydney is a historical amusement park, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Luna Park is located at Milsons Point, on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour...
).
In Victoria, the dockland areas of Melbourne hosted numerous raves in the 90s. Bushland areas out side of Melbourne provided
DoofThe slang term doof or bush doof refers to a type of outdoor dance party in Australia, generally held in a remote country area or just outside big cities in surrounding bush or rainforests and similar to raves or teknivals, but with a different, more empathetic atmosphere...
venues, notably Mt Disappointment for
EarthcoreEarthcore was an Australian outdoor dance music festival and electronic music events organisation. The outdoor events were generally held in forest environments around Victoria, Australia, with some events held in Queensland, Australia and overseas at New Caledonia...
and
Kryal CastleKryal Castle is an Australian replica medieval castle located in Dunnstown 8 km from Ballarat. It was built in 1972 and opened to the public in 1974 by Keith Ryall, who gave the castle his namesake had made his fortune selling body armour....
just outside of Ballarat.
The Newcastle Rave scene made use of unused warehouses in the Newcastle CBD and at licensed entertainment venues throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. Events such as "Vital beats" and under-age dance parties were held in these venues.
Another style which originated in Melbourne is the
Melbourne ShuffleThe Melbourne shuffle is a style of dance. The Melbourne shuffle originated in the late 1980s in the Melbourne underground scene. The basic movements in the dance are a fast heel-and-toe action with a style suitable for various types of electronic music. Some variants incorporate arm movements...
. The Australian rave scene has a cousin in the Doof party scene. Although the rave scene attracts a younger, city-based crowd the Doof party events are a more "hippy" or alternative crowd.
Warehouse parties in Sydney also shared the common theme of electronic music, although of a more House music style than the hardcore or trance and house found at Australian raves.
South Africa
The first mega-rave in
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
was held in a warehouse on Cape Town's foreshore. Dubbed the
World Peace PartyIt is widely understood that the World Peace Party was the first warehouse Rave in Africa. The date was Friday, 13th of September, 1990.The event was produced in South Africa, by Cape Town based UFO productions. Founders Carl Mason and Jesse Stagg teamed up to start UFO...
, it featured a cross-over crowd of Cape Flats rappers, fashionistas and Clubbers dancing to
rave musicRave music consists of forms of electronic dance music that are associated with the rave scene.-Characteristics:Most often, the term is used to describe high in energy music, including some forms of trance music, that features samples, loops and synthesizers...
and progressive house. The first electronic South African Bands who performed live at the Raves were the Kraftreaktor and The Kiwi Experience. The first large Johannesburg rave was held at an old cinema in Yeoville in early 1992. Amongst the first Johannesburg rave organisers in the early 1990s were Fourth World Productions (responsible for the legendary 1993 nightclub 4th World) World's End Productions and Damn New Thing Productions.
Developments
In the early 2000s illegal parties still existed, albeit on smaller scales, and the number of sanctioned events seemed to be on the rise. The few constants in the scene include amplified electronic dance music, a vibrant
social networkA social network is a social structure made of individuals called "nodes," which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social network analysis...
built on the ethos of the acronym
PLURPLUR or PLURR is an acronym that stands for "Peace Love Unity Respect", a credo or mantra of the rave culture. Many in the rave scene have heard this term at some time or another, although its common usage is relatively recent. Early 1990s and mid-1980s ravers often followed similar principles, but...
, "Peace, Love, Unity, Respect", percussive music and free-form dancing often accompanied by the use of drugs such as
ecstasyMDMA is a psychoactive amphetamine drug with entactogenic, psychedelic, and stimulant effects....
,
methamphetamineMethamphetamine also known as metamfetamine , dextromethamphetamine, methylamphetamine, N-methylamphetamine, and desoxyephedrine) is a psychostimulant and sympathomimetic drug. Methamphetamine enters the brain and triggers a cascading release of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine...
,
speedAmphetamine is a psychostimulant drug that is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite. Amphetamine is related to drugs such as methamphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which are a group of potent drugs that act by increasing levels of...
and
ketamineKetamine is a drug used in human and veterinary medicine developed by Parke-Davis in 1962. Its hydrochloride salt is sold as Ketanest, Ketaset, and Ketalar. Pharmacologically, ketamine is classified as an NMDA receptor antagonist...
. However, increased
cocaineCocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant...
usage, preponderance of adulterated ecstasy tablets and organised criminal activity has been detrimental to
UK-basedThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
rave culture, although
free partiesA free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, which typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one system or of many and if the party...
are now on the rise again.
According to some long-time observers,
rave musicRave music consists of forms of electronic dance music that are associated with the rave scene.-Characteristics:Most often, the term is used to describe high in energy music, including some forms of trance music, that features samples, loops and synthesizers...
and its
subcultureIn sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong...
began to stagnate by the end of the 1990s. The period of grass-roots innovation and explosive growth and evolution was over; the flurry of passionate activity and the sense of international community were fading.
By the early 2000s, the terms "rave" and "
raverRaver is a word that has been used since the 1960s to describe people who are enthusiastic attendees of parties. For this purpose, the term is most common in the UK....
" had fallen out of favour among many people in the
electronic dance musicElectronic dance music is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
community, particularly in Europe. Many Europeans returned to identifying themselves as "Clubbers" rather than
RaverRaver is a word that has been used since the 1960s to describe people who are enthusiastic attendees of parties. For this purpose, the term is most common in the UK....
s. It became unfashionable among many
electronic dance musicElectronic dance music is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
aficionados to describe a party as a "rave," perhaps because the term had become overused and corrupted. Some communities preferred the term "festival," while others simply referred to "parties." True raves, such as "Mayday," continued to occur for a time in Central Europe, with less constrictive laws allowing raves to continue in some countries long after the death of rave in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. Moreover, traditional rave paraphernalia, such as face-masks, pacifiers, and glow-sticks ceased to be popular. Underground
sound systemsA sound system is a group of DJs and engineers contributing and working together as one, playing and producing music.-Origin:The sound system concept originated in the 1950s in Kingston, Jamaica. DJs would load up a truck with a generator, turntables, and huge speakers to set up street parties...
started organising large free parties and called them
TeknivalTeknivals are large free parties which take place worldwide. They take place most often in Europe and are often illegal under various national or regional laws. They vary in size from dozens to thousands of people, depending on factors such as accessibility, reputation, weather, and law enforcement...
s.
Raves and ravers continued to be targeted by government authorities. For example, following a July 2005 violent raid by police on
CzechTekthumb|Cztk00CzechTek was an annual teknival normally held on the weekend at the end of July in the Czech Republic. It attracted thousands of free tekno dancers from several European countries...
, an annual Teknival, the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
's Prime Minister
Jirí ParoubekJiří Paroubek is a Czech politician who is currently the Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party . From 25 April 2005 to 16 August 2006, he was Prime Minister of the Czech Republic.- Early career :...
said the festival's attendees were "no dancing children but dangerous people" and that many were "obsessed people with anarchist proclivities and international links," who "provoke massive violent demonstrations, fuelled by alcohol and drugs, against the peaceful society."
The rave scene has recently revived the old tradition of warehouse parties, with a surge in "old school" club nights, particularly in the jungle music scene, with DJs and producers who had dropped out of the business playing sets of music from the founding days of their genre, and producing new records in that style. Clubs are increasingly going back to the days of warehouses in terms of styling, rather than the interior designed venues of the late 90s. The music itself has seen a surge in popularity with students who were very young or not even born as yet when rave first became popular.
In the north-eastern United States, during the mid-2000s, the popularity of
GoaGoa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of the Goa state in India in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of...
(or psy-trance) increased tremendously. With the warehouse party scene, the trend is also restarting; cities such as San Francisco have seen a resurgence of warehouse parties since 2003, due in part to
Burning ManBurning Man is an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, in Northern Nevada. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
theme camp fund-raiser parties. This contrary belief in the early 2000s was that 2002 would mark the end of the rave (known as party scene at the time), and the scene was over. Raves still continue in hot spots around the U.S. even today, although they might be called "parties" to avoid the negative spin. Examples of this hot spot phenomenon are New Orleans, LA, the west coast of the United States, and south Florida. The mid-late 2000s is being marked as the renaissance of the underground electronic culture. Oddly enough, the majority of US Anime conventions hold a rave on Saturday nights, as the Techno style of the music and flashing lights are much to the taste of the
Otakuis a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, and video games.- As an honorific second-person pronoun :...
community. Drugs are generally uncommon or not present at all in these occasions.
In
ChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area. It is one third the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of Christchurch.The city was named by...
,
New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
the mid 2000s saw the emergence of raves targeting the youth market. These raves are usually held at warehouse locations and are specifically aimed at people aged 15 years to 20 years old. National and International DJs perform at these events, which can attract up to 1000 young people not yet old enough to attend clubs and bars. Companies such as Nitrate productions and
AudiodreamsAudiodreams is a promoter/producer of dance parties based in New Zealand. It was founded in 2006 by Brent Silby along with a number of teenage students from Unlimited paenga tawhiti, a special designation secondary school. Audiodreams is notable for providing raves and dance parties specifically...
are pioneering alcohol and drug free raves with support from The White Elephant Trust, a non-profit organisation that provides First Aid stations, coat check areas and publication support.
In the UK, a new genre of electronic music known as
New RaveNew Rave is a term applied to several types of music that go from fusing elements of electronic, New Wave, rock, indie, to techno, hip house, electro, breakbeat....
(a portmanteau of "
New WaveNew Wave is a genre of rock and pop music that emerged in in the middle to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, and...
" and "rave") has become popular, which combines Indie fashion and aesthetic with rave fashion, sound and aesthetic, with paraphernalia such as dayglo colours and glow-sticks becoming fashionable in hip British city clubs. However, the genre has come under attack for being primarily invented by the British music press, particularly the
NMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom which has been published weekly since March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, which first appeared in the 14 November 1952 edition. The magazine's commercial heyday was during the 1970s when it...
, and for over-stylising the original rave ideology. This often held in stark contrast to a lesser known culture of "Neo Rave"; a distinct progression of the original (and current) UK rave scene, taking
acid houseAcid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed by mid-1980s DJs from Chicago who experimented with the Roland TB-303...
, Jungle and Techno parties to extreme levels, and originating directly from the club scene.
Outlaw Parties In the 90's College Flash Raves in the 00's
During the 1990s Outlaw Parties were all the craze amongst New Yorks club kids. These random ,spontaneous raves would take place inside of Subway Cars, McDonalds, Denny's Restaurants and other locations. Portable Bars,Turntables and sound systems would be carted in, and the party would commence til the Authorities shut them down. A San Diego Club Kid Jason Jizzum carried on the tradition in his hometown hosting Outlaw Parites almost nightly at Bridges, Over Passes, Gas Stations and Churches. Almost 15 years later the phenomena continues with the advent of Flash Raves. Several colleges have staged "Flash Raves" in university libraries during exam week. Originating on December 9, 2008 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, these raves are intended to take away the stress of final exams. These raves last for roughly ten minutes and include blaring Techno music, crowded dancing, hundreds to thousands of students, crowd surfing, beach balls, and often glow-sticks. On December 12, 2008, the University of Virginia and College of Charleston followed suit by throwing their own raves in university libraries. Recently, another rave broke out at UNC Chapel Hill's larger Davis Library on April 30, 2009, boasting over 3,000 students. On May 6, 2009, and a reported 2,200 students showed up for a rave at the J.D. Williams Library on the campus of the University of Mississippi. Students at the University of Missouri also held an outdoor flash rave on May 11, 2009. A massive flash rave at Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee Knoxville was held on May 2, 2009. These raves may have first appeared only recently, but are most certainly part of a growing college phenomenon. Though the raves are instigated strictly by students, university officials seem to have no problem with these midnight study breaks.
Students at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN had their rave shut down before it was even able to take place at the Julian Library on May 13, 2009. A mass email regarding the alleged to-be rave was sent to all students. It read: "Dear Resident Students, A plan for a Rave at Julian has been brought to our attention by other students that are concerned about this event. After research about what the proposed Rave might look like, we want to caution student about participating. Raves at other schools have lead to unsafe behavior and property damage. Students also expressed concern that this would interrupt their studying for final exams and work on final projects. We support their desire for Julian to be a quiet and safe place for students to do their academic work, as requested by Student Congress and Student Senate. University staff will be present to observe and record the activity. Please share with other students." It is questionable as to whether this email is to be taken as a joke...
Rave Magazines
During the late 90's, the US Rave scene self-publication became a huge part in the way parties were advertised and known of. These publications ranged from a single sheet photocopied "zines" to expensive glossy covered magazines. Each magazine had its own reasons for being and having a dedicated audience that centered around the cities of publication of each magazine. The Midwest was known for its Milwaukee based "
Massive MagazineMassive Magazine was a Midwestern United States electronic music publication published by Matt Bonde of Mayville, Wisconsin. Issue #1 was released in 1993 and chronicled the evolution of rave zines that were being self-published by individuals during that time...
" and Chicago based "Reactor" and "A Thousand Words" photo magazine. On the East Coast you had NYC DJ Heather Heart's "Under One Sky"(actually started in 1990 or 1991) and a few years later a little magazine called "Vice" that was in the works (Feel free to add here). On the West Coast you had LA based "URB" , San Diego's Hypno, BPM and Sin Magazines and San Francisco based Lotus and "XLR8R". Abroad you had Germany's "Frontpage" and "De:Bug" and the United Kingdom's "Mixmag", "Atmosphere" and "Knowledge" magazines. The latter two dedicated to the UK's Breakbeat and Drum n Bass markets.
Each publication was an essential part of the local Rave scene, and was greatly appreciated by many ravers. Each issue contained interviews with artists that weren't known in commercial publications. Most of these magazines started as free enterprises, usually surviving only on an advertising revenue based model. Later on, some magazines such as "Urb" and "Xlr8r" were able to legitimise and become proper publications that can now be found at local book stores. While others like "Massive Magazine" ended with a fire consuming their offices in the winter of 2004 destroying all the films and back issues making issues of "Massive Magazine" a piece of must have nostalgia fetching prices of up to 100 dollars for any early back issues on eBay.
Glowsticking
Some ravers participate in one of three light-oriented dances, called
glowsticking,
glowstringing, and
lightshows.
Other types of light-related dancing include
LEDLEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
lights, flash-lights and blinking strobe lights. LEDs come in various colours with different settings. The "low intensity" setting causes a strobe effect, leaving trails of dots, while "high intensity" leaves a solid line. The most common
LEDLEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
lights at parties are Inova micro lights or lights by LRI such as the Photon Freedom or Rav'n lights. There are many techniques used to make the lights "flow" with the music in order to create a visually pleasing combination of patterns. Some of the most basic moves are the figure-eight and the circle. There are also a nearly infinite variety of other moves with varying levels of difficulty applied in their execution. There are also combination methods where the dancer holds a glowstick in each hand in addition to LED lights.
Regardless, glowsticks and LEDs can be used at raves for interesting dance effects, because most raves (except some open air raves, e.g.
technoparadeA Technoparade is a parade of vehicles equipped with strong loudspeakers and amplifiers, along the streets of a municipality, which are closed down for this purpose....
s) are held in dark or nearly dark rooms. Because rave parties are popular with people who wish to show off their dancing, glowsticks can be an ancillary material for creative freestyle dance. LED's and glowsticks now not only show up at most every rave event, but also are becoming more prominent at many
electronic dance musicElectronic dance music is electronic music that is produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
(edm) clubs.
Popular culture
There were multiple manifestations of these words in popular culture:
- The British rock/R&B group The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock band, notable for starting the careers of three of rock's more famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, all of whom were in the top fifteen of Rolling Stones' 100 Top Guitarists list...
released an album in the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1965, titled Having a Rave UpHaving a Rave Up is a compilation album by English blues rock band The Yardbirds, released in 1965 in the United States...
- A monthly magazine called "rave" - targeted primarily at British teenage girls - was successfully published in the UK for 69 consecutive editions from February 1964 to October 1969. It presented articles, interviews and exclusive photograph sessions relating to the contemporary pop music of the era.
- The lyrics of the 1968 hit single Lazy Sunday
"Lazy Sunday" is a song by English beat band Small Faces, reaching number two on the UK singles chart in 1968 .- Song information :...
by the mod band The Small FacesSmall Faces were an English rock group from East London, heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues. The group was founded in 1965 by members Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston ....
referred to "ravers":
- Wouldn't it be nice to get on with me neighbours?
- But they make it very clear they've got no room for ravers...
Drug use
In the U.S., the mainstream media and law enforcement agencies have branded the subculture as a purely
drug-centricRecreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, approved medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear ....
culture similar to the
hippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district...
s of the 1960s. As a result, ravers have been effectively run out of business in many areas. Although they continue, most notably the growing Southern California scene,
the Winter Music Conference in Florida and the Electric Zoo Festival in New York, most other areas have been relegated to word-of-mouth-only underground parties and nightclub events. In some parts of Europe, raves are common and mainstream, particularly Germany, where the rave scene is most popular in the world.
Groups that have addressed
drug useRecreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, approved medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear ....
at raves include the
Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund (EMDEF),
The Toronto Raver Info Project, and
DanceSafeDanceSafe is a nonprofit organization, with 28 local chapters in the US and Canada.DanceSafe youth volunteers set up tables at raves and other events to distribute educational literature containing information describing the effects and risks associated with the use of various drugs and sell so...
, all of which advocate
harm reductionHarm reduction, or harm minimisation, refers to a range of pragmatic and evidence-based public health policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with drug use and other high risk activities ....
approaches. Paradoxically, drug safety literature (such as those distributed by DanceSafe) is used as evidence of condoned drug use. Other groups, such as Drug Free America Foundation, Inc., characterize raves as being rife with gang activity, rape, robbery, and drug-related deaths.
In 2005, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the
United Nations Office on Drugs and CrimeThe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is a United Nations agency that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the United Nations International Drug Control Programme and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division in the United...
, advocated drug testing on highways as a countermeasure against drug use at raves.
In recent times, as opposed to the past decades, Rave venues have taken to hiring local law enforcement to reduce and nullify drug use.
Films
Including some elements or descriptions of Rave culture.
- Strange Days
Strange Days is the second album released by American rock band The Doors. The album was a commercial success, earning a gold record and reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 200. Despite this, its producer, Paul Rothchild, considered it a commercial failure, even if it was an artistic triumph: "We...
(1995) - features a giant outdoor rave in Downtown L.A with Lady Kier from Dee-lite performing
- The Matrix
The Matrix is a science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
- Throughout all three movies in the trilogy, there are scenes that take place in a rave.
- Kevin and perry go large In all segments of the film, the pair go to the Amnesia club. They both talk about rave music with the dj eyeball paul.
- Kids
Kids is a 1995 American drama film written by Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark. The film features Chloë Sevigny, Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce and Rosario Dawson, most of them in their debut performances...
- The essential film on kid culture in NYC. Includes a scene at the Tunnel NYC (Called Nasa for the movie). Directed by Larry Clark and written by then-raver Harmony KorineHarmony Korine is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author....
.
- Loved Up
Loved Up was a BBC drama for the Love Bites season of films, and was broadcast on 23 September 1995. The film was directed by Peter Cattaneo who later directed The Full Monty and Lucky Break...
(1995) - Directed by Peter CattaneoPeter Cattaneo was born in 1964 in Twickenham, London. He is a two-time Academy Award-nominated English filmmaker most famous for directing the hit British film The Full Monty. He also directed 2005's Opal Dream'...
for the BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
as part of its Love Bites season of films. Featuring Danny DyerDanny Dyer is an English actor, media personality and chairman of Greenwich Borough, a non-League football team.-Biography:...
who subsequently starred in Human TrafficHuman Traffic is a 1999 British independent film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan. The film has themes of coming of age, drug culture, club culture and relationships with numerous social and political commentary...
.
- Party Girl
Party Girl may refer to:In music:* "Party Girl" , the B-side to U2's 1982 single "A Celebration"* "Party Girl" , the debut single from Australian girl group Girlband...
(1995) - Directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer-Biography:Daisy was born in New York, New York in 1965. She is the daughter of actress Sasha von Scherler and Paul Avila Mayer, and a granddaughter of screen writer Edwin Justus Mayer. Daisy graduated from Wesleyan University in 1988.-Films:...
, is a movie about a library clerk / party girl played by Parker PoseyParker Christian Posey is an American actress. She became known during the 1990s after a series of roles in several well-received independent films. As a result, she has often been referred to as the "Queen of the Indies"....
who throws raves in her NYC apartment. It also co-starred Guillermo DíazGuillermo Díaz is an American actor.He was born and grew up in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Díaz, the son of Cuban-born parents, has starred in movies such as Half Baked , 200 Cigarettes and Stonewall .Díaz has had several TV guest appearances on such shows as Chappelle's Show, Law & Order,...
who played "Scarface" in the movie Half BakedHalf Baked is a 1998 stoner comedy film starring Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams and Guillermo Díaz. The movie was directed by Tamra Davis, and co-written by star Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan...
.
- Vibrations (1996)- Directed by Michael Paseornek before becoming President of Lions Gate films. Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate is an American actress. She is known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox Broadcasting Company sitcom Married... with Children...
stars as a raver girl who falls for a disabled electronic musician who controls the rave scene with a robotic arm.
- Party Monster (1998) - 1998 documentary on Michael Alig, a Club Kid party organizer whose life was sent spiraling down when he bragged on television about killing his drug dealer.
- Modulations
Modulations is a multi-media exploration into the history of electronic music, consisting of a documentary film, its soundtrack album, and a book...
- Better Living Through Circuitry
Better Living Through Circuitry is a 1999 documentary about the Electronic Dance movement of the 90's. It is the first such full-length film on the topic. It was produced by Cleopatra Pictures and Entertainment Group, presided by Cleopatra Records founder Brian Perera...
(1999) - a 1999 documentaryDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
about Electronic musicElectronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and DanceDance is a sport and art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
culture.
- Human Traffic
Human Traffic is a 1999 British independent film written and directed by Welsh filmmaker Justin Kerrigan. The film has themes of coming of age, drug culture, club culture and relationships with numerous social and political commentary...
(1999) - a fictional UK story focusing mostly on drug and club culture, but containing some elements related to Raves.
- Go
Go is a 1999 film directed by Doug Liman, with three intertwining plots that happen to involve one drug deal.-Plot summary:The movie is told out of chronological format, with one of the last scenes appearing first and the story being told from four different points of view...
- 1999 film directed by Doug Liman, with three intertwining plots that happen to involve one drug deal.
- Groove
Groove is a movie released in the year 2000; it portrays one night in the San Francisco underground rave scene. Through a single email, the word spreads that a huge rave is going to take place in an abandoned warehouse...
(2000) - Fictional drama about an underground rave in San FranciscoSan Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States, with a 2008 estimated population of 808,976. It is the eighth most densely populated city in the U.S. and is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San...
, CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
and containing many standard elements of raves including multiple DJs over the course of a night, candy kids, a promoter Chris RobertsonChris Robertson is a former professional squash player from Australia. He won the World Junior Squash Championship title in 1984 , and went on to become one of the leading players in the men's professional game in the late-1980s and early-1990s. He reached a career-high world ranking on World No...
and a headliner DJ John DigweedJohn Digweed is an English DJ and record producer.-Biography:John Digweed began DJing around age 13...
.
- A Midsummer Night's Rave
A Midsummer Night's Rave is a modern rave take on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream released in 2002- Cast :*Corey Pearson - Damon *Lauren German - Elena *Andrew Keegan - Xander...
(2002) - A rave film loosely based on A Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare. It was suggested by "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and written around 1594 to 1596...
.
- Blade
Blade is a 1998 vampire action film starring Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff, loosely based on the published stories of the fictional Marvel Comics character Blade. It was directed by Stephen Norrington and written by David S. Goyer. Snipes plays the titular character, a vampire hunter who is...
- A number of people in a rave club are dancing when they are revealed to be vampires. Many are killed by the "Daywalker", (Blade), when he enters the club.
- 24 Hour Party People
24 Hour Party People is a 2002 film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom....
(2002) - a semi-biographical comedy/history of the rise of rave / DJ events in the UK through the eyes of one record label, Factory RecordsFactory Records was a Manchester based British independent record label, started in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, which featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, and James and Orchestral...
, to which Joy DivisionJoy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences,...
was signed; Joy Division later became rave music staple New OrderNew Order were an English musical group formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris . New Order were formed in the wake of the demise of their previous group Joy Division, following the suicide of vocalist Ian Curtis...
.
- Stark Raving Mad
Stark Raving Mad is a 2002 straight-to-DVD film about a heist pulled during a rave produced by A Band Apart.The film was directed and written by Drew Daywalt and David Schneider. It stars Seann William Scott, Lou Diamond Phillips, Timm Sharp, Patrick Breen, John B. Crye, Monet Mazur, C. Ernst...
(2002) - Fictional straight-to-DVD film about a heist pulled during a rave.
- Party Monster (2003) - Fictionalized story of Michael Alig.
- It's All Gone Pete Tong
It's All Gone Pete Tong is a 2004 Canadian fictional independent mockumentary about Frankie Wilde , a DJ who goes completely deaf. The title is a reference to a rhyming slang phrase used in Britain in the 2000s, referring to the BBC Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong, standing for "it's all gone wrong"...
(2004) - a 2004 fictional biopic independent film about Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye), a DJ who goes completely deaf. The title is Cockney rhyming slang for "it's all gone wrong". Sometimes called rave's version of This Is Spinal TapThis Is Tap is a 1984 mock musical documentary directed by Rob Reiner and starring members of the fictional heavy-metal/hard rock band Spinal Tap...
.
- One Perfect Day
-Plot:The central character of the film is Tommy Matisse; his name combines the title of The Who's 1969 rock opera Tommy and the last name of twentieth century French painter Henri Matisse.Tommy is a Melbourne boy studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London...
(2004) - Australian fictional movie that focuses on the more sleazy side of the rave/club scene, specifically drugs and exploitation, but also about finding an escape and voice through music.
- Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave
Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave is a zombie horror film, the fifth sequel to The Return of the Living Dead.-Production:...
, directed by Ellory ElkayemEllory Elkayem is a New Zealand film director.Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Ellory Elkayem began making films at a young age. He later attended a film school designed to give students practical experience and preparation for a career in the film business...
and released in 2005, is the 5th installment of the Return of the Living Dead film seriesReturn of the Living Dead is a series of films that was produced between 1985–2005. The series came about as a dispute between John Russo and George A. Romero over how to handle sequels to their 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead...
. The Film includes allusions and references to the rave drug culture and its climax occurs at a rave.
- The Summer Of Rave, 1989 (2006) - Documentary by the BBC on the development of rave culture in the United Kingdom during the summer of 1989.
- Welcome to Wonderland
Welcome to Wonderland is a feature documentary film about music and dance. Released on DVD in June 2006 after more than five years in the making, this film explores Australia's vibrant outdoor bush rave party scene through the thoughts of participants....
(2006) - Documentary about Australia's outdoor bush rave culture.
Belly - (refer to opening credits) 2000
- Rolling
Rolling is a 2007 drama film about a diverse group of characters who are linked by the drug ecstasy. The faux documentary takes a tough yet entertaining realistic look at how this drug affects relationships and responsibilities. The film had its world premiere at the San Francisco Independent Film...
- The giddy highs and crushing lows of Ecstasy use are felt by a group of people looking to escape their troubles in this independent drama. It's Friday night in Los Angeles, and a handful of young hipsters are on their way to a massive rave party at a Los Angeles warehouse.
- Bad Boys 2 (2003)
See also
- Acid house party - Forerunner of raves typically staged in UK warehouses around 1987-89.
- Circuit party
A circuit party is a mega dance event, extending through a night and into the following day, almost always with a number of affiliated events in the days leading up to and following the main event...
- Doof
The slang term doof or bush doof refers to a type of outdoor dance party in Australia, generally held in a remote country area or just outside big cities in surrounding bush or rainforests and similar to raves or teknivals, but with a different, more empathetic atmosphere...
- Free party
A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, which typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one system or of many and if the party...
- The modern, illegal version of raves.
- Massive Magazine
Massive Magazine was a Midwestern United States electronic music publication published by Matt Bonde of Mayville, Wisconsin. Issue #1 was released in 1993 and chronicled the evolution of rave zines that were being self-published by individuals during that time...
- The original US Rave magazine from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- Melbourne Shuffle
The Melbourne shuffle is a style of dance. The Melbourne shuffle originated in the late 1980s in the Melbourne underground scene. The basic movements in the dance are a fast heel-and-toe action with a style suitable for various types of electronic music. Some variants incorporate arm movements...
- A rave dance style culture that has evolved in Melbourne, Australia over the past 15 years.
- Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon. The group promoted the use of psychedelic drugs...
- Their early escapades were best chronicled by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
- New Rave
New Rave is a term applied to several types of music that go from fusing elements of electronic, New Wave, rock, indie, to techno, hip house, electro, breakbeat....
- A new genre of music mixing elements of rave culture, disco and rock.
- Rat Parties
Rat Parties were held in Sydney, Australia during the 1980s and marked the emergence of a consciousness that was fashion-aware, gay-friendly, hip to dance music and open, outrageous celebration...
- When Sydney's gay dance party scene opened up to the broader community in the 1980s.
- RAVE Act - An American law targeting raves.
- Rave Board Game
Rave is a board game that was created by WOW Enterprises in 1991. The game is based on the subcultural dance movement of the early 1990s.The game was created by Patrick Treloar and designed by The Style Bandits . It contains a section designed by Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz and Tank Girl fame...
- 1991 board game based on the UK Rave scene
- Rave music
Rave music consists of forms of electronic dance music that are associated with the rave scene.-Characteristics:Most often, the term is used to describe high in energy music, including some forms of trance music, that features samples, loops and synthesizers...
- Music and music styles at raves
- Technoshamanism
Technoshamanism is a term used to describe various methods of integrating modern technology into shamanic practice . Methods of doing this include such diverse disciplines as synthetic drug use, modern psychotherapy, and raving....
- A technique employed by some ravers, often utilising electronic musicElectronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and psychoactive drugs.
- Tecktonik
Tecktonik , is a French style of street dance danced to electro music based on a blend of techno, rave and hip-hop styles – . It started in the 2000s and originates from the southern suburbs of Paris, France, mainly from club Metropolis...
, a dance style based on rave music, developed in ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and well known throughout EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
.
- Zippies
Further reading
- Matthew Collin. Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy and Acid House. London: 1997 : Serpent's Tail – How rave dances began in Manchester, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the Summer of 1988 (the Second Summer of LoveThe Second Summer of Love is a name given to the period in 1988-89 in Britain, during the rise of Acid House music and the euphoric explosion of unlicensed ecstasy-fuelled rave parties...
) and the aftermath. ISBN 1-85242-604-7
- Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is an English music critic who is well-known for his writings on electronic dance music and for coining the term "post-rock". Besides electronic dance music, Reynolds has written about a wide range of artists and musical genres, and has written books on post-punk and rock...
. Generation Ecstasy: Into the world of Techno and Rave culture. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. ISBN 0-316-74111-6
- Brian L. Ott and Bill D. Herman. Excerpt from Mixed Messages: Resistance and Reappropriation in Rave Culture. 2003. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002554420
- Evans, Helen. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: An Analysis of Rave culture. Wimbledon School of Art, London. 1992. Includes bibliography through 1994.
- St John, Graham (ed). 2004. Rave Culture and Religion. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415314496