Rave Culture: The Number One Example Of Social Deviance Essay, Research Paper
Introduction
What is a rave? This is a fundamental question that, in a way, I will attempt to answer in this paper, but I will never do it. Raving is a highly subjective experience. One person’s best rave is another person’s worst. Any attempt to analyze rave culture must recognize the highly personal factor of the experience. It is because of this fact that I start off my attempt to analyze rave culture with a series of quotes on the experience.
“…hardcore music being slammed through my body while I dance through my own psychedelic mind trip with a few hundred other beautiful energy-filled youth who accept and embrace the life force of the universe.”
-rave participant
“In general practice, a “rave” often refers to a party, usually all night long, open to the general public, where loud techno music is … played and many people partake of a number of different chemicals, though the latter is far from necessary. The number of people at the event is unimportant … the cost of attendance is unimportant (though in practice, the higher the price, the more commercial the event, and the lower the quality). At a rave, the DJ is a shaman, a priest, a channeler of energy-they control the psychic voyages of the dancers through his [sic] choice in hard-to-find music and their skill in manipulating that music… A large part of the concept of raves is built upon sensory overload-a barrage of audio and very often visual stimuli are brought together to elevate people into an altered state of physical or psychological existence.”
-rave participant
“A contingent of city, state, and military police Sunday raided the Paradox Club in the 1300 block of Russell St. where at least 600 people — some as young as 14 — were attending a “rave” party at which drugs where available, a Baltimore police official said yesterday”
-rave participant
“I walked into the space, and was immediately struck speechless. The bass was rattling the mirrors on the far wall. There were laser beams everywhere. The music shot into the core of my body and I moved, I just moved, all night long. People I didn’t know gave me water when I was thirsty. People gave me candy and hugs. For one night, I was one with the universe, I was one with my neighbor, and I was one with the music.”
-rave participant
“But the people who came to dance the night away … never made it inside the door … the event was called off … and the crowd ordered to disperse by local police … standing by to assist local officers if necessary were seven members of the Green County Sheriff’s Department, the hard helmets and visors of their riot gear reflecting the overhead street lights.”
-Dotson
“We negotiated the stairs down to the dancefloor, we began to slide in contours to the rhythm, becoming immersed in it, the bass curling round the spine which felt like it had been loosed of its inhibiting rigidity, like it had slipped the bounds of all that was holding it — us — back, and we could just flow, loose, warm, alive … in a second we were amongst the throng, synched right into the matrix of bodies and sound; transported, transformed, together … the feeling resonated through us as the drums thrashed upwards towards climax” (Collin 3)
“Mr. Gimble said the rave … was an … irresponsible and uncontrolled event … we have a responsibility to let parents know we will protect their kids … we can’t have an event where kids 12 and 13 years old are drinking, smoking, and having sex on the floor.”
-Luckman
“… but what struck me more than the immense sensory bliss was the amazing group of people who shared this experience with me-six thousand young, beautiful, high humans having one HELL of a good time together. No fights. No one crying in the corner. No one sick in the stairway. Everybody smiling. People would walk by and actually touch each other. Some people were naked. Some were dressed like aliens. Six thousand brothers and sisters of all races, classes, and sexual orientations. Living equality. Beautiful.”
-rave participant
“Charges Pending Over Concert/Drug Bash Over Weekend … Sheriff Richard Galster said his office first heard of the gathering of mostly college age hippie-type people on Thursday … it was being sponsored by a group called RAVE. No one seems to know what the letters stand for or who the group is … to the locals, the [concert-goers] looked like creatures from another planet”
-unknown newspaper article-
So, what is a rave? I end this section with an amalgamation of quotes. Some are from ravers, some from articles, some from newspapers. Some you have read above, some you haven’t. What is a rave, indeed.
“It’s all about the music … it’s all about the vibe … it’s all about the people … it was being sponsored by a group called RAVE … six thousand brothers and sisters … my body feels so alive and full of energy. I can feel my nerves reaching out and carrying me away … we have a responsibility to let parents know that we will protect their kids … we’re pagans. we worship big walls of sound … the hard helmets and visors of their riot gear reflecting the overhead street lights … it is our way of expressing ourselves through music, through passion, and through our love of getting together … Baltimore County calls for an investigation of “rave” party … with a few hundred other beautiful energy-filled youth who accept and embrace the life force of the universe … attending a party at which drugs were available … peace, love, unity, and respect … riot gear reflecting the overhead street lights … soaked to the skin we just keep on dancing, grinning … if this hippie shit has anything to do with you, we’re closing you down … we will protect their kids.”
History
When one examines any cultural movement, it is always useful to examine the roots of that movement. It is the history of the movement that gives us some understanding as to why we are now. It is only when we first trace the roots that we can see the leaves clearly. Rave culture can be traced back as far as you want to trace it. It can be traced back to Native American religious ceremonies. It can be traced back to the sixties Be-Ins and Love Ins and Acid Tests. It can be traced back to anarchist revolutions in Italy and France. It pulls energy from many different directions. For the sake of this section, I only want to look at actual raves. When examining the rave culture in America, one reaches the unique problem of having no sources. It is not documented, except through tiny bits of magazine articles, mentions in newspapers, and through the memories of those involved. I will examine the evolution of techno music later, but, needless to say, it had its origins in Chicago and Detroit disco clubs and gay dance clubs, and also in progressive music from England such as Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode. England and America traded musical influences back and forth during the late seventies-early eighties until techno finally started to be formed.
The actual rave movement, however, combining this new music with dancing, occurred in England. At almost the exact same time, raves started popping up in Manchester and Ibiza, a noted English vacation spot, in late 1987 and early 1988. It was during this time that two unrelated groups began throwing all-night dance parties in England, Schoom and Genesis P. Orridge’s baby, Psychic TV. Schoom incorporated house music and ecstasy, whereas Psychic TV took a more hardcore edge. At this same time, the rave phenomenon was taking hold in Germany, most notably in Berlin. The popularity of raves grew in both countries, and soon the little all-night dance parties were drawing thousands of kids. They were also drawing DJs from the United States. In the early nineties, the rave scene began moving across the Atlantic to America, fueled by American DJs eager to take this incredible thing back home, and English DJs eager to expand their horizons. The first US raves were held in San Francisco, long noted for its liberal and psychedelic culture. From here, they moved to Los Angeles and the rave scene was born in California. The rave scene that was born in America was one of complete illegality. Spaces were not rented, they were broken into. Two hundred kids would show up on someone’s private beach, set up their speakers, and dance until the cops came. Ravers that have been in it since the beginning eagerly talk about the early days of running from cops while holding a speaker above their head, or of continuing a rave in about seven different spaces over the course of one night.
Frankie Bones, a New York native, was one of the US DJs that was spinning in England. When he saw that the scene was moving into America, he wanted to bring it to his hometown of Brooklyn. He started a series of parties called Stormrave in early 1992. The parties started out small, 50-100 kids, and Frankie resorted to projecting videos of the massive raves in England to show kids what it was all about. It was during this period of Stormraves that many DJs made their debuts. Now household names among ravers, Sven Vath, Doc Martin, Keoki, Josh Wink and many others began their careers at Frankie’s Stormraves. It was in December of 1992 that the rave scene started growing. Frankie held a party at an abandoned loading dock in Queens that drew over 5000 kids from New York and neighboring states. According to rave myth, this was when Frankie made his speech about peace, love, unity, and respect, which were to become PLUR, the foundation of the American rave scene. It was also during this rave that three guys from Milwaukee decided to come check it out. These guys later were to form Drop Bass Network, based in Milwaukee, and now one of the bigger promoter groups in the country. They also introduced the scene to the Mid-West. The rave scene grew in America in 1993 and 1994. While the rave scenes in England and Germany were becoming commercial empires, the American rave scene still had its fresh idealism. There were now raves happening across the country, in all of the states. The rave scene was here. Now, as I write this at the end of 2000, I am amazed to see how recent this history is. The entire rave scene has come about in my lifetime. In fact, I have been involved in the American rave scene for one third of the time that it has existed. Now that I have examined the roots of the US rave scene I would like to expand upon them and examine the tree and the leaves that have grown from these roots.
The Basics
There are three things that are common to every rave I have ever been to. These things are intrinsic parts of the scene. These are the physical things that have defined the scene from the beginning. (I will get into the spiritual and psychological things a little later). They are music and the dancing that the music inspires, people, and drugs.
Part I: The Music
“Clear the area of the dodge-CORE-rupt neGETive patriarchal, earth destroying, war machine. Technology should be used for omniversal JOY and E-qualit-E. INFORMation Trance-mitted through music creates a new mediA different to that controlled by those who fill it with obvious and SUBliminal info to oppress us … When SSSSOUND empowering info saturates the frequencies======an NRG is let Loose that will set the stage for ssssssweeping, mutually beneficial CHANGE. And so with a dodgey van, an array of finger-synched LOOps, assorted BLEEP chorus calling for local and globALL Revolution. REALIZE: EQUALIZE.” (Luckman)
The music at a rave is techno, primarily electronically created music that generally has a high level of bass. It tends to be fast-paced, running from between about 115 Beats Per Minute (BPM) to 300 BPM, with the most common being about 120 BPM to 140 BPM. Incidentally, ravers prefer 120 BPM because it simulates the heartbeat as heard in the womb. “Overall, techno is denoted by its slavish devotion to the beat, the use of rhythm as a hypnotic tool. It is also distinguished by being primarily, and in most cases entirely, created by electronic means.” (Barnard) Normally at a rave, a DJ “spins” to create the music that the ravers hear. The act of spinning is the art of mixing songs together using different pitches, different speeds, and an equalizer to create an ever-flowing, ever-changing wall of sound. In effect, artists record techno songs, which are then reinterpreted and mixed with other techno songs, creating a spontaneous new song.
Techno music has its origins in gay dance clubs and hip-hop. (Actually, it has its origins in the ceremonial drumming that was central to many native cultures, but that comes later) Chicago DJs started mixing their dance music with a drum synthesizer and house was born. From house, came acid house, which involved adding the Roland 303, a synthesizer that was able to produce different layers and pitches. Then the music continued to evolve, into techno, both “Detroit” style and Hardcore. Detroit techno tended to be pounding; the soul of house music was eliminated. Hardcore is basically a really hard and really fast version of Detroit techno. From here, we get further permutations. Breakbeat uses hip-hop samples and reggae tunes. Jungle uses a lot of percussive bongo and drumming sounds, as well as bringing in chants. Darkside utilizes minor chordal progressions to create an “evil” feeling. Trance was developed, very melodic and hypnotizing music that tends to be on the slow side. Then obviously we have acid-trance, hardtrance, and trance-house.
The most recent permutation of techno music is gabba or gabber. It is hardcore taken to the extreme. It can run up to 400-500 BPM. It generally has bass so low and hard that it has been known to physically damage things. There are no vocals, no soul-just very hard, very fast music. Oftentimes gabber uses ‘terror’ samples, of death, murder, beatings. The samples of women crying out to “Join in the vibe” are gone. The samples of a man screaming, “I’m gonna kick your fucking ass” have taken their place. The essence of techno music is that it is in a constant state of flux. Every day a new style is created, old things are combined in different ways, and new things are invented. DJs mix two different tracks and a new song is created. This is the essence of rave music. It feeds and grows on itself. It is a constant process of mirroring things in on themselves to create an entirely new thing that is combined with something else to create a new thing, etc.
So, we get to the dancing. Dancing is, to an extent, yet another reiteration of the music. The music that the DJ creates spontaneously is a text. “The dancer then in turn re-interprets this text through movements of the body…the “reader” therefore, whether in the role of dancer, DJ, or user of sampling technology contributes a mindset that is culturally specific and productive in itself.” (Roberts) The DJ then must sense the communal energy of the group, and adjust his mixing accordingly. The DJ provides the path for the ravers to walk on, as the ravers change direction, so must the DJ. It is a constant process of energy being transmitted and refracted, creating a tangible feeling. Rave dancing can be highly stylistic, or extremely vulgar. The beat is the driving force. Whether one is doing highly choreographed dance moves or simply thrusting their body back and forth ceases to matter. It is losing oneself to the beat, becoming one with the music by letting the music control your movements.
Part II: The people
Ravers are a unique crowd. While rave culture espouses individualism, a come-as-you-are mentality, there are definitely many similarities among ravers in general. The typical raver is between 17 and 25. He is equally likely to be a she. He or she is probably white. He or she probably came from a middle-class family, and is reasonably well educated. Rave fashion could be the topic of an entire paper. There is a definite sense of individualism within the rave fashion scene-you are likely to see someone in jeans, someone in black vinyl pants, or someone in costume. However, many people fit into a definite “typical raver” mold. For males, baggy pants are the norm. Many people claim that this is because they are easy to dance in, but I offer a different perspective. Baggy pants are not practical. They are not professional. At a distance, they look like pants, but close-up they are absurd. They cannot be worn to work. Baggy pants have long been associated with deviant cultures, from hip-hop, to skateboarding, to snowboarding, to raving. A very tight shirt, no shirt, or a sweatshirt is also common for males.
For females, it gets more interesting. The typical rave girl has short hair; it is often in barrettes. She wears a baby doll dress, or pants and a cut off tee shirt. She is often sucking on a pacifier. Infantilism in general is very predominant among ravers. Pacifiers are common, stuffed animals are common, lollipops are common, shirts emblazoned with cartoon characters are common. In a sense, this embodies the culture. It is a regaining of innocence and forgetting about problems for a while. It is a recreation of that time in our lives when play was the most important thing and it didn’t matter that mom and dad were fighting or having money problems or that there was a hole in the ozone layer. Outside of a rave, many ravers appear “normal”. Many have jobs in technological fields like computer programming. Many are college students. Raving is not an “all-the-time” culture, as the hippie movement was and is. There are no ravers that simply go from rave to rave and hope to get money by selling tee shirts in the parking lot. (Except for maybe DJs, promoters, and venders who make their living at raves). Rather, raving is a temporary activity separate from the daily lives of these individuals.