Techno.¹
     Just repeat the word to yourself. Listen to it. What does it sound like to you? The word seems to carry two totally opposite images with it. It sounds at once monolithic and impersonal, like the acronym of a multinational conglomerate. But it also sounds toylike, as in brightly coloured plastic Lego blocks.
     Rave culture is an echo of these two contradictory images. It is retrofuturist, heading in opposite directions at the same time: forward, to the seductive dystopia of Blade Runner's Los Angeles, 2019, and backward, to the psychedelic utopia of the 'Summer of Love'. At its best, it is like orgasmic relief or Buddhist Nirvana, or the momentary blackout of a fighter pilot pulling G's at supersonic speed. At its worst, it can pummel the brain to mush with its locomotive rhythms and monorail melodies.
     Listen to it. On one hand it has a love of silky, lustrous textures. On the other, a fondness for scabrous, crusty timbres. It is an amorphous sexuality and a masculinist algebra of dominance and submission. It is fluidity and rigidity. It is utopia and dystopia.

The application of the music is paradoxical as well. In an age where the standard formats are CDs and digital recordings, techno largely reverts back to 12-inch vinyl cuts and analog synths.
     The genre is also anti-capitalist at the same time. Dozens of 12-inch singles are released every week, but few of the producers or musicians--there is usually no band--use the same name twice; they form short partnerships, release a couple of tracks and move on. None seem worried about fame or fortune; the 'image' of the music is transported directly from composer to consumer, without any interfering middleman.
     Techno is the end of natural law of pop music: the end of harmony, of melodic development, of album-oriented marketing, of live performance in the "classic rock" sense. Techno signals the death of the song, to be replaced by the unresolved, infinite track. It is the death of the star, of message, of meaning. It is a revolutionary concept, but a recording company's nightmare.

And raves? Because social gravity is suspended, raves can be anything, like the student rebellion in Paris in 1968, or a group grope, or Mardis Gras in New Orleans. Or a lynch mob. They can be both Woodstock and Altamont, Plato's Republic and Jonestown. The suspension of mores and norms permits cultures which are polar opposite to one another; communitarian "families" are present as well as teenage wolfpacks, out for a night of wilding.
     The 'rave', in the modern sense, addresses the utopian yearnings of both cynics and true believers alike. Heads, it's a Love-in; tails, it's a Two Minutes' Hate.
     The raver is caught in this paradox. Like the hippy movement of the 60's, the raver seeks drums, seeks refuge to a simpler mode of existence, seeks to change the nature of the human condition through tribal gatherings and celestial events, seeks to be environmentally-conscious. But also to be urban, to be tech-oriented, to be wired into the information age. At the birth of a new millennium, the raver appears to be both luddite and industrialist; naturist and technocrat.

Blip culture means the death of sequential, linear thought. There is only a NOW--and it is either blissed-out or dreadful. Sometimes it is both.²

And that's all I have to say about that.

¹ NOTE: The word techno, in this introduction, is used loosely, in the context of how people normally not associated with electronic music identify such music--as the umbrella term for electronic music. Not as the specific style of music arising from Detroit in the mid-80's.
² adapted from Keyboarding Magazine's April 1993 article on Techno, by Mark Dery.

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It would be interesting to somehow address whether "rave" is dead in this site. I think it is, since it's already acknowleged by the mainstream and is being infilitrated (and also subverted) by capitalist (commercial) interests.

I would really like it not to be dead though, would anyone care to lift my spirits on this point?
-- isabel, March 30, 2000

"rave" was never unwillingly taken over by commercial interests., those interests are some of the core tenets of the raver lifestyle. take for example the dj: playing and arranging the music the crowd will enjoy and be titillated by makes them demographers. The skill of finding obscure songs or getting their hands on the latest tracks makes them a professional shoppers(..consumers..capitalists! *collective gasp*). "rave" is the perfect place for the guilt-free blissful consumption of goods.

don't make the mistake of attaching hippie ideals of frugal consumption to a sub culture which has always prized uninhibited excess and largesse on the part of it's members, benefactors and idols. the only marked resemblance between the two are the the oft cited plur, generally leftist social/political leanings, an attraction to large pants, paranoia, and distrust of the "system" which, like it or not, all are a part of.
--pzoon, May 17, 2000

its easy to take the scene back under ground JUST STOP SELLING OUT raving isnt some image to make u feel that your better than other people it is a culture a style a religion if u will
-- kevin, June 3, 2000

Raving isn't dead, it's just hidden itself behind living room walls...the same friends, new friends, huddled against two foot speakers, wrapped in intimate tangles, rolling across the floor, we dream of yesteryear and suddenly we are there...sure it's gone, but what have we learned and where will we go from here?
-- SoCal3-wayDave, February 27, 2001

Listen to the music. Feel it, let it flow through your mind. Arrive at its place at some time in this process of filtration. Let it fall in you so deep that the waves will repeat themselves at the inner most part of your soul. It will surround you, if you let it. And if it does, enjoy it to the very last grasp.
Thank you, and that's all I have to say.
-- Pavel, March 13, 2001

Electronic music culture is currently at a turning point. Yes, raves as we know them are becoming somewhat obsolete. The culture however, is not.

It is from this turning point that the future of this culture will blossom forth. House parties are on the rise; we just had a successful 2-day festival at our house last week with 3 rooms of music, open nudity and open drug use. Other forms of social gathering will emerge and grow, each one echoing ideals, principles, and concepts taken from the rave scene we once knew.

If you go to a massive now, you will see widespread commercialism, confused teens who don't really know what PLUR is, and burned-out e-tards. It is easy for mainstream followers to tire of such an environment and move on, but the core of the rave scene is the music and its unique and integral culture. If the current incarnation of raves becomes stale and dies out, it will only be replaced by a wide variety of new and exciting ways for this chaotic culture to express itself.
-- Technohippy, March 14, 2001

I have found through my demented yet enlightning journey in this "world", that such things as terminology and knowing should come through self discovery; not others telling them what words and music should mean. we have enough ppl telling us to what and how to think a certain way. All this does is invite another form of censorship. Allow for experience and a language of music that penetrates a new and personal view.
-- Sarah, May 9, 2001

every scene inevitably gets pillaged by pc. just because mainstream dj's are being put on pedestals and rave culture has become a sort of novelty doesn't mean that anything is "dead." underground hip hop exemplifies this.
-- izzy, May 13, 2001

I believe raving is a mind set. The pure raver is someone who enjoy's being with people and having a good time. You don't have to be at a rave to have a good time. SO therefore i don't believe the whole rave concept will ever die. It will just move on to different forms of entertainment.
-- CrazyCracker, May 14, 2001

I would like to response to the comment about where rave is dead or not. What in the hell are you talking about this shit is not about raves. A rave is almost like what orignally intent for church,a gathering of the minds and souls for one purpose only to better themselves,not a huge business. Which both church and raves have become. They are both about the feeling and response you get for the people you share the experience with and I am not talk about DRUGS...those are to highten the sense of the numb. I you must know soon as the preverbial needle spins it last turn last when raves is dead and thats not gonna happen as long as there is groove. So we will always need the people asking stupid questions to allow ourselves to be challenge once more, the newbies to impress and laugh at when our night sucks. The candy kids to make the newbies feel at home. And the old school kids to give the candy kids something to morph into when they grow out of that stage. So when!
you get what it is about you'll now what it means.....and that is nothing at all!

Colin
-- Colin, May 14, 2001

I'd like to write a reply to colin. Hey man, Raves mean a lot. The are about spirility. Have you ever hurd of Shambula? "BUDA ON THE ROAD" that was one of the most spirilitural raves I've ever been too. The Parties that I go to here in the interior, are a meeting of the minds and spirits. at least once every party I have a meeting of my mind and spirit with someone that's on the same level as me. Rave is not dead!!!! Yes it might be a little(or a lot in some places) more capitalized or mainstream, but it isn't dead. The only reason it's gone mainstream is because people are intreasted in the rave culture. I don't know about anyone else out there, but I still live by P.L.U.R.
peace, love, unity, respect. I can however say that all of the bc's interior party kids live by that rule. Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to read my 2 cents on how I feel.
~Amy
-- Amy, June 29, 2001

Rave perhaps has become mainstream. But its all about supply and demand. More people out there want rave. The music is addicting, if its within ur taste. Raves work in the way that if u go to one and have a good time, u will for sure be back again. The whole spirit around it is quiet infatuating. The issue of it becoming mainsteam is somthing we have to deal with. It was like when rap first came out...it was different completely, now its taken over top 40 and blah blah...same with techo and any electronica...its becomign more and more appreaciated and accpeted....soon enuf it will be top40 shyt...we just have to accept that...then again I truly beleive the harcore ravew music will always stay in the scene and in the scene only....onelove
-- moanz, July 4, 2001

We're at a point where the mainstream's coming in and taking what it can, just like what happened to the hippies. And while you'll find many people who think the hippy culture is dead, I can point you to several friends of mine who never abandoned the core concepts. The music also still survives. They still gather. It will be so with the rave scene. In ten years, the mainstream will assume we're gone, many of us will have moved on, and some of us will still be finding safe venues, spinning, and dancing.

And in forty years, we'll all be kicking back at retirement centers and talking about how great it was to dance the night away to our music, staging day raves in the multifunction room, and wondering at what the grandkids are listening to (with some of us dancing right along with them, natch).
-- RuBe, August 4, 2001

Why do people bother with this senseless rhetoric? If you are not part of the solution, then you are just a bitch. If you want the "scene" to be like it used to be, then it just follows that the "scene" has to go back to the underground. The fact that Colin, as a fob, knows about the rave scene at all, indicates that it IS a mainstream institution already. This has nothing to do with spirility, seeing as how this is not even a word (amy), and has everything to do with the superfluctuation of the impossible.
-- DKim, October 19, 2001

I'd like to leave everyoane with a quote one of my best frineds left me "Our greatest fear is that someday we may discover we are as beautiful as we think we are" Nelson Mendela. Things will happen to us that we can't stop from happening but if you hold on and fight hard enough for it you really can do anything
-- Ryan, November 20, 2001

Raving simply has to be a state of mind. With all the music, the atmosphere, the drugs, its something you feel. Its so widely varied, I don't believe it is dead. PLUR was a nice lil dream for the people to drag back up from hippy days, but it'll never become reality, its impossible. Rave is omething that will hit you at a time in your life, and at one point you will realise its over, and the dream of PLUR is gone too. Just like the hippys grew up, so have almost all the ravers now gone the same way. But the rave will live on, a state of mind, a time which hits every generation where dreams of love and happieness can be imagined, but of course, you move on.
-- ~*Liquid*butterflY*~, December 28, 2001

Tiresome. That's what the whole counter commercialization rant is. Tiresome. It's always been commercialized. The hatred of commercialization is simply something to bind people together in a common goal, without thinking through the goal. "that visor is so commercial" "that track is so mainstream". As though in order to be cool, you have to oppose everything that more than a few people like. As soon as a lot of people like it, it's mainstream, and you have to find something new to like, or suffer the slings and arrows, so to speak, of the non-mainstream. The underground is just another subset of followers. A faction which prides itself on difference, yet in doing so sets up a mainstream counterculture. It's a vicious cycle, and absurd. The ideals of Rave culture are just that- ideals. The expression of those ideals should be left to the individual, be that mainstreamer or follower without fear of being chastized by the other side. Groups who are in-the-know at raves! , clubs, or anything have a pseudo-initiation ritual whereby if the newbie is too commercial, mainstream, or other hated flavor-of-the-day, they shun. Which is sick, considering that counterculture is the product of the shuned.
-- Nabby, January 17, 2002

Id just like to say nabby well said. Yes raves were underground and yes raves are getting more popular and yes more people are liking the music. Why do any of you like raves or the music? Because they are fun and the music is just amazing and mind blowing. And that is why more people are into raves now, for the same exact reasons you like raves and the music. Did you expect it to stay underground forever?
-- steve logik, January 29, 2002

in the natural course of a music, and of a musical style (and therefor its followers and sub-culture), it goes through a rise and a fall. all music begins as a dance culture, progresses to a listening culture, then dies. a music is started as a dance culture, and is given one kind of life force through that culture. baroque music, romantic classical, jazz, they all started as a break-off from the mainstream, and were focused on because people wanted to "get away".. wanted to dance. more attention gets drawn to it, and the listening culture arises, the collection of people saying, "wow, there's some real substance to that stuff that everybody just dances to". fewer and fewer dance, and more and more listen. the music gets more and more complex, breaks more and more boundaries, and then self-destructs, because the average joe can't keep up, and he or she decides to seek out a new dance culture. the music dies. the "rave" is tied directly to the music, but its! core is the dance culture. people may dance to electronic music now, and for years and decades to come, but the listening culture is beginning to take its firm grasp now. breakbeats, IDM, noise, experimental, anything that pushes a boundary yet keeps people interested; these are the new creations, the births of the minds of the children of the rave community. the new listening culture will begin to take its hold as we all begin to realize what a glorious thing we've created. nobody says you cant still dance to jazz... so why would that hold true to the rave?
-- ROBOT, February 25, 2002

Please...all of you...shut up. Rave equals Rhetoric which does not equal somthing to fight for. People are dying of AIDS, people are dying of terrorism, children are suffering, the natural world as we know it is spiraling toward destruction and you all waste your time pondering the plite of the rave scene.

You are all probably the people I used to fucking hate who would sit on the floor chewing your faces off screaming about the vibe and the music yet making no sense because you had forgotten to take the pacifier out of your mouth. Guess what? The vibe is what YOU make of it and the music is still there so how did it die? Doc Martin, Derrick Carter, Hippe, Halo .. they're still throwin' down slamin' house... Ed Rush, Optical, Dara, Danny the Wild Child, hell even Dieselboy are all spinning some of the most mind bending D n B i've heard in years. Yet you all think it's dead? Why? Because Paul Oakenfold did shit with MTV? Why? Because your favorite track is now in a Victoria Secret commercial?

You are all the reason for this supposed death you speak of..your hypocricy and your ignorance. Grow up and practice what you preach. Perhaps then you'll remember what a vibe is and realize that the scene is still there and waiting for you to stop being afraid of not being cool. If you don't understand that then why the hell are you even on this web site?

ps. Rave has always been a capitalist movement otherwise the would be free and so would the drugs. Please note the wardrobe and car of your local "just charging to keep throwing parties" promoter.....'nuff said.
-- slowdivechild, March 13, 2002

I just want to say that when newcomers go to raves the worst thing they can do is not go with an openmind,In this world Ravers are percieved to be etarded freaks so many newcomers feel thats what they will be seeing and feel a bit scared when first attended I have brought many of my friends to a rave and they now are additced to them.Because there is not toomany enviroments now a days that allow for such acceptance and thats why I think they are becoming popular.And Raving and clubbing are diffrent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-- Bliss, May 7, 2002

I think that most of you have had WAY too many drugs. Tech music is music. If you like it great! If it makes you want to dance, great! Music is not a way of life, the DJ is not god and you his children. As an aspiring musician I seek nothing more than to create music that makes people move. Raving is not some mystical solution to lifes problems. To think that by dropping some acid or XTC, or whatever the current flavour is, and moving numbly to the beat surrounded by 500 other such impaired people will somehow bring you to some "higher level" is insane.

If you are going to love electronic music, love it for music, not for some spiritual guide. After all I can not think of one DJ or musician who had any resemblance to a god... They are people who like to create music.
-- fleshbox, May 8, 2002

Testify

Dance culture is both revolutionary and trancendental, yet somehow just as equally stupid and meaningless.

Just like life.

I have nothing more to add .. you nailed it.
-- supster, May 10, 2002

Wait. I do have something to add.

The music is everything. If you just sit - and listen - or dance because you are compelled to move .. that's what it's all about.

The music is better now than it ever has been. Its incredible.

The sociocultural ramifications and all the subculture mess that grows up around it has it's roots in this:

Despite all of the technological gadgets of daily life - and the speed of information and communication and entertainment and material sh*t that we can buy ...

Individuals are BORED with it all. It's never enough.

So people gather together and group - then re-group - splinter - subculturalize, conceptualize, verbalize, and generally overthink this something (the music) that was the germ of what moved them to do anything at all in the first place.

Forget about raves - candykids - plur - guidos - strippers - DJs - clubbers - glosticks - even E.

Just listen carefully to the music.

If it no longer moves you, go do something else to keep yourself entertained.
-- supster, May 10, 2002

I believe that "raving" is a subjective experience. Just because you attend a rave it doesn't mean that you are "raving". I'm so sick and tired of seeing people who attend an event just to sit around get fucked up. (Yeah, know who you are!!!) Anyone who has ever been to an event can attest to seeing people so fucked up to the point of embarressment. It's truly a sad thing to see. If we want our precious culture to really flourish and be respected as an actual movement we need to start taking responsibility for our own actions. That means if you are gonna take drugs to enhance your raving experience, be discret about it. The whole fucking world doesn't have to know just how fucked up you are. The circuit is currently under attack by the government just like the original psychedlic movement was in the 60's. It's for the same reason. Drugs. Anyone who is worked about being under the scrutiny of big brother needs to wise up and not give them the ammunition that will put! an end to our movement. Like my friend Michael Jackson once said " i'm starting with the man in the mirror, i'm looking for him to change his ways." As chessy as it sounds he's right. Ok i'll get off my soap box now. Long live RAVE!!!
-- Cycle Logic, February 6, 2003

When I hear people refer to "the scene"...how it used to be, how mainstream killed it, I remember how I too once held those ideals. Always wanting something special that is *mine* and yours, but not belonging to society in general; and certainly not to those I felt didn't deserve to be part of my secret club. We speak of plur, but then we spit on the embraces by mainstream? We speak of our "scene" but then defy being labeled as a "raver?" The simple fact that people refer to them as "parties" rather than "raves" is a testament to the fact that we are always trying to be part of something new, fresh, and underground.

Right now, the public (Dawson's Creek, Oprah, 60 minutes, Days of Our Lives [that was god awful too...anyone see that one?], van Wilder, and most recently Freddy vs Jason) is currently swishing with what it believes to be minty fresh mouthwash, trying to cleanse its boredom-plaque. Pretty soon it will be old, stale, and filled with all kinds of garbage left overs, and then we'll be able to sift through the remains of the not-so-minty freshness of our "culture" and try to rebuild it, only to have it become appealing yet again.

In all honesty, whatever happened to just getting together with some friends (and strangers) and dancing to music? As far as I'm concerned, since DJs are simply people who play other people's music (well put Ish), why does it matter who's playing it as long as they play good stuff? Why does it matter if it has the most mind-blowing visuals, huge dance floor, and the best evian you've ever aftertasted in bathroom refills? We need to let go people. The music may not be dead, but parties as we knew them, are. Time to move on and find a new-used way to express our love for the music. We're way too young for nostalgia.

The more planning a rave requires the more I would think it strays from the original intention. Go find some decks and DJs who have records (not cd's :P), find someone who owes you a favor and has a big field, and set up their Pioneer homestereo outside and fucken jam by a bonfire.
-- conspirator, August 26, 2003

Throughout the years, I always felt that a rave was a large scale electronic musical gathering that took place in setting that wasn't meant for it. For example, on a farm, in a skater park, in a warehouse, in a parking lot, in an amusement park or in a convention center.

I was one of the clubkids at the Limelight in '92 and I never considered the techno nights there to be "raves." And when there was a "Rave" at the Hammerstein a couple of years back, it didn't have that rave feeling because the hammerstein is meant for musical performances.

For me, a rave had that romantic feeling that a country fair or a circus did for me upstate. It was like a fleeting fantasy that you would look forward to, indulge in, and then walk away from in the morning sun knowing that if you looked back, it would be gone.

I actually thought that the movie 'Groove' captured this feeling to a certain extent.

Fortunately, there's been a renaissance of this concept here in NYC. A group of organizers have been putting together some incredible parties in an industrial part of Brooklyn nicknamed DUMBO. These parties are held in massive warehouses, with multiple djs, vjs, and everything from stilt walkers and robots to full cirque du soleil performance extravaganzas.

Sadly, these parties tend to have a much darker mood to them; and, therefore the PLUR concept is sort of lost.

I would bet that if they did an "Old-Skool" night once a year with happy hardcore and all that bubblegum stuff, people would come out of the woodwork to make for a great and feelgood time! It would have that transient romantic quality to it because we would know that it only happened every so often. :)

This just made me realize that the majority of music now simply isn't "happy" like it used to be. I think trance has a lot going for it, but that crowd is all lost in loving the DJ and not each other. :( *snif*

Maybe when things come full circle, and happy electronic music is back in, the raves will come back. [I wish, I wish, I wish..........]
-- Dr. Dawg, August 26, 2004

I'd say the rave is not dead, it's location is irrelevant except to sy that it is the idea, and it's sentiments which cause it to exist. The overt expression of the rave also exists, I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and would say that what is described here still exists as it should. It can exist anywhere there is the freedom to assemble either secretly or publically. It is up to all the people who believe there is something worth preserving to DECIDE it still exists. I'm 37 and have had life transforming experiences at and becuase of raves, it reawakened hippie sentiments in me. We can do something to better the world, through community, music and love. I happened upon the rave community just missing it's popular decline, but there are no doubt legions over the world who really mean it. I personally know 10's or dozens perhaps who do, by extension the same is probably true everywhere. If those who mean it could come together even via the internet, stay connected and cooperate just imagine what could be accomplished;-)
-- Ravel, October 19, 2004