All About Raving



The Origin of Raves


     Raving has been around for a very long time, tracing its origins all the way back to the 1950s. While the raves we know and love today did not emerge until the 1980s, the term rave was used in late 1950s London to signify some truly wild bohemian parties. Since then, it evolved in the 1960s to mean a wild event in general along with the party people who attended them. This said, it was not until the 1980s when the word rave become popular in use with the signifying accompanying electronic music; this trend evolved in the next couple of decades to be the truly spectacular social events that we know and love today.

 

Raves in the Present

  So far, a lot has been said on the origin of raves but what about the ones that occur in the present? To really get a feel for why raves are the way they are today, it takes tracing back to the 90s which saw the emerging music genre start to gain traction and become popular. Since then (especially starting in the 2000s) huge festivals such as EDC (Electronic Daisy Carnival), Nocturnal, Beyond, and Escape have been extremely successful and growing at an astonishingly large rate every year while welcoming many newcomers to rave culture.


EDM
EDM, or electronic dance music, is a music genre that has become wildly successful at nightclubs, raves, and festivals. Produced and created by DJs who also typically perform their tracks live, there have been many sub genres spawned from EDM. Although not as old as the origin of Rave culture, EDM has been instrumentally successful in making raving into what it is today. Emerging in the 1980s in Europe and achieving mass popularity by the end of the 1990s in both Europe and the US, EDM has been integral in pushing forward rave culture; beyond this, EDM has been entering mainstream music culture for a while and is no longer considered the bad younger brother of the music industry.


PLUR
PLUR, or Peace Love Unity Respect, is a culture and philosophy that values the inclusivity of rave goers. It promotes positive interpersonal relations between all ravers for the betterment of the community and is associated with tribal culture of old. Essentially PLUR is a rave subculture that has been an offshoot of raves from almost the beginning due to both being intertwined so tightly; it is a combination of the counterculture values of the decades before raves prominence in the 80s, almost mainstreaming hippie and peace sentiment at the same time. Just like EDM, PLUR has inspired many subcultures branching from it, creating subcultures within a subculture.


MDMA
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), which is commonly known as ecstasy or molly, is a psychoactive drug that is widely used for recreational purposes. It is extremely popular in rave culture and is commonly associated with it, along with music festivals, night clubs and house parties. In a rave environment, the sensory effects of music and lighting are often highly synergistic with the drug; users can enjoy the feeling of mass communion from the inhibition-reducing effects of the drug, while some others use it as party fuel because of the drug's stimulatory effects.


By Jack Clemens Detmers

Works Cited
Rave Culture 101 - https://www.iheartraves.com/pages/rave-culture-101
History of the Rave Scene: How DJs Built Modern Dance Music - https://djtechtools.com/2013/12/19/history-of-the-rave-scene-how-djs-built-modern-dance-music/
The History of Raves - https://vocal.media/beat/the-history-of-raves
An Introduction to Electronic Dance Music (EDM) - https://www.musical-u.com/learn/introduction-edm/
Why PLUR is Important and What it Looks Like on the Dancefloor - https://edmidentity.com/2020/01/28/why-plur-is-important-dancefloor/
MDMA (Ecstasy Or Molly) -https://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/mdma-ecstasy-or-molly

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