Rave and Anti-Rave

[Raverkid00]

I found the following quote in a thread about an anti-rave website and it annoyed me enough when taken in context of much I've read here I thought I'd point out what Raving used to be about:

when people know nothing about the scene its easy to look at ALL ravers like those X-ed out freaks u try to stay away from at parties.... we all know the type... you ask some girl her name and she trys to shove mints down ur throat and give u a light show
buuut to each his own... they keep me entertained and ive been there
PEACE N LUV

"X-ed out freaks?" Spoken like someone who really doesn't know what the "scene" is all about either. I’d guess you, and people who agree with that comment, are of those new scene ravers who declaim "It's all about the music, man!"

People who blather about the music being the point of the rave scene are just trying to make excuses for participating in something they know is socially unacceptable. You realize that by “Raving” you are trying to alleviate boredom by doing something different from your normal routines, something which our mainstream has declared a social evil. So you refuse to be honest with yourselves, to acknowledge that you are looking for kicks in a place that has a bad rep because it includes the major use of drugs.

If you were honest you’d remember that you don’t have to go to a rave to enjoy the music. Techno in alls its various manifestations has gotten so mainstream you can find it playing hour after hour in almost any modern nightclub. You can buy the CD’s at most music stores, and even kids under 18 who can’t get into bars or clubs can find it at house parties. In any case, electronic music existed long before the rave scene and wasn’t all that popular on it’s own until after the rave scene became popular. Aside from the possible intentions of a few DJ’s and DJ wannabees, Raving was NEVER “all about the music!”

Now, while you can go to a music store and find any style you desire or go to a club or a house party and listen to it for free anytime you wish; outside of a rave it’s not so easy to find MDMA now is it? Live in denial all you want, but the rave scene has always been a DRUG scene, originally established so that people using MDMA could have fun with other people using MDMA. The music was always just supporting background, like the lights, loops, decorations, etc., all added to make the MDMA experience more entertaining.

When you could take a single pill that contained 250 milligrams of pure MDMA, it created such an overwhelmingly positive empathic experience that your skin literally became a sensory organ. Techno music, with its heavy, repetitive beats and modulating rhythms was the perfect complement to MDMA since you could literally FEEL the sounds on your skin, emulating the waves of ecstasy from the drug which gave MDMA its street name.

Back before raves were “cool,” if someone went to one and just listened to the music, their typical reaction was “So what?” usually leaving with no special desire to return to the scene again. Take that same person to a second party, give them a hit of MDMA and 9 times out of 10 they would think they’d had a religious experience. A fanatic raver would be born, driven to seek a repeat of that experience whenever they could….at least until the rave scene went public, social outrage created a legal crackdown and real MDMA got harder and harder to find.

So what happened? Why do so many people argue about “Drugs vs. Music?” Why do “old skool ravers” put down “Kandi Kids,” and people into styles like Jungle, Dnb, Hardcore, etc. end up arguing about what constitutes “real” or “new” rave music? Simple. It’s because when raving went public, and the public cracked down on MDMA production and sales, NOTHING in the drug scene could replace the experience and the scene deteriorated into squabbling sub-groups.

Instead of 95% of the people at a party being on the same, strong dose of MDMA, now you have a few on the weaker, unsatisfying (75-100mg) doses of MDMA and the rest either sober or on whatever other drug they’d normally prefer (coke, meth, pcp, acid, pot, dip cigarettes, K, dope, etc., etc. etc.). In other words, instead of a large group of people all experiencing the same overwhelming feelings of love and togetherness, you have multiple small groups doing their own things and coming into conflict with each other.

That’s also what society keeps seeing when they get news about the Rave scene…kids ODing on mixes of drugs, fights, date rapes, police confrontations and strange behaviors. Today’s so-called Rave movies typify these negative activities making the Rave scene even more anti-social and attracting many anti-social types (like the hardcore adherents who are just punk rockers transferring to a new scene.) If you buy into this new view of raves then of course everyone else who doesn’t agree with you is stupid, wrong, lame, silly, weird, and shouldn’t be a part of the scene…making it ok to laugh at kandi ravers (or anyone else who is different from you), claim druggies ruin the scene, and declare your type of music is “What it’s all about, man!”

Well what it WAS all about was doing a drug that brought people together, regardless of race, religion, sex, sexual preferences, musical tastes, etc…brought them together in all their myriad differences into one large accepting group that danced, talked and felt good with each other. What it has become these days…that’s another not very good thing entirely. So try to keep these things in mind when you pass judgments like the one I quoted, based on what you think the scene is all about.

Party on!

[Juno]

Oh shi, truth bombs.

[Incoherent]

First of all i dont know whut parties your going to but i see alot of Xed out freaks here in the NYC Scene at parties and i DO try and Stay away from them, and speak for yourself when u say raving isnt al about the music because for alot of us including me it is.
Also when you talk about techno being commercialized, i have to ask...do u know what real techno music is? Cause if your using it as an all encompassing term for EDM then i dont think you do.....Im jus saying if you going to talk about my fav genre like that then mayb you should find out what its all about.

Remember Noobs:
Techno is not House music
Techno is not DnB
Techno is not HHC
and Techno is not trance

Techno is Techno.....

[Raverkid00]

Originally Posted by Incoherent

First of all i dont know whut parties your going to but i see alot of Xed out freaks here in the NYC Scene at parties and i DO try and Stay away from them, and speak for yourself when u say raving isnt al about the music because for alot of us including me it is.
Also when you talk about techno being commercialized, i have to ask...do u know what real techno music is? Cause if your using it as an all encompassing term for EDM then i dont think you do.....Im jus saying if you going to talk about my fav genre like that then mayb you should find out what its all about.

Remember Noobs:
Techno is not House music
Techno is not DnB
Techno is not HHC
and Techno is not trance

Techno is Techno.....

You don't read much do you? I mean background on the people who post on here. If you did, and I am sure you have seen some of my posts, you'd know that I have been going to underground parties on a pretty regular basis since fall 1988, almost as long as you've been alive.

When raves started up way back when, DJ's weren't identified by special styles like trance, jungle, dnb, etc. DJ's just mixed whatever seemed to energize the kids on XTC to dance to. It was ALL simply "TECHNO!" The ones who played the best mix to get the XTC going were the ones people wanted to see. Seperate styles gradually developed but mostly because DJ's were experimenting so as to become more artistically identifiable and to show they could be cutting edge.

As for the "X-ed out freaks," they are only considered freaks NOW because the loss of easy access, party-grade MDMA once available to all has made them merely one more alienated sub-group amongst a mish-mash of trendy, divided, conflicted, druggie, drunk, sober, judgmental, cliquish, always squabbling sub-groups. You appear to be in the "It's all about the music, Man!" sub-group of guilt-ridden apologists.

As for the NYC experience, I was there for ten years and saw the mess it's turned into. Hell, most so-called "raves" there are just put on by lame untrustworthy party crews using normal bar venues for 21 and older "EDM" shows. For them, it isn't all about the music, "it's all about the money, Man!" Which reinforces my point with YOU, that Techno music in ALL its present incarnations can be found in most typical nightclubs without needing to seek out a real rave to party at.

Regardless, my comments are based on first hand observation for nearly 20 years in venues across the nation and even overseas. So when you attempt to speak as an authority about something you've only recently come to knowledge of, please try to remember that to someone with vaster experience...YOU might be the NOOB who has no clue what he is talking about!

Party on!

[Juno]

Originally Posted by Raverkid00

You don't read much do you? I mean background on the people who post on here. If you did, and I am sure you have seen some of my posts, you'd know that I have been going to underground parties on a pretty regular basis since fall 1988, almost as long as you've been alive.

When raves started up way back when, DJ's weren't identified by special styles like trance, jungle, dnb, etc. DJ's just mixed whatever seemed to energize the kids on XTC to dance to. It was ALL simply "TECHNO!" The ones who played the best mix to get the XTC going were the ones people wanted to see. Seperate styles gradually developed but mostly because DJ's were experimenting so as to become more artistically identifiable and to show they could be cutting edge.

As for the "X-ed out freaks," they are only considered freaks NOW because the loss of easy access, party-grade MDMA once available to all has made them merely one more alienated sub-group amongst a mish-mash of trendy, divided, conflicted, druggie, drunk, sober, judgmental, cliquish, always squabbling sub-groups. You appear to be in the "It's all about the music, Man!" sub-group of guilt-ridden apologists.

As for the NYC experience, I was there for ten years and saw the mess it's turned into. Hell, most so-called "raves" there are just put on by lame untrustworthy party crews using normal bar venues for 21 and older "EDM" shows. For them, it isn't all about the music, "it's all about the money, Man!" Which reinforces my point with YOU, that Techno music in ALL its present incarnations can be found in most typical nightclubs without needing to seek out a real rave to party at.

Regardless, my comments are based on first hand observation for nearly 20 years in venues across the nation and even overseas. So when you attempt to speak as an authority about something you've only recently come to knowledge of, please try to remember that to someone with vaster experience...YOU might be the NOOB who has no clue what he is talking about!

Party on!

Damn man, you just gotta remind everyone how OLD SCHOOL you are. Do you want a cookie? Perhaps some molly?

[Raverkid00]

Originally Posted by Juno

Damn man, you just gotta remind everyone how OLD SCHOOL you are. Do you want a cookie? Perhaps some molly?

heh, I only remind people how "Old School" I am when they do either of two things....1.) Call me a NOOB or 2.) make statements about the history of the scene (including MDMA) that simply are not true.

Party on!

[Juno]

Originally Posted by Raverkid00

heh, I only remind people how "Old School" I am when they do either of two things....1.) Call me a NOOB or 2.) make statements about the history of the scene (including MDMA) that simply are not true.

Party on!

Word. That's understandable.

[eyliusevil]

Originally Posted by Raverkid00

When raves started up way back when, DJ's weren't identified by special styles like trance, jungle, dnb, etc. DJ's just mixed whatever seemed to energize the kids on XTC to dance to. It was ALL simply "TECHNO!" The ones who played the best mix to get the XTC going were the ones people wanted to see. Seperate styles gradually developed but mostly because DJ's were experimenting so as to become more artistically identifiable and to show they could be cutting edge.

Huh? I dont think your right at all. Even in the late 80's they were calling Acid house, Acid House early 90's Hardcore breakbeat whatever.

[Raverkid00]

Originally Posted by eyliusevil

Huh? I dont think your right at all. Even in the late 80's they were calling Acid house, Acid House early 90's Hardcore breakbeat whatever.

Acid house was electronic music played in small clubs and often tied to the use of LSD. Hence the "acid" prefix. It was a hyped up form of the typical house music played at mainstream dance clubs. While it did get played at raves it lacked the necessary energy to move anyone on MDMA and most people just "sat it out" till a good Techno DJ came on.

Anyway, didn't I say that electronic music existed before raving? Yes, and I further stated that it wasn't all that popular...in this case acid house was already being played mostly in some New York and Chicago venues, and a few coke motivated parties in L.A. (I know that cuz I used to work security at one weekly party promoted by a coke dealer.)

I only wish people would read the original posts for content, not just sift through and take things out of context to try to prove the point is wrong.

From 1988 until 1992 when the anti-MDMA drug effort succeeded in reducing the purity, amounts and availability to the crappy trickle you see today, the Rave scene in the USA was motivated by MDMA use, and people went to parties to roll and have fun TOGETHER. Hardcore, jungle, DnB, and most of the other "styles" DJ's were trying to develop had little or no real support. However they began to appear in strength after party-grade MDMA disappeared because instead of having ONE CROWD on ONE DRUG sharing ONE UNIFIED MOOD, the scene turned into multiple crowds of different moods motivated by whatever drug (or non-drug) experience they replaced MDMA with.

The original attempts at "hardcore" styles of music were just faster beats so people with excess energy could dance faster. You NEVER saw people "slamming" to hardcore, that was too violent for MDMA users to deal with. The dance battles you see with DnB and Breaks? Hell no cuz people on MDMA didn't want to battle with each other, they wanted to share the dance with each other. The closest thing to battles were the light shows put on by people with glowsticks, and that was to entertain people on MDMA attracted to the flow of the pretty colored lights...lol When Jungle started coming out, that was for the few stoners who couldnt afford the MDMA, and ended up following the deeper beats and quirkier dance moves off somewheres else in a small side room.

Now...everyone is so divided there is no "scene," there are just a bunch of small sub-scenes, each one claiming to be the "new" rave scene and ragging on the other styles and scenes.

Nobody judged people at the "old" raves, how could you when you were on 250 mg of MDMA and all you could think was how cool everyone was and how happy you were to be there? Today, the few people who can still find something close to MDMA are labled "X-ed out freaks?" Oh well, times change and people change with them...but this divisiveness was never a part of the original rave scene.

Party on!

[Incoherent]

Originally Posted by Raverkid00

Acid house was electronic music played in small clubs and often tied to the use of LSD.

not really...acid house was called acid house because of the "acid" sound, anyone who has heard ACID house music will know what i am talking about.

[Raverkid00]

Originally Posted by Incoherent

not really...acid house was called acid house because of the "acid" sound, anyone who has heard ACID house music will know what i am talking about.

Gee, so young and yet so certain... where did you get that, from your READING of music development and how it got it's name? lol Dude, names for things come from many sources...but typically from a simple source of comparison. Just because you might consider the present sounds "burning edge like acid"...the music wasn't originally compared to "hydrochloric acid" it was the trippyness associated with people ON acid (LSD).

I'll grant you that as a modern-day EDM music lover, you have your present conceptions of what the music is "all about." That doesn't make your comments about it the truth though. In any case, this is getting off the main point, which is that raving was NEVER all about the music, it was originally all about having a safe, fun place to do MDMA. Now that MDMA has become hard to find, it has become all about everything else. In fact, it has gotten so mainstream that people who do X are labeled "X-ed out freaks."

Small wonder that PLUR (which I always thought amusing anyway, regardless) has no basis in the present scene anymore.

Party on!

[Incoherent]

whatever believe what you want i dont care anymore just dont patronize me asshole.