Rave Culture
Rave Culture: The Alteration and Decline of a Philadelphia Music Scene
Tammy L. Anderson
Copyright Date: 2009
Published by: Temple University Press
Pages: 242
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14btdc5
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Book Info
Rave Culture
Book Description:

It used to be that raves were grass-roots organized, anti-establishment, unlicensed all-night drug-fueled dance parties held in abandoned warehouses or an open field. These days, you pay $40 for a branded party at popular riverfront nightclubs where age and status, rather than DJ expertise and dancing, shape your experience.

InRave Culturesociologist Tammy Anderson explores the dance music, drug use and social deviance that are part of the pulsing dynamics of this collective.Her ethnographic study compares the Philadelphia rave scene with other rave scenes in London and Ibiza. She chronicles how generational change, commercialization, law enforcement, hedonism, and genre fragmentation fundamentally altered electronic dance music parties. Her analysis calls attention to issues of personal and collective identity in helping to explain such social change and what the decline of the rave scene means for the future of youth culture and electronic dance music.

eISBN: 978-1-59213-935-4
Subjects: Sociology
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vi)
  3. Acknowledgments
    Acknowledgments (pp. vii-viii)
  4. 1 Introduction
    1 Introduction (pp. 1-16)

    It is 11:30 p.m. on a hot July night in 2004, near Philadelphia’s riverfront. I am walking toward the entrance of one of the city’s largest electronic dance music (EDM) parties. In the weeks prior, I heard some locals call this event a rave, but most people simply referred to it by its name: Explosion! I am recalling the many contradictory opinions I have heard during my fieldwork about raves’ current state. Tonight, I suppose, I will get another chance to think about that debate, since this is the only contemporary party I have heard some scene insiders call a...

  5. 2 Corporate Raves, Weeklies, Underground Parties, and More: Defi ning the Rave—Club Culture Continuum
    2 Corporate Raves, Weeklies, Underground Parties, and More: Defi ning the Rave—Club Culture Continuum (pp. 17-46)

    Youseff is a security guard at one of the nightclubs I visited regularly to observe EDM events. He is a fixture in Philadelphia’s clubbing scene, having been a bouncer for many years. He is not a raver or dance music fan. He has told me on numerous occasions that the music was too fast and repetitive and had no lyrics.

    Shortly after meeting him in 2004, I brought up the Rave Act (i.e., Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003)¹ while we were standing on his club’s main floor with more than four hundred others listening to 125-beats-per-minute house music mixed...

  6. 3 Loyalists, Spillovers, and Other Party People: Personal and Collective Identities in the Post-rave Era
    3 Loyalists, Spillovers, and Other Party People: Personal and Collective Identities in the Post-rave Era (pp. 47-79)

    Early in my enthusiasm for dance music, my friend Adrienne introduced me to Faithless, a U.K.-based electronic dance group composed of Rollo, Sister Bliss, and Maxi Jazz. With many guest collaborators—including Dido as a vocalist in the “Salva Mea” track—Faithless has produced many classic dance anthems that helped define the 1990s global rave scene.

    Dido’s opening vocals in “Salva Mea” are about personal identity and collective action. They are about the connection between ourselves and to something larger than us, for example, groups around us, our society or culture, or even the world. The link between personal and...

  7. 4 From 1990s Massives to Ravesʹ Death? Forces of Cultural Change
    4 From 1990s Massives to Ravesʹ Death? Forces of Cultural Change (pp. 80-113)

    What produced the alteration and decline of raves, a music scene that was once a significant youth phenomenon and site of mainstream opposition? To what extent did rave culture change or falter because it could not accommodate the transience, tastes, or aging of its fans? How did commercial interests affect its trajectory? To what extent was it torpedoed or catapulted by its own form and expression? What role did the state play in altering rave culture and the EDM scene’s existence over time? Finally, how are the forces of alteration and decline related to each other, and what can we...

  8. 5 ʺPlayers and Their Tracksʺ Types of Cultural Work in the EDM Scene
    5 ʺPlayers and Their Tracksʺ Types of Cultural Work in the EDM Scene (pp. 114-134)

    One evening in the fall of 2003, I was at the record store for Josh Wink’s²Profound SoundsV.2 CD re-release party. The store was filled with young males, many local or wannabe DJs who admired Wink and were happy to celebrate his success and get a chance to network with this raveera icon and current international EDM superstar.

    For a while, I hovered in the background watching Josh talk with his would-be protégés. With a bit of cajoling³ by Rick, Paulie, and Cameron, I introduced myself. After Josh and I discussed his new CD and our mutual tastes in...

  9. 6 EDM as a Vibrant Global Scene:
    6 EDM as a Vibrant Global Scene: (pp. 135-165)

    Sophie’s opinion about the contemporary EDM scene in London is a significant departure from what the people I talked with in Philadelphia said about the current EDM scene and from the conclusions reached by U.S. scholars. I found her sentiment quite prevalent in London and in Ibiza, Spain, among people from many nations,¹ during my trips there in 2004 and 2005. In addition to the considerable popularity of dance music and the wide variety of parties that celebrate it, it seems the ethos of acceptance, diversity, and liberation is also alive in EDM scenes outside of Philadelphia and the United...

  10. 7 Twenty-First-Century Scenes, Sounds, and Selves
    7 Twenty-First-Century Scenes, Sounds, and Selves (pp. 166-180)

    The cultural transformation of a music scene is a process of considerable importance to academics, music enthusiasts, and the general public. This is because a music scene’sculture, identity, andlifestylecan matter a great deal to all kinds of people. Yet, scenes, like the music itself, are certain to change over time. This has been as true for raves or the EDM scene as for more pop u lar scenes, including rock, hip hop, and others.

    Consider the recent release of Nas’s hip hop CD,Hip Hop Is Dead(Def Jam Records 2006). Nas’s CD title suggests that he,...

  11. Appendix: Methods
    Appendix: Methods (pp. 181-194)
  12. Notes
    Notes (pp. 195-212)
  13. References
    References (pp. 213-226)
  14. Index
    Index (pp. 227-231)
  15. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 232-232)