No shit, Sherlock!



The British media seem to have finally discovered what we've known all along: that dance music never died, all that happened was that the mainstream shit fell out of favour and the scene went back to its roots. Now they're starting to notice the re-emergence of raves.



Here's a few examples:



http://news.bbc.co.u.../uk/5296026.stm

http://arts.guardian...comment/story/0,,1860846,00.html

http://observer.guar.../review/story/0,,1858947,00.html



Shit, this means everything's going to get expensive again...

According to Eminem nobody listens to techno.

Slipvin Escribi�:

According to Eminem nobody listens to techno.

And if I recall correctly he sucks...



I hate him because he has a small head... and for that reason it's good he doesn't sing about the bling, because then he'd be indistinguishable from the monopoly guy

It'll be interesting to see if this rippling tide of rave resurgence will make it's way to California's shores.



I haven't been to a rave in years. They were a lot of fun - some of them were held in these really crap warehouses in the industrial part of Los Angeles or in a crappy gymnasium miles away from home, others held on Indian reservations out in the middle of nowhere, or old abandoned campgrounds... I just checked the ravelinks site, which was me and stash's source when we were hitting these up. Just now I went to see what was up and when you click anything in the navigation bar you get a "page cannot be displayed." figures, that's no surprise. But even the last rave I went to (an old skool style map point one) the whole scene was sort of dying out to make way for the next trend.



I think there were a lot of factors as to why this was at least from my perspective, and being in Southern California. The first reason being is that the scene became heavily saturated - everybody went into high gear and got their fill very, very fast. On any given Saturday you could go to these raves and it was wall to wall people, loaded to the gills, just soaking up all that music and PLUR. And as such, the masses are a fickle audience, trends and music and the culture that surrounds it goes in cycles and people simply moved on I think. The second reason being (imo) is that everyone on the business end of things started cashing in. A lot of raves gave way to larger ticket holder events with big time promotions and such. The accessibility of these larger events squeezed a big portion of the smaller and more obscure events out. And lastly - I stronly feel the biggest factor in all of this was the legislative/law enforcement crack down on raves (think crack house laws, cabaret laws and the irony of the movie Footloose). They were seen as a nuisance, it was all "about the poor children and the horrible drugs and that terrible drug music." The liability for organizers and promotors became too great. It just became a hassle and with waning popularity... well, that's that.



Like I mentioned, it's been a long time since I've been raving. Who knows, I could be blowing smoke out my ass on this whole thing - the scene could be thriving right under my nose and I wouldn't know it. X-D I don't know how it is elsewhere, but raving is definitely something here that is for younger people. Very seldom do you see anyone at a rave that's older than about 26 years old. I hate to say it but as much as I dug going to raves, I can't say I would feel right if I went now being more than half the age of most the people there. I would feel odd, like an old fish out of water. But that said, I wouldn't mind seeing a surge in popularity just to keep things going, just to keep the alternative alive.

DJ Tiesto

Bwah!

Thnx Tyler and Whirly for those intresting reads !!

I'm too young to know about those 1990 raves , but i read a lot of articles about them and saw a very intresting documentary on it recently on BBC. I also dont know if that illegal rave scene was ever that big in Holland. My brother sometimes still goes to illegal raves , somewhere under a bridge or in a old farm or something , but those are more Hardcore / Terror / Speedcore raves.

Nevertheless , i think a lot of people confuse the raves being sort of back with " the return of Dance Music ". Dance music has NEVER been dead. Just because there are not 100 raves in one nights doesn't mean Dance Music was dead.

Anyway , i've never been to one of those raves , but as soon as i live in London , i'll be on of those searching for some good parties in the weekend!

Jeanie Escribi�:

Dance music has NEVER been dead. Just because there are not 100 raves in one nights doesn't mean Dance Music was dead.

You're totally right, for me it's like "well, did it go away?" These sort of publications that come out are pretty pop/trend-centered. It implies that something is dead until the mainstream focuses on it.

The scene does seem to be making a comeback here in Winnipeg as of the past year or so. Still underground, still hit-or-miss, still a little dodgy as to quality, but there are events going on much more frequently and consistently than at any time in the past three or so years.



Also helps that I'm older and a little more connected, but a few more promotion groups have risen up.



On the mainstream side of things, we're getting bigger name artists on a more regular basis. Mostly trance, mind, but it's a start. Seen a few really enjoyable sets over the past year in the Peg (Tommy Sunshine, Benny Benassi [yes, he's actually decent with the tune selection, IMO]).

The rave scene seems to be picking up on the West Coast, and definitely never went away.



I went to a rave in Eugene, Oregon a few months back, which was unfortunately f*cking lame, but I seem to see more and more fliers and notices lately in SF.



I'm looking forward to hitting up an underground rave that will be memorable, instead of just stupid.

I feel so oooooooooooooold! hahaha X-D

Darkstarexodus Escribi�:

The scene does seem to be making a comeback here in Winnipeg as of the past year or so.

I would count on it, afterall, Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole.

TheFlamingDead_ Escribi�:

Darkstarexodus Escribi�:

The scene does seem to be making a comeback here in Winnipeg as of the past year or so.

I would count on it, afterall, Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole.

Venetian Snares rocks.

TheFlamingDead_ Escribi�:

Darkstarexodus Escribi�:

The scene does seem to be making a comeback here in Winnipeg as of the past year or so.

I would count on it, afterall, Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole.

*Wouldn't

God EDIT MOTHAFUCKIN BUTTON

TheFlamingDead_ Escribi�:

Darkstarexodus Escribi�:

The scene does seem to be making a comeback here in Winnipeg as of the past year or so.

I would count on it, afterall, Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole.

Bwah!



So true, so true. Can't believe I don't own a Snares album. Or that there isn't snow on the ground. heh.



Anyways, yeah. This weekend is a 3 day (mostly electronic) festival about an hour north of here, but I elected against for reasons unknown.