A rave (from the
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
: ''
to rave'') is a
dance party
A dance party (also referred to as a dance) is a social gathering where dancing is the primary activity. Some dance parties are held in a casual setting and open to the public, such as a rave, or those held in nightclubs.
Other types of dance ...
at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by
DJs playing
electronic dance music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance music scene when DJs played at illegal events in musical styles dominated by electronic dance music from a wide range of sub-genres, including
drum and bass
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
,
dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...
,
trap,
break
Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to:
Time off from duties
* Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties
* Break (work), time off during a shift/recess
** Coffee break, a short mid-morning rest ...
,
happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s ...
,
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
,
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
,
hardcore
Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to:
Arts and media Film
* ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film
* ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott
* ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
,
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
,
and
alternative dance
Alternative dance (also known as indie dance or underground dance in the United States) is a musical genre that mixes alternative rock with electronic dance music. Although largely confined to the British Isles, it has gained worldwide exposure ...
. Occasionally
live
Live may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film
* ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film
* ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film
*'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...
musicians have been known to perform at raves, in addition to other types of performance artists such as
go-go dancers
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo, located in the town of Juan-les-Pins. The bar's n ...
and
fire dancers. The music is amplified with a large, powerful
sound reinforcement system
A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers in Loudspeaker enclosure, enclosures all controlled by a mixing console that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also ...
, typically with large
subwoofer
A subwoofer (or sub) is a loudspeaker designed to reproduce low-pitched audio frequencies, known as bass and sub-bass, that are lower in frequency than those which can be (optimally) generated by a woofer. The typical frequency range that is ...
s to produce a deep bass sound. The music is often accompanied by
laser light shows,
projected coloured images,
visual effects
Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of
a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production.
The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...
and
fog machines
A fog machine, fog generator, or smoke machine is a device that emits a dense vapor that appears similar to fog or smoke. This artificial fog is most commonly used in professional theatrical smoke and fog, entertainment applications, but smaller, ...
.
Fuelled by the emerging dance scene, and spearheaded by acid house music and underground bands such as
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured
Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...
, many of the "acid house" parties were held in squats during the late 1980s. Well known locations such as the "Dole House" (
Peckham
Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720.
History
"Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...
), the abandoned bus station and the squatted children's home in
Camberwell
Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...
known as Groove Park had crowds of over a thousand. Full Moon parties were organised at Groove Park by Pete Marland (who went on to start the dance scene in Western Ireland in the early 90s) and multiple events went on for over a year as an Art Collective sanctioned by locals.
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
' first colour supplement carried an article about the dance scene at Groove Park, though some of the organisers did not want to be photographed. While some raves may be small parties held at nightclubs or private homes, some raves have grown to immense size, such as the large festivals and events featuring multiple DJs and dance areas (e.g., the
Castlemorton Common Festival
The Castlemorton Common Festival was a week-long free festival and rave held in the Malvern Hills near Malvern, Worcestershire, England, between 22 and 29 May 1992. The media interest and controversy surrounding the festival, and concerns as to ...
in 1992).
Some
electronic dance music festivals
The following is an incomplete list of music festivals that feature electronic music, which encapsulates music featuring electronic instruments such as electric guitars and Keyboard instrument, keyboards, as well as recent genres such as electr ...
have features of raves, but on a larger, often commercial scale. Raves may last for a long time, with some events continuing for twenty-four hours, and lasting all through the night.
Law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of the government or other social institutions who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by investigating, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms gove ...
raids and anti-rave laws have presented a challenge to the rave scene in many countries.
This is due to the association of rave culture with illegal drugs such as
MDMA
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy (tablet form), and molly (crystal form), is an empathogen–entactogenic drug with stimulant and minor Psychedelic drug, psychedelic properties. In studies, it has been used ...
(often referred to as a "
club drug
Club drugs, also called rave drugs or party drugs, are a loosely defined category of recreational drugs which are associated with discothèques in the 1970s and nightclubs, dance clubs, electronic dance music (EDM) parties, and raves in the 1 ...
" or "party drug" along with
MDA
MDA, mda or variants may refer to:
Businesses and organizations Political parties
* Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (2003–2008), in India
* Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (2018–present), in India
* Movement for Democracy in Africa, in Burkina F ...
),
amphetamine
Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...
,
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
,
GHB,
ketamine
Ketamine is a cyclohexanone-derived general anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties, used medically for anesthesia, depression, and pain management. Ketamine exists as its S- (esketamine) a ...
,
methamphetamine
Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug use, recreational or Performance-enhancing substance, performance-enhancing drug and less commonly as a secon ...
,
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
,
and
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
. In addition to drugs, raves often make use of non-authorized, secret venues, such as
squat parties at unoccupied homes, unused warehouses, or aircraft hangars. These concerns are often attributed to a type of
moral panic
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...
surrounding rave culture.
History
Origin (1950s–1970s)
In the late 1950s in London, England, the term "rave" was used to describe the "wild
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers.
* Bohemian style, a ...
parties" of the
Soho
SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
beatnik
Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti- materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms ...
set.
Jazz musician
Mick Mulligan
Peter Sidney "Mick" Mulligan (24 January 1928 – 20 December 2006) was an English jazz trumpeter and bandleader, best known for his presence on the trad jazz scene.
Biography
He was born in Harrow, Middlesex, England. Mulligan began playing ...
, known for indulging in such excesses, had the nickname "king of the ravers". In 1958,
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...
recorded the hit "
Rave On
"Rave On", also written "Rave On!", is a song written by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman and Norman Petty in 1958. It was first recorded by West for Atlantic Records, which released his version in February 1958 (as Atlantic 45-1174). Buddy Holly recor ...
", citing the madness and frenzy of a feeling and the desire for it never to end. The word "rave" was later used in the burgeoning
mod
Mod, MOD or mods may refer to:
Places
* Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band
* M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US
* ...
youth culture of the early 1960s as the way to describe any wild party in general. People who were gregarious party animals were described as "ravers". Pop musicians such as
Steve Marriott
Stephen Peter Marriott (30 January 1947 – 20 April 1991) was an English actor, musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and appeared in the West End, before taking a r ...
of
Small Faces
Small Faces were an English Rock music, rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966 ...
and
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon (23 August 1946 – 7 September 1978) was an English musician who was the drummer for the rock band the Who. Regarded as one of the greatest drummers in the history of rock music, he was noted for his unique style of playing and ...
of
the Who
The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...
were self-described "ravers".
Presaging the word's subsequent 1980s association with
electronic music
Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
, the word "rave" was a common term used regarding the music of mid-1960s
garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...
and
psychedelia
Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...
bands (most notably
the Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ...
, who released an album in the United States called ''
Having a Rave Up''). Along with being an alternative term for partying at such garage events in general, the "rave-up" referred to a specific crescendo moment near the end of a song where the music was played faster, more heavily and with intense soloing or elements of controlled feedback. It was later part of the title of an
electronic music
Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
performance event held on 28 January 1967 at London's
Roundhouse titled the "Million Volt Light and Sound Rave". The event featured the only known public airing of an experimental sound collage created for the occasion by
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
of
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
– the legendary "
Carnival of Light
"Carnival of Light", originally known as "Untitled", is an unreleased avant-garde recording by the English rock band the Beatles. It was commissioned for the Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, an event held at the Roundhouse in London on 28 Ja ...
" recording.
With the rapid change of British pop culture from the mod era of 1963–1966 to the
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...
era of 1967 and beyond, the term fell out of popular usage. The
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the Midlands in the early 1970s. It developed from the British Mod (subculture), mod scene, based on a particular style of African American music, Black American ...
movement is cited by many as being a significant step towards the creation of contemporary club culture and of the
superstar DJ culture of the 2000s. As in contemporary club culture, Northern soul DJs built up a following based on satisfying the crowd's desires for music that they could not hear anywhere else. Many argue that Northern soul was instrumental in creating a network of clubs, DJs, record collectors and dealers in the UK, and was the first music scene to provide the British charts with records that sold entirely on the strength of club play. A technique employed by northern soul DJs in common with their later counterparts was the sequencing of records to create euphoric highs and lows for the crowd; DJ Laurence 'Larry' Proxton was known for using this method. DJ personalities and their followers involved in the original Northern soul movement went on to become important figures in the
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
and
dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...
scenes. During the 1970s and early 1980s until its resurrection, the term was not in vogue, one notable exception being in the lyrics of the song "
Drive-In Saturday
"Drive-In Saturday" is a song by the English musician David Bowie from his 1973 album ''Aladdin Sane''. It was released as a single a week before the album and, like its predecessor "The Jean Genie", became a Top 3 UK hit.
Music and lyrics
Hea ...
" by
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
(from his 1973 album ''
Aladdin Sane
''Aladdin Sane'' is the sixth studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released in the United Kingdom on 19April 1973 through RCA Records. The follow-up to his breakthrough '' The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from M ...
'') which includes the line, "It's a crash course for the ravers." Its use during that era would have been perceived as a quaint or ironic use of bygone slang: part of the dated 1960s lexicon along with words such as "groovy".
The perception of the word "rave" changed again in the late 1980s when the term was revived and adopted by a new youth culture, possibly inspired by the use of the term in Jamaica.
Acid house (1980s)

In the mid to late 1980s, a wave of psychedelic and other
electronic dance music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
, most notably
acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
music, emerged from
acid house music parties in the mid-to-late 1980s in the Chicago area in the United States. After Chicago acid house artists began experiencing overseas success, acid house quickly spread and caught on in the United Kingdom within clubs, warehouses and free-parties, first in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
in the mid-1980s and then later in London. In the late 1980s, the word "rave" was adopted to describe the
subculture
A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...
that grew out of the acid house movement.
Activities were related to the party atmosphere of
Ibiza
Ibiza (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...
, a Mediterranean island in Spain, frequented by British, Italian, Greek, Irish and German youth on vacation, who would hold raves and dance parties.
Growth (1990s–present)
By the 1990s, genres such as
acid
An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...
,
breakbeat hardcore
Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave, oldskool hardcore or simply hardcore) is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from ...
,
hardcore
Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to:
Arts and media Film
* ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film
* ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott
* ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
,
happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s ...
,
gabber
Gabber ( ; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as hardcore, and is characterised by fast beats ...
,
drum and bass
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
,
post-industrial
In sociology, the post-industrial society is the stage of society's development when the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector of the economy.
The term was originated by Alain Touraine and is closely related t ...
and
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...
were all being featured at raves, both large and small. There were mainstream events which attracted thousands of people (up to 25,000 instead of the 4,000 that came to earlier warehouse parties). Acid house music parties were first re-branded "rave parties" in the media, during the summer of 1989 by
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmi ...
during a television interview; however, the ambience of the rave was not fully formed until the early 1990s. In 1990, raves were held "underground" in several cities, such as
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Milan and
Patras
Patras (; ; Katharevousa and ; ) is Greece's List of cities in Greece, third-largest city and the regional capital and largest city of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaiko ...
, in basements, warehouses and forests.
[Timeline and numbers ]
British politicians responded with hostility to the emerging rave party trend. Politicians spoke out against raves and began to
fine
Fine may refer to:
Characters
* Fran Fine, the title character of ''The Nanny''
* Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny''
* Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano
Legal terms
* Fine (p ...
promoters who held unauthorised parties. Police crackdowns on these often unauthorised parties drove the rave scene into the countryside. The word "rave" somehow caught on in the UK to describe common semi-spontaneous weekend parties occurring at various locations linked by the brand new
M25 London orbital motorway that ringed London and the
Home Counties; it was this that gave the band
Orbital their name. These ranged from former warehouses and industrial sites in London, to fields and country clubs in the countryside.
Characteristics
Music

Rave music may either refer to the late 1980s/early 1990s genres of
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
,
new beat
New beat is a Belgian electronic dance music genre that fuses elements of new wave, hi-NRG,Simon Reynolds: ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture.'' Routledge 1999, , p. 124. EBM and hip hop (e.g. scratching).Timor ...
,
breakbeat
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...
,
acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
,
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
and
hardcore techno
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...
, which were the first genres of music to be played at rave parties, or to any other genre of
electronic dance music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
(EDM) that may be played at a rave.
The genre "rave", also known as hardcore (not to be confused with other "hardcore" music genres) by early ravers, first appeared amongst the UK "acid" movement during the late 1980s at warehouse parties and other
underground venues, as well as on
UK pirate radio stations. Another genre called "rave" during the early 1990s, was the
Belgian hardcore techno
Belgian hardcore techno (also referred to as Belgian techno or rave techno) is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. This particular style has been describ ...
music that emerged from
new beat
New beat is a Belgian electronic dance music genre that fuses elements of new wave, hi-NRG,Simon Reynolds: ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture.'' Routledge 1999, , p. 124. EBM and hip hop (e.g. scratching).Timor ...
, when techno became the main style in the Belgian EDM scene.
The "rave" genre would develop into
oldschool hardcore, which lead onto newer forms of rave music such as
drum and bass
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
,
2-step and
happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s ...
as well as other
hardcore techno
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...
genres, such as
gabber
Gabber ( ; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as hardcore, and is characterised by fast beats ...
and
hardstyle
Hardstyle is an electronic dance music, electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), har ...
.
Rave music is usually presented in a
DJ mix
A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically beatmixing, mixed together by a Disc jockey, DJ to appear as one continuous track. DJ mixes are usually performed using a DJ mixer and multiple sounds sources, such as Phonograph, tur ...
set, although live performances are not uncommon.
Styles of music include:
*
Breakbeat
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...
: Breakbeat music (or breaks for short) refers to any form of rave music with breakbeats, this may range from
breakbeat hardcore
Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave, oldskool hardcore or simply hardcore) is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from ...
to
nu skool breaks
Nu skool breaks or nu breaks is a subgenre of breakbeat originating during the period between 1998 and 2002. The style is usually characterized by more abstract, more technical sounds, sometimes incorporated from other genres of electronic dance m ...
, including genres such as
hardstep
Hardstep is a subgenre of drum and bass which emerged in the mid-1990s. It is characterized by a gritty production style that consists of an inner-city feel. The breaks are less choppy than oldschool jungle, and have faster and harder simple el ...
and
breakcore
Breakcore is a style of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sources played at high ...
cross over into the
hardcore techno
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...
sound. Fusions of house and trance also exist but the drum 'n' bass still remains the most popular form of breakbeat played at rave parties.
*
Drum and bass
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
: Drum and bass music refers to a music genre with a very specific sound of four significant notes called breakbeat, that serves as a bassline for the song – that's why most drum and bass songs use 170 – 176 BPM, most frequently specifically 174 BPM. Drum and bass includes multiple large subgenres, those who are frequently played at raves include
liquid
Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
(known for harmonic vocals, less aggressive bass drops and emotional atmosphere), classic dancefloor (energetic and overall positive party music, sometimes even drum and bass remixes of popular songs),
jump-up (a less complicated beat, sometimes using machine-like sounds, amplified for consumers of heavier music) and
neurofunk
Neurofunk (also known informally as neuro) is a dark subgenre of drum and bass which emerged between 1997 and 1998 in London, England as a progression of techstep.
It was further developed by juxtaposing elements of darker, heavier, and hard ...
(almost sci-fi like subgenre of a heavy and dark drum and bass, only rarely using well-known samples or even traditional music melodies).
*
Electro: Electro and
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
are two genres which largely featured
psychedelic sounds and are largely considered the earliest forms of electronic dance music genres to use the term "rave music" in respect to its modern terminological use. Techno sometimes crosses boundaries with
house music
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
, hence the genres
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
and
acid techno
Acid techno, sometimes known generally as "acid", is a genre of techno that was derived from acid house and developed in Europe in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It saw younger artists apply the "squelching" synthesizer sound of Chicago acid hou ...
.
Miami bass
Miami bass (also known as booty music or booty bass) is a subgenre of hip hop music that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The use of drums from the Roland TR-808, sustained kick drum, heavy bass, raised dance tempos, and frequently sexual ...
and
crunk
Crunk is a subgenre of Southern hip-hop that emerged in the early 1990s and gained mainstream success during the early to mid 2000s. Crunk is often up-tempo and one of Southern hip hop's more nightclub-oriented subgenres. Distinguishing itself w ...
is sometimes included as "electro".
*
Free tekno
Free tekno, also known as tekno, freetekno and hardtek, is the music predominantly played at free parties in Europe. The spelling ''tekno'' is deliberately used to differentiate the musical style from techno. The music is fast and it can vary ...
: This style of electronic music started in the early 1990s and was mostly played in illegal parties hosted by
sound systems Sound system may refer to:
Technology media
* Sound reinforcement system, a system for amplifying audio for an audience
* High fidelity, a sound system intended for accurate reproduction of music in the home
* Public address system, an institution ...
, such as Spiral Tribe, Desert Storm, Hekate, Heretik, in warehouse, dismissed buildings, or even illegal open-air festivals, called Teknivals. It takes inspiration from various other genres, and mainly focuses on quick beats, 170/200 bpm, acid bassline, mentals sounds, and often samples taken from movies, popular songs or many other different media sources.
*
Gqom
Gqom () (igqomu (), gqom tech, sgubhu, 3-step or G.Q.O.M) is an African electronic dance music genre and subgenre of house music, that emerged in the early 2010s from Durban, South Africa, pioneered and innovated by Record producer, music produce ...
: Gqom music, heavily influenced by techno and
broken beat
Broken beat (sometimes referred to as "bruk") is an electronic dance music genre that emerged in the late 1990s and is characterized by syncopated beats and frenetic, choppy rhythms, often alongside female vocals and elements inspired by 1970s ja ...
, features diverse rhythmic patterns,subgenres and styles. It incorporates
drone sounds to create a hypnotic or trance-like effect.
Taxi kick is occasionally tailored by some record producers particularly for illegal raves.
*
Hardcore techno
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...
: Any
hard dance
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...
genre that was influenced by the rave genre, usually these genres have a distorted kick drum, and a 4/4 rhythm.
Happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s ...
blended the Dutch hardcore sound with
Eurodance
Eurodance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of Hip-hop, rap, techno and Eurodisco. This genre of music is heavily influenced by the use ...
and
bubblegum pop
Bubblegum (also called bubblegum pop) is pop music in a catchy and upbeat style that is marketed for children and adolescents. The term also refers to a more specific rock and pop subgenre, originating in the United States in the late 1960s, th ...
, the genre (also known as "
happycore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or "hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s. Wha ...
" for short) featured pitched-up vocals and a less distorted 4/4 beat.
Trancecore also exists and is a less vocal fusion of happy hardcore with
trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from Electronic body music, EBM in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and quickly spread throughout Europe.
Trance music is typically characterized by a tempo between ...
, however
hardstyle
Hardstyle is an electronic dance music, electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), har ...
is a more pure form of the trance/hardcore genre since it retains the hardcore sound.
*
House music
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
: House music, especially
acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
, is the first genre of music to be played at the earliest raves, during the
Second Summer of Love
The Second Summer of Love was a late-1980s social phenomenon in the United Kingdom which saw the rise of acid house music and unlicensed rave parties. Although primarily referring to the summer of 1988, it lasted into the summer of 1989, when e ...
. House is a genre of
electronic dance music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
that originated out of the 1980s African-American and Latino
disco
Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
scene in Chicago. House music uses a constant
bass drum
The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter usually greater than its depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. The head ...
on every beat, electronic
drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...
hi-hats and synth
bassline
Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched P ...
s. There are many subgenres of house music (found below). Since house was originally
club music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. It is generally produced for playback by DJs who create s ...
, there are many forms of it, some more appropriate to be played at raves than others. In the UK, subgenres such as
UK funky
UK funky (sometimes known as UKF or funky) is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England that is heavily influenced by soca, soulful house, tribal house, funky house, UK garage, broken beat and grime. Typically, UK funky ...
,
speed garage
Speed garage (occasionally known as plus-8) is a genre of electronic dance music, associated with the UK garage scene, of which it is regarded as one of its subgenres.
Characteristics
Speed garage features sped-up NY garage 4-to-the-floor rhyth ...
and
dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...
emerged from
garage house
Garage house (originally known as "garage"; local terms include "New York house" and New Jersey sound) is a dance music style that was developed alongside Chicago house music. The genre was popular in the 1980s in the United States and the 1990s ...
. Many "pop house" club music producers branded themselves as "
house music
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
", however, so in rave culture it is often disputed whether pop house should be considered as a subgenre of house. "Rave house" is a subgenre label of house music that originated from the styles of house that were typically played in the rave scene of the 1993–1999 period. It is a term used by the general population who do not follow the
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
or
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
scene specifically, but identify certain house records as "rave music". It is a loose term that generally identifies
progressive house
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music that emerged in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by its evolving, melodic Musical form, structures, subtle Transition (music), transitions, and layered sound design.Gerard, ...
,
hard house
UK hard house or simply hard house is a style of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1990s and is synonymous with its association to the Trade club and the associated DJs there that created the style. It often features a speedy te ...
or trance house styles (often instrumental with no words) that one would imagine being played at a large rave.
*
Industrial dance
Electronic body music (EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Western Europe, as an outgrowth of both the Punk rock, punk and ...
: Industrial is a
goth
Goth or Goths may refer to:
* Goths, a Germanic people
Arts and entertainment
* Gothic rock or goth, a style of rock music
* Goth subculture, developed by fans of gothic rock
* ''Goth'' (2003 film), an American horror film
* ''Goth'' (2008 f ...
/rock/
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
related genre. While the genre is not usually considered rave music in itself, it is often fused with rave music genres. Industrial is the origin of many sounds found in rave music; it is one of the first genres that took the sounds that are now popular in rave music such as "acid" as its musical backdrop. Industrial music fans are usually considered
rivethead
A rivethead or rivet head is a person associated with the industrial dance music scene. In stark contrast to the original industrial culture, whose performers and heterogeneous audience were sometimes referred to as "industrialists", the riveth ...
s and do not tend to call themselves ravers.
*
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from Electronic body music, EBM in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and quickly spread throughout Europe.
Trance music is typically characterized by a tempo between ...
: Trance music in its most popular and modern form is an offshoot of house music that originated from the
acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
movement and rave scene in the late 1980s. The history of
trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from Electronic body music, EBM in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and quickly spread throughout Europe.
Trance music is typically characterized by a tempo between ...
is complicated to refer to, as multiple generations of listeners and musicians have influenced the genre. The term "trance" was (and still to this day by many) used interchangeably with "
progressive house
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music that emerged in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by its evolving, melodic Musical form, structures, subtle Transition (music), transitions, and layered sound design.Gerard, ...
" in the early rave years (1990–1994).
Downtempo
Downtempo (or downbeat) is a broad label for electronic music that features an atmospheric sound and slower beats than would typically be found in dance music. Closely related to ambient music but with greater emphasis on rhythm, the style may ...
and less dance-oriented styles which are sometimes called
chill-out music
Chill-out (shortened as chill; also typeset as chillout or chill out) is a loosely defined form of popular music characterized by slow tempos and relaxed moods. The definition of "chill-out music" has evolved throughout the decades, and generally ...
, that might be heard in a rave "chill-out" room or at a rave that plays slower electronic music includes:
*
Ambient
Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film
* ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack
Music and sound
* Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...
,
minimalist
In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...
and
computer music
Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ...
–
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...
,
Mike Oldfield
Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...
,
Harold Budd
Harold Montgomory Budd (May 24, 1936December 8, 2020) was an American music composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Mojave Desert, he became a respected composer in the minimal music and avant-garde scene of Southern California ...
,
ATB ATB or atb may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ATB (DJ) (born 1973), German DJ and music producer
* Active Time Battle, a role-playing video game mechanic
* Andy Timmons Band, a band led by guitarist Andy Timmons
* Atelier-Théâtre Burkinab ...
,
the Orb
The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential ...
,
Biosphere
The biosphere (), also called the ecosphere (), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be termed the zone of life on the Earth. The biosphere (which is technically a spherical shell) is virtually a closed system with regard to mat ...
*
Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...
and
breakstep
Breakstep, or breakbeat garage, is a genre of music that evolved from the UK garage scene and influenced the emergence of dubstep.
History
Breakstep evolved from the 2-step garage sound. Moving away from the more soulful elements of garage, it ...
–
Magnetic Man
Magnetic Man is an English electronic music project from London, consisting of dubstep producers and DJs Benga, Skream and Artwork (previously known as Menta). The trio first met in the late 1990s at the Big Apple Records store in Croydon. The ...
,
Eskmo
Brendan Angelides, formerly known by his stage names Eskmo and Welder, is an American electronic music producer and composer. He has released music on the record labels Interscope, Ninja Tune, Planet Mu, and Warp Records. NPR's Bob Boilen d ...
, and
Burial
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
*
Electro,
glitch
A glitch is a short-lived technical fault, such as a transient one that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among pl ...
,
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
,
experimental hip hop
Alternative hip-hop (also known as alternative rap and experimental hip-hop) is a subgenre of hip-hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising "hip-hop group ...
and
industrial hip hop
Industrial hip hop is a fusion genre of industrial music and hip hop.
History
1980s
The origins of industrial hip hop are in the work of Mark Stewart, Bill Laswell, and Adrian Sherwood. In 1985, former The Pop Group singer Mark Stewart relea ...
–
Flying Lotus
Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), better known as Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker, and rapper. He has released seven critically acclaimed albums: ''1983'' (2006), ''Los Angeles'' (2008), '' Co ...
,
Juan Atkins
Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of the Belle ...
,
MARRS
MARRS (stylised M, A, R, R, S) were a 1987 recording collective formed by the groups A.R. Kane and Colourbox, which only released one commercial disc. It became "a one-hit wonder of rare influence" because of their international hit "Pump Up th ...
, Dopplereffekt,
Egyptian Lover
Gregory James Broussard (born August 31, 1963), better known by his stage name Egyptian Lover, is an American musician, vocalist, producer and DJ, and was a part of the L.A. dance music, electro, and rap scene in the early 1980s.
History
T ...
,
Afrika Bambaataa
Lance Taylor (born April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is a retired American DJ, rapper, and record producer. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of ...
,
Techno Animal
Techno Animal was an electronic duo formed in 1990 in London, England by British musicians Justin Broadrick (of the band Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (aka the Bug, of the band God). The duo released six LPs beginning with their 1991 debut ''Gho ...
,
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, ...
,
the Glitch Mob
The Glitch Mob is an American electronic music duo from Los Angeles, California. It consists of edIT (Edward Ma) and Ooah (Josh Mayer). Boreta (Justin Boreta) was a member of the group from its formation until 2023. Chris Martins of ''LA Weekly' ...
and
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...
*
Gqom tech,
sgubhu and
3-step –
DJ Tira
Mthokozisi Khathi (born 24 August 1976) popularly known as DJ Tira, is a South African DJ, record producer, and businessman.
Early life
Khathi was born in KwaHlabisa Village, KwaZulu-Natal, and his family relocated to Durban in 1979. Khathi ...
, and
Mr Thela
Simphiwe Sihawu (born 2000) better known as Mr Thela, is a South African DJ and music producer. Born in Gugulethu
Gugulethu is a township in Western Cape, South Africa and is around 20km from Cape Town. Its name is a contraction of ''igugu leth ...
*
IDM –
Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...
,
Autechre
Autechre ( ) are an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all o ...
and
Boards of Canada
Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of the brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin. Signing first to Skam Records, Skam followed by Warp (record label), Warp Records in the 1990s, they received recognition following th ...
*
UK garage
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from ...
and
grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
Music
* Grime music, a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* "Grime", a 2023 song by Macklemore from ''Ben''
* "Grime", a 2024 song by Kittie from ''Fire
...
–
Todd Edwards
Todd Edward Imperatrice (born December 9, 1972), known professionally as Todd Edwards, is an American garage house record producer, DJ, and singer. Nicknamed "The God" and known by various aliases throughout his career, he has been credited as ...
,
Grant Nelson,
Sunship
Ceri Evans, better known as Sunship, is an English record producer, DJ, remixer and jazz pianist.
Evans' musical career began in 1981 as a member of the jazz-funk band Swamp Children who released the album ''So Hot'' on Factory Records in 1982 ...
,
Wookie,
So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew are a British UK garage and hip hop collective originating from Battersea, London, which achieved wide success in the early 2000s. The group consisted of many members, the most notable being Asher D (Ashley Walters), Lisa Ma ...
,
Roll Deep
Roll Deep (formerly Roll Deep Entourage) are a British grime crew. They were founded in 2001 by Wiley shortly before the disbandment of UK garage crew Pay As U Go Cartel.
The group have had two UK No. 1 singles, " Good Times" and "Green Lig ...
,
Dizzee Rascal
Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Dizzee Rascal, is a British rapper and MC. He is often credited as a pioneer of British hip hop and grime music and was ranked by ''Complex'' as one of the greatest British ...
,
Wiley
Wiley may refer to:
Locations
*Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town
*Wiley, Georgia, an U.S. unincorporated community
* Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S.
* Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany
People
*Wiley (musician), ...
,
Plastician
Chris Reed (born 30 October 1982), also known as Plastician (formerly Plasticman), is an Englishelectronic musician from Thornton Heath in the London Borough of Croydon.
History
Plastician, real name Chris Reed is a DJ from Croydon in South ...
Location

Raves have historically referred to grassroots organised, anti-establishment and unlicensed all‐night dance parties. Prior to the commercialisation of the rave scene, when large legal venues became the norm for these events, the location of the rave was kept secret until the night of the event, usually being communicated through
answering machine
An answering machine, answerphone, or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the United Kingdom, UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), ...
messages, mobile messaging, secret flyers, and websites. This level of secrecy, necessary for avoiding any interference by the police, also on account of the illicit drug use, enabled the ravers to use locations they could stay in for ten hours at a time. It promoted the sense of deviance and removal from social control. In the 2000s, this level of secrecy still exists in the underground rave scene. However "after-hours" clubs, as well as large outdoor events, create a similar type of alternate atmosphere, but focus much more on vibrant visual effects, such as props and décor. In more recent years, large commercial events are held at the same locations year after year with similar reoccurring themes every year. Events like
Electric Daisy Carnival
Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is the largest e ...
and
Tomorrowland Tomorrowland may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Tomorrowland (Disney Parks), a theme land at a number of Disney theme parks around the world
* Tomorrowland (festival), an annual electronic dance music festival in Boom, Belgium
* ''Tom ...
are typically held at the same venue that holds mass numbers of people.
Some raves make use of
pagan
Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...
symbolism. Modern raving venues attempt to immerse the raver in a fantasy-like world. Indigenous imagery and spirituality can be characteristic in the Raving ethos. In both the New Moon and Gateway collectives, "pagan altars are set up, sacred images from primitive cultures decorate the walls, and rituals of cleansing are performed over the turntables and the dance floor" This type of spatial strategy is an integral part of the raving experience because it sets the initial "vibe" in which the ravers will immerse themselves. This said "vibe" is a concept in the raver ethos that represents the allure and receptiveness of an environment's portrayed and or innate energy. The landscape is an integral feature in the composition of rave, much like it is in pagan rituals. For example, The Numic Ghost Dancers rituals were held on specific geographical sites, considered to hold powerful natural flows of energy. These sites were later represented in the rhythmic dances, to achieve a greater level of connectivity.
The
Falls festival
Falls Music & Arts Festival (commonly known as Falls) is a multi-day music festival held annually in Byron Bay (New South Wales) and Fremantle (Western Australia), Australia over the New Year's Eve and January period. The festival hosts contem ...
in
Byron Bay
Byron Bay ( Minjungbal: ''Cavvanbah'') is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of New South Wales, Australia (in Bundjalung Country). It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjac ...
features a rave party hidden behind a
washing machine
A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a machine designed to laundry, launder clothing. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water. Other ways of doing laundry include dry cleaning (which uses ...
in a laundromat.
Notable venues
The following is an incomplete list of venues associated with the rave subculture:
Dancing

A sense of participation in a group event is among the chief appeals of rave music and dancing to pulsating beats is its immediate outlet. Raving in itself is a syllabus-free dance, whereby the movements are
not predefined and the dance is performed randomly, dancers take immediate inspiration from the music, their mood and watching other people dancing. Thus, the electronic, rave and club dances, also known as Post-Internet Dances refer to the
street dance
Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, Locking (dance), locking, house dance, waacking, voguing, etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created o ...
styles that evolved alongside electronic music culture.
A common feature shared by all these dances, along with being originated at clubs, raves and music festivals around the world and in different years, is that when YouTube and other social media started to become popular (around 2006), these dances began to be popularised by videos of raves.
*
Hakken
Hakken (sometimes Hakkûh) is a form of rave dance originating from the Dutch hardcore and gabber scene. The music one is able to do the dance to is also called ''hakmuziek''. The name is derived from the Dutch verb ''hakken'' which means chop ...
*
Melbourne Shuffle
*
Gloving
Gloving is a form of modern dance which involves the use of fingertip light-emitting diode (LED) lights to accentuate fun creative patterns.
Gloving performances are called light shows and have become increasingly popular at raves in America. El ...
*
Glowsticking
Poi is a performing art and also the name of the equipment used for its performance. As a skill toy, poi is an object or theatrical prop used for dexterity play or an object manipulation. As a performance art, poi involves swinging tethered w ...
*
Jumpstyle
Jumpstyle is an electronic dance music, electronic dance style and music genre popular in Western Europe, originally in Belgium.
Jumpstyling is often referred to as "Jumpen": a combination of the English word 'Jump' and the Dutch and German suf ...
*
Electro dance
*
Rebolation
Rebolation, from the Portuguese verb ''rebolar'' - "to sway" or "to swing", is a style of Brazilian dance that originated in rave parties in the early 2000s. The dance, which gained popularity in 2007 after videos of people practicing the dance we ...
Attire
Since the late 1980s, rave fashion has undergone constant evolution with each new generation of ravers. Many of the rave fashion trends have appeared internationally, but there were also individual developments from region to region and from scene to scene.
At early rave parties, often costume-like clothes and garments with signal color look such as protective suits,
safety vests,
dust
Dust is made of particle size, fine particles of solid matter. On Earth, it generally consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil lifted by wind (an aeolian processes, aeolian process), Types of volcan ...
and
gas mask
A gas mask is a piece of personal protective equipment used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft ...
s were worn and combined with accessories such as vacuum cleaners or
cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...
inspired
goggles
Goggles, or safety glasses, are forms of protective eyewear that usually enclose or protect the area surrounding the eye in order to prevent particulates, water or chemicals from striking the eyes. They are used in chemistry laboratories and ...
. Clothing with slogans such as "
Peace, Love, Unity" and smiley-face T-shirts first appeared with the acid house movement of the 1980s. Further popular themes of the early rave scene were plastic aesthetics, various fetish styles,
DIY, 1970s, second-hand optics, retro sportswear (such as
Adidas
Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...
tracksuits), sex (showing much skin and nudity, e.g. wearing transparent or crop tops), war (e.g. in the form of combat boots or camouflage trousers), and science fiction.
Common fashion styles of the 1990s include tight-fitting nylon shirts, tight nylon quilted vests,
bell-bottoms
Bell-bottoms (or flares) are a style of trousers that become wider from the knees downward, forming a bell-like shape of the trouser leg.
History Naval origins
In the early 19th century, when standardised uniforms for British ratings in the ...
, neoprene jackets, studded belts,
platform shoe
Platform shoes are shoes, boots, or Sandal (footwear), sandals with a thick sole, usually in the range of . Platform shoes may also be high heels, in which case the heel is raised significantly higher than the ball of the foot. Extreme heights ...
s, jackets, scarves and bags made of
flokati
A flokati rug is a woven wool rug. They are shaggy in appearance, and are thick and soft. Modern wool or synthetic rugs may be purchased in a variety of colours.
Name
The word comes from the Aromanian language, Aromanian ''floc'', from Latin ''f ...
fur,
fluffy boots and
phat pants
Phat pants, phatties, or phats are a style of pants that are fitted at the waist, but get increasingly wide down the legs, covering the feet entirely due to their width. Phat pants can be made out of a variety of materials, however denim, fa ...
, often in bright and neon colours. Also gaudy coloured hair, dreadlocks, tattoos and piercings came into fashion with ravers. Widespread accessories included wristbands and collars,
whistle
A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...
s,
pacifier
A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple substitute given to an infant or toddler to suckle on between feedings to quiet their distress by satisfying the need to suck when they do not need to eat. Pacifiers normally have three parts: ...
s, white gloves,
glow stick
A glow stick, also known as a light stick, chem light, light wand, light rod, and rave light, is a self-contained, short-term light-source. It consists of a translucent plastic tube containing isolated substances that, when combined, make light ...
s,
feather boa
A boa is a fashion accessory that is usually worn wrapped around the neck like a scarf. Feather boas are most common, although modern boas are most often made with synthetic feathers.
Construction
A boa can be made of fur, but it is usually ...
s, oversized
sunglasses
Sunglasses or sun glasses (informally called shades or sunnies; more names Sunglasses#Other names, below) are a form of Eye protection, protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damagin ...
, and record bags made of truck tarpaulins.
In the early 1990s the first commercial rave fashion trends developed from this, which were quickly taken up by the fashion industry and marketed under the term ''clubwear''.
Different dress codes also evolved in the various sub-scenes of the rave culture. For example, the typical
gabber
Gabber ( ; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as hardcore, and is characterised by fast beats ...
or
psytrance
Psychedelic trance, psytrance, or psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...
raver dressed significantly different from "normal" ravers, but common basic features remained recognisable.
Since the 2000s, the clothing style of the rave culture remains heterogeneous, as do its followers. Particularly in North America, rave fashion continues to be characterised by colourful clothing and accessories, most notably the "kandi" jewellery that fluoresces under ultraviolet light. They contain words or phrases that are unique to the raver and that they can choose to trade with each other using "PLUR" (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect). This style of attire was again taken up by the fashion industry and marketed as "rave fashion" or "festival fashion", now includling all kinds of accessories to create unique looks depending on event. In contrast to this and starting at Berlin techno clubs like
Berghain
Berghain () is a nightclub in Berlin, Germany. It is named after its location near the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain and is a short walk from Berlin Ostbahnhof main line railway station. in the 2000s, a strictly black style, partly borrowed from the
dark scene, has established itself within parts of the techno scene.
Certain rave events such as
Sensation
Sensation (psychology) refers to the processing of the senses by the sensory system.
Sensation or sensations may also refer to:
In arts and entertainment In literature
*Sensation (fiction), a fiction writing mode
*Sensation novel, a British ...
also have a strict minimalistic dress policy, either all white or black attire.
Light shows
Some ravers participate in one of four light-oriented dances, called ''glowsticking'', ''glowstringing'', ''gloving'', and ''lightshows''. Of the four types of light-orientated dances, gloving in particular has evolved far beyond the rave culture. Other types of light-related dancing include
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...
lights, flash-lights and blinking strobe lights. LEDs come in various colours with different settings.
Gloving
Gloving is a form of modern dance which involves the use of fingertip light-emitting diode (LED) lights to accentuate fun creative patterns.
Gloving performances are called light shows and have become increasingly popular at raves in America. El ...
has evolved into a separate dance form that has grown exponentially in the last couple of years early 2010. Glovers use their fingers and hands to move with the beat of the music. And they use the color to create patterns and have different speed settings for the lights on their gloves.
These components give the glove artist different ways to fascinate spectators of their light shows. The use of lights can improve the way people react during the songs or throughout the concert itself.
Since then the culture has extended to all ages, ranging from kids in their early teens to college students and more. The traditional Rave lights are limited now, but many stores have developed newer, brighter, and more advanced version of lights with a plethora of colours and modes—modes include solid, stribbon,
strobe
A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope. The word originated from the Ancient Greek ('), meaning ...
, dops, hyper flash, and other variations.
Drug use
Among the various elements of 1970s disco subculture that ravers drew on, in addition to basing their scene around dance music mixed by DJs, ravers also inherited the positive attitude towards using
club drug
Club drugs, also called rave drugs or party drugs, are a loosely defined category of recreational drugs which are associated with discothèques in the 1970s and nightclubs, dance clubs, electronic dance music (EDM) parties, and raves in the 1 ...
s to "enhanc
..the sensory experience" of dancing to loud music.
The state of mind referred to as "ecstasy" (not to be confused with the slang term for
MDMA
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy (tablet form), and molly (crystal form), is an empathogen–entactogenic drug with stimulant and minor Psychedelic drug, psychedelic properties. In studies, it has been used ...
) sought by ravers has been described as "a result of when various factors harmonise the ego with the other elements such as place and music and
neenter
a "one state" where
hey
Hey, HEY, or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the ...
cannot distinguish what is material or not, where things enter into syntony and constitute a unique moment, precisely the kind sought in medi
tion".
However, disco dancers and ravers preferred different drugs. Whereas 1970s disco scene members preferred
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
and the depressant/sedative
Quaaludes
Methaqualone is a hypnotic sedative. It was sold under the brand names Quaalude ( ) and Sopor among others, which contained 300 mg of methaqualone, and sold as a combination drug under the brand name Mandrax, which contained 250 mg ...
, ravers preferred MDMA, 2C-B,
amphetamine
Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...
, and other pills. According to the FBI, raves are one of the most popular venues where
club drugs
Club drugs, also called rave drugs or party drugs, are a loosely defined category of recreational drugs which are associated with discothèques in the 1970s and nightclubs, dance clubs, electronic dance music (EDM) parties, and raves in the 1 ...
are distributed, and as such feature a prominent drug subculture.
Club drugs include
MDMA
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy (tablet form), and molly (crystal form), is an empathogen–entactogenic drug with stimulant and minor Psychedelic drug, psychedelic properties. In studies, it has been used ...
(more commonly known as "ecstasy", "E" or "molly"),
2C-B
2C-B, also known as 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine or by the slang name Nexus, is a synthetic psychedelic drug of the 2C family, mainly used as a recreational drug. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin in 1974 for use in psychoth ...
(more commonly known as "nexus"),
amphetamine
Amphetamine (contracted from Alpha and beta carbon, alpha-methylphenethylamine, methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, an ...
(commonly referred to as "speed"),
GHB (commonly referred to as "fantasy" or "liquid E"),
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
(commonly referred to as "coke"),
DMT
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), also known as ''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (''N'',''N''-DMT), is a serotonergic hallucinogen and investigational drug of the tryptamine family that occurs naturally in many plants and animals, including humans. D ...
, and
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
(commonly referred to as "lucy" or "acid").
"
Poppers
Poppers are recreational drugs belonging to the alkyl nitrite family of chemical compounds. When fumes from these substances are inhaled, they act as potent vasodilators, producing mild euphoria, warmth, and dizziness. Most effects have a r ...
" is the street name for
alkyl nitrites
In organic chemistry, alkyl nitrites are a group of organic compounds based upon the molecular structure , where R represents an alkyl group. Formally they are alkyl esters of nitrous acid. They are distinct from nitro compounds ().
The first ...
(the most well-known being
amyl nitrite
Amyl nitrite is a chemical compound with the formula C5H11ONO. A variety of isomers are known, but they all feature an amyl group attached to the nitrite functional group. The alkyl group (the amyl in this case) is unreactive and the chemical ...
), which are inhaled for their intoxicating effects, notably the "rush" or "high" they can provide. Nitrites originally came as small glass capsules that were popped open, which led to the nickname "poppers." The drug became popular in the US first on the disco/club scene of the 1970s and then at dance and rave venues in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2000s, synthetic
phenethylamines
Substituted phenethylamines (or simply phenethylamines) are a chemical class of organic compounds that are based upon the phenethylamine structure; the class is composed of all the derivative (chemistry), derivative compounds of phenethylamine ...
such as
2C-I
2C-I, also known as 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine, is a phenethylamine of the 2C family with psychedelic effects. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin, and is described in Shulgin's book ''PiHKAL'' (1991).
The substance is con ...
,
2C-B
2C-B, also known as 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine or by the slang name Nexus, is a synthetic psychedelic drug of the 2C family, mainly used as a recreational drug. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin in 1974 for use in psychoth ...
and
DOB
DOB or Dob often refers to date of birth.
DOB or Dob may also refer to:
Biochemistry
* 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine, Bromo-DMA, a psychedelic drug
** Meta-DOB, related substance
** Methyl-DOB, related substance
* HLA-DOB, human gene
Organiz ...
have been referred to as club drugs due to their stimulating and psychedelic nature (and their chemical relationship with
MDMA
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy (tablet form), and molly (crystal form), is an empathogen–entactogenic drug with stimulant and minor Psychedelic drug, psychedelic properties. In studies, it has been used ...
). By late 2012, derivates of the
psychedelic
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...
2C-X drugs, the
NBOMe
The 25-NB (25''x''-NB''x'') series, or NBOMe series, also known as the ''N''-benzylphenethylamines, is a family of serotonergic psychedelics. They are substituted phenethylamines and were derived from the 2C (psychedelics), 2C family. The most c ...
s and especially
25I-NBOMe
25I-NBOMe, also known as 2C-I-NBOMe, Cimbi-5, and shortened to "25I", is a psychedelic drug of the phenethylamine, 2C, and NBOMe (25-NB) families. Since 2010, it has circulated in the recreational drug scene, often misrepresented as LSD. It is ...
, had become common at raves in Europe. In the U.S., some law enforcement agencies have branded the subculture as a
drug-centric culture, as rave attendees have been known to use drugs such as
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
,
2C-B
2C-B, also known as 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine or by the slang name Nexus, is a synthetic psychedelic drug of the 2C family, mainly used as a recreational drug. It was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin in 1974 for use in psychoth ...
, and
DMT
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), also known as ''N'',''N''-dimethyltryptamine (''N'',''N''-DMT), is a serotonergic hallucinogen and investigational drug of the tryptamine family that occurs naturally in many plants and animals, including humans. D ...
.
Since the early 2000s,
medical professional
A health professional, healthcare professional (HCP), or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated as HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a Nursing, nur ...
s have acknowledged and addressed the problem of the increasing consumption of
alcoholic drinks
Drinks containing alcohol (drug), alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and Distilled beverage, spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered Non-al ...
and club drugs (such as
MDMA
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy (tablet form), and molly (crystal form), is an empathogen–entactogenic drug with stimulant and minor Psychedelic drug, psychedelic properties. In studies, it has been used ...
,
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
,
rohypnol
Flunitrazepam, sold under the brand name Rohypnol among others, is a benzodiazepine used to treat severe insomnia and assist with anesthesia. As with other hypnotics, flunitrazepam has been advised to be prescribed only for short-term use or by ...
,
GHB,
ketamine
Ketamine is a cyclohexanone-derived general anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties, used medically for anesthesia, depression, and pain management. Ketamine exists as its S- (esketamine) a ...
,
PCP,
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
, and
methamphetamine
Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug use, recreational or Performance-enhancing substance, performance-enhancing drug and less commonly as a secon ...
) associated with
rave culture
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
among adolescents and young adults in the Western world.
Studies have shown that adolescents are more likely than young adults to use multiple drugs, and the consumption of club drugs is highly associated with the presence of
criminal behavior
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
s and recent
alcohol abuse
Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of alcohol-related substance abuse. This spectrum can range from being mild, moderate, or severe. This can look like consumption of more than 2 drinks per day on average for men, or more than 1 drink per ...
or
dependence. In May 2007, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; French language, French: ''Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime'') is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention ...
, advocated drug testing on highways as a countermeasure against drug use at raves.
Much of the controversy,
moral panic
A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...
, and law enforcement attention directed at rave culture and its association with drug use may be due to reports of drug overdoses (particularly MDMA) at raves, concerts, and festivals.
History by country
Belgium
The Belgian rave scene and sound have their roots in the late 1980s Belgian EBM and New Beat scenes.
Originally created by DJs slowing down gay Hi-NRG 45rpm records to 33rpm to create a trance-dance groove, New Beat evolved into a
native form of hardcore techno in the 1990s with the introduction of techno records played at their original speeds or even slightly accelerated. This brutal new hardcore style spread throughout the European rave circuit and penetrated the pop charts.
The musical contribution of Brooklyn's DJ-producer Joey Beltram to R&S Records, run by Renaat Vandepapeliere, was instrumental in the development of iconic
Belgian techno
Belgian hardcore techno (also referred to as Belgian techno or rave techno) is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. This particular style has been describ ...
sounds and anthems.
Canada
Exodus Productions was arguably the first production company in Canada to throw regular rave style events at the warehouse space known as 23 Hop, located at 318 Richmond Street West in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
's
Entertainment District
An entertainment district is a type of arts district with a high concentration of movie theaters, theatres or other entertainment venues. Such areas may be officially designated by local governments with functional zoning regulations, as well as ...
. The first party was held on 31 August 1991. Multiple production companies would quickly follow suit, and the rave scene would soon explode into a massive scene, with 23 Hop as the initial launching pad, until its closure in 1995. The documentary film ''The Legend of 23 Hop'' highlighted the early stages of Exodus and similarly modelled production companies. Notable DJs that performed at 23 Hop included
Moby
Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...
, Mark Oliver, Dino & Terry, Sean L., Dr. No, Malik X, DJ Ruffneck, Jungle PhD, Kenny Glasgow, Matt C, John E, Danny Henry and David Crooke.
In 2001 Calgary, Alberta became the first major municipality in Canada to pass a bylaw with respect to raves. The intent of the bylaw was to ensure that raves would be safe for participants, and also not unduly disruptive to adjacent neighbourhoods. The bylaw was created in consultation with representatives from the municipality, the province of Alberta, and the rave community.
Germany
In West Germany and
West Berlin
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
, a substantial acid house scene had established itself in the late 1980s. In the West Berlin club
Ufo
An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...
, an illegal party venue located in the basement of an old apartment building, the first acid house parties took place in 1988.
[Robb, D. (2002), Techno in Germany: Its Musical Origins and Cultural Relevance, ''German as a Foreign Language Journal'', No.2, 2002, (p. 134).] In
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
at this time, the ''Negerhalle'' (1983–1989) and the ''ETA-Halle'' established themselves as the first acid house clubs in temporarily used, dilapidated industrial halls, marking the beginning of the so-called hall culture in Germany.
In July 1989, the first
Love Parade
The Love Parade () was an electronic dance music festival and technoparade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin, Germany. It was held annually in Berlin from 1989 to 2003 and in 2006, then from 2007 to 2010 in the Ruhr region. Events scheduled ...
took place in West Berlin.
Immediately after the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...
fell on 9 November 1989, free underground techno parties mushroomed in
East Berlin
East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
.
[ According to East German DJ ]Paul van Dyk
Matthias Paul (; born 16 December 1971), known professionally as Paul van Dyk () is a German DJ, record producer and musician. Van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly added category of Best Dance/Electron ...
the techno-based rave scene was a major force in re-establishing social connections between East and West Germany during the unification period. Soon the first techno clubs emerged in East Berlin such as the Tresor
TRESOR (recursive acronym for "TRESOR Runs Encryption Securely Outside RAM", and also the German word for a safe) is a Linux kernel patch which provides encryption using only the CPU to defend against cold boot attacks on computer systems by perf ...
(est. 1991), the ''Planet'' (1991–1993), and the Bunker
A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...
(1992–1996). In Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
, the Omen opened in 1988, which under its operator Sven Väth
Sven Väth (born 26 October 1964) is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner, with a career in electronic music spanning over 30 years. The release of the single " Electrica Salsa" with OFF in 1986 launched ...
became the center of the scene in the Rhein-Main area in the following years. In 1990, the Babalu Club opened in Munich, introducing the concept of afterhours in Germany.
In the late 1990s, the venues ''Tresor'' and E-Werk E-Werk may refer to of a number of music venues across Germany, including
*E-Werk (Berlin)
E-Werk was a techno music club in Berlin, Germany that was held in a former electrical substation called ''Abspannwerk Buchhändlerhof''. Located near Chec ...
(1993–1997) in Berlin, ''Omen'' (1988–1998) and Dorian Gray
''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly M ...
(1978–2000) in Frankfurt, Ultraschall
Ultraschall (German language, German: Ultrasound, ) was a nightclub in Munich, Germany from 1994 to 2003. The techno club belonged, besides the ''Tresor (club), Tresor'' and ''E-Werk (Berlin), E-Werk'' in Berlin, the ''Dorian Gray (club), Dorian ...
(1994–2003), KW – Das Heizkraftwerk
KW – Das Heizkraftwerk was a nightclub in Munich, Germany from 1996 to 2003. The techno club belonged, besides the '' Tresor'' and '' E-Werk'' in Berlin, the ''Dorian Gray'' and ''Omen'' in Frankfurt, and the Munich-based clubs ''Ultraschall' ...
(1996–2003) and Natraj Temple
Natraj Temple [] was a nightclub in Munich, Germany from 1996 to 2008. Germany's first steady psytrance nightclub belonged, besides the ''Tresor (club), Tresor'' and ''[E-Werk'' in Berlin, the ''Dorian Gray'' and ''Omen'' in Frankfurt, and the M ...
(1996–2008) in Munich, as well as ''Stammheim'' (1994–2002) in Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
, had established themselves as the most renowned techno clubs in Germany.
Parallel to the established club scene, illegal raves remained an integral part of the German rave scene throughout the 1990s. In urbanised Germany illegal raves and techno parties often preferred industrial sceneries such as decommissioned power stations, factories, the canalisation or former military properties of the cold war.
In the course of the 1990s, rave culture became part of a new youth movement in Germany and Europe. DJs and electronic-music producers such as WestBam
Maximilian Lenz (born 4 March 1965), known by his stage name WestBam, is a German DJ and musician. He is the co-founder of the record label Low Spirit.
Career
Lenz started his musical career in 1978 in the punk scene of his birth town Münster ...
proclaimed the existence of a "raving society" and promoted electronic music
Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
as legitimate competition for rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
. Indeed, electronic dance music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
and rave subculture became mass movements. Since the mid-1990s, raves had tens of thousands of attendees, youth magazines featured styling tips, and television networks launched music magazines on house and techno music. The annual Love Parade
The Love Parade () was an electronic dance music festival and technoparade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin, Germany. It was held annually in Berlin from 1989 to 2003 and in 2006, then from 2007 to 2010 in the Ruhr region. Events scheduled ...
festivals in Berlin and later the Metropolitan Ruhr area repeatedly attracted more than one million party-goers between 1997 and 2010. Dozens of other annual technoparade
A technoparade (taken from the German word "Technoparade") is a parade of vehicles equipped with strong loudspeakers and amplifiers playing electronic dance music. It resembles a carnival parade in some respects, but the vehicles (called love ...
s took place in Germany and Central Europe in the 1990s and early 2000s, the largest ones being Union Move
Union Move was a technoparade that occurred annually in Munich from 1995 to 2001. It was an initiative by Munich event organizers and nightclub owners (Kunstpark Ost, Ultraschall, Parkcafe, Pulverturm, P1, Partysan) to demonstrate against the Munic ...
, Generation Move, Reincarnation and Vision Parade as well as Street Parade
The Street Parade is a techno music festival in Zurich, Switzerland. With around one million attendees, it is the world's most attended technoparade. The Street Parade takes place annually on the second Saturday in August. Officially a demonstr ...
and Lake Parade in Switzerland. Large commercial raves since the nineties include Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...
, Nature One, Time Warp
Time travel is a common theme in fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, and film.
The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularized in H. G. Wells' ...
, SonneMondSterne
The SonneMondSterne Festival (short SMS) is an open-air festival featuring electronic dance music held in Germany. The festival lasts three days and takes place on the second weekend of August in Thuringia at the Bleilochtalsperre near Saalburg-E ...
and Melt!.
Since the late 2000s, Berlin is still called the capital of techno and rave, and techno clubs such as Berghain
Berghain () is a nightclub in Berlin, Germany. It is named after its location near the border between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain and is a short walk from Berlin Ostbahnhof main line railway station. , Tresor
TRESOR (recursive acronym for "TRESOR Runs Encryption Securely Outside RAM", and also the German word for a safe) is a Linux kernel patch which provides encryption using only the CPU to defend against cold boot attacks on computer systems by perf ...
, KitKatClub
The KitKatClub is a nightclub in Berlin, opened in March 1994 by Austrian pornographic filmmaker Simon Thaur and his life partner Kirsten Krüger. It is a famously uninhibited nightclub known for its diverse crowd, open sexual expression, stric ...
or ''Watergate'' and the way to party in barely renovated venues, ruins or wooden shacks such as, among many others, Club der Visionaere
Club der Visionaere is an open-air club in Treptow-Köpenick, the biggest borough in Berlin. Situated at a distributary channel for flood water in a former boathouse and opposing the border of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, it became known for its ...
, ''Wilde Renate'', or Bar 25
Bar 25 (also as: ''Bar25'', short: ''Bar'') was a bar, open-air club and cultural venue on the banks of the Spree (river), Spree river in Berlin's Friedrichshain district.
History
During its operation from 2003 to 2010, Michael Sontheimer im ...
, attracted international media attention. One movie that portraits the scene of the 2000s is Berlin Calling
''Berlin Calling'' is a 2008 German tragicomedy film directed by Hannes Stöhr. The film depicts the events following DJ and producer Ickarus's (Paul Kalkbrenner) institutionalization for drug abuse.
The film premiered at the 2008 Locarno Inter ...
starring Paul Kalkbrenner. In the 2010s, there continued to be a vivid rave and techno scene throughout the country, including numerous festivals and world-class techno clubs also outside of Berlin, such as for example MMA Club
MMA Club ''(Mixed Munich Arts Club)'' was a techno nightclub in Munich, Germany, renowned as one of the best in Germany in the 2010s. It was a multifaceted establishment based inside the husk of an old thermal power plant and has hosted undergrou ...
and Blitz Club
Blitz Club is a techno nightclub in the Munich district of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt.
History and description
The club is located in the former congress hall of the Deutsches Museum, completed in 1935 at the location of Munich's Deutsches ...
in Munich, ''Institut für Zukunft'' in Leipzig or ''Robert Johnson'' in Offenbach.
United Kingdom
Birth of UK rave scene (1980s–1990s)
The UK was finally recognised for its rave culture in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By 1991, organisations such as Fantazia and Raindance were holding massive legal raves in fields and warehouses around the country. The Fantazia party at Castle Donington, July 1992 was an open-air, all-night event. The Vision at Pophams airfield in August 1992 and Universe's Tribal Gathering
Tribal Gathering is the original British electronic dance music festival that between 1993 and 2004 catered for different types of dance music cultures such as techno, house and drum & bass. After 18 years, Tribal Gathering returns in 2023 for ...
in 1993 had a more festival feel.
By the middle of 1992, the scene was slowly changing, with local councils passing by-laws and increasing fees in an effort to prevent or discourage rave organisations from acquiring necessary licences. This meant that the days of the large one-off parties were numbered. By the mid-1990s, the scene had also fragmented into many different styles of dance music, making large parties more expensive to set up and more difficult to promote. The sound driving the big raves of the early 1990s had by the end of 1993 split into two distinct and polarising styles, the darker jungle
jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century.
Etymology
The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...
and the faster happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s ...
. Although many ravers left the scene due to the split, promoters such as ESP Dreamscape and Helter Skelter still enjoyed widespread popularity and capacity attendances with multi-arena events catering to the various genres. Notable events of this period included ESP's outdoor Dreamscape 20 event on 9 September 1995 at Brafield aerodrome fields, Northants
Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordsh ...
and Helter Skelter's Energy 97 outdoor event on 9 August 1997 at Turweston Aerodrome, Northants.
Free parties and outlawing of raves (1992–1994)
The illegal free party
A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the Free festival, free festival movement. It typically involves a Sound system (DJ)#Free party, sound system playing electronic dance music from late at ...
scene also reached its zenith for that time after a particularly large festival, when many individual sound systems such as Bedlam, Circus Warp, DIY, and Spiral Tribe
Spiral Tribe is an arts collective and free party Sound system (DJ), sound system formed in 1990. It organised free party, free parties, festivals and raves in the UK and later Europe in the 1990s. Spiral Tribe was involved in the Castlemorton ...
set up near Castlemorton
Castlemorton is a village and civil parish close to Malvern in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England. It consists of a village centre, a large common and many farms and houses within the area.
In 2013 the Worces ...
Common. The government acted. Under the ''Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights, clamping down on unlicensed ...
'', the definition of music played at a rave was given as:
Sections 63, 64 and 65 of the Act targeted electronic dance music
Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...
played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered police to stop a rave in the open air when a hundred or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave. Section 65 allows any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a five-mile radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; non-compliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale The standard scale is a system in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth law whereby financial Criminal law, criminal penalties (Fine (penalty), fines) in legislation have maximum levels set against a standard scale. Then, when inflation makes it nec ...
(£1000). The Act was officially introduced because of the noise and disruption caused by all night parties to nearby residents, and to protect the countryside. However, some participants in the scene claimed it was an attempt to lure youth culture away from MDMA and back to taxable alcohol
Alcohol may refer to:
Common uses
* Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds
* Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life
** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages
** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...
. In November 1994, the Zippies staged an act of electronic civil disobedience
Electronic civil disobedience (ECD; also known as cyber civil disobedience or cyber disobedience) can refer to any type of civil disobedience in which the participants use information technology to carry out their actions. Electronic civil disobedi ...
to protest against the CJB (i.e., Criminal Justice Bill).
Legal and underground raves (1994–present)
After 1993, the main outlet for raves in the UK were a number of licensed parties, amongst them Helter Skelter, Life at Bowlers (Trafford Park, Manchester), The Edge (formerly the Eclipse oventry, The Sanctuary (Milton Keynes) and Club Kinetic. In London, itself, there were a few large clubs that staged raves on a regular basis, most notably "The Laser Dome
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...
", "The Fridge", "The Hippodrome
The Hippodrome, formerly known as the McElroy Auditorium, is a 5,155 permanent seat multipurpose arena located in Waterloo, Iowa. The auditorium was built in 1919 and renovated in 1936, when the roof was raised, floor was excavated and additiona ...
", "Club U.K.", and "Trade." "The Laser Dome" featured two separate dance areas, "Hardcore" and "Garage", as well as over 20 video game machines, a silent-movie screening lounge, replicas of the "Statue of Liberty", "San Francisco Bridge", and a large glass maze. In Scotland, event promoters Rezerection held large-scale events across the country.
By 1997, the popularity of weekly Superclub
A superclub is a very large or superior nightclub, often with several rooms with different themes. The term was first coined in Mixmag, the British electronic dance and clubbing magazine, in 1995, referring to the new wave of clubs such as Min ...
nights had taken over from the old Rave format, with a raft of new club-based genres sweeping in (e.g. Trance, Hard House, Speed and UK garage) alongside the more traditional House sound that had regained popularity. Clubs like Gatecrasher
Gatecrasher is an international clubbing brand made famous by the "Gatecrasher" (later "Crasher") dance music events, which were held at the Republic nightclub in Sheffield, UK during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The promoters of the brand ...
and Cream
Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...
rose to prominence with dress codes and door policies that were the polar opposite of their rave counterparts; stories of refused entry due to not wearing the right clothing were commonplace, but seemingly did nothing to deter Superclub attendance.
Illegal lockdown gatherings
In August 2020, following a proliferation of illegal gatherings, the British government introduced additional legislation allowing police to issue organisers of illegal gatherings with fines of £10,000.
United States
Origins in disco and psychedelia (1970s)
The American electronic dance music scene is one of the earliest, and rave culture has its roots in the "circuit parties
A circuit party is a large Dance party, dance event. It extends through the night and into the following day, almost always with a number of affiliated events in the days leading up to and following the main event. Proto-circuit parties in the l ...
" and disco clubs of the late 1970s. These were scattered in cities large and small throughout the United States, from Buffalo
Buffalo most commonly refers to:
* True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo
* Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo
* Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...
to Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
to Aspen, Colorado
Aspen is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population ...
. Cities like Chicago, Detroit, Miami, and New York City soon saw the rise of electronic music genres foundational to rave culture, such as house music
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
, techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
, and breakbeat
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...
. American ravers, like their UK and European counterparts, have been compared to the hippies of the 1960s due to their shared interest in non-violence and psychedelia. Rave culture incorporated disco culture's same love of dance music spun by DJs, drug exploration, sexual promiscuity, and hedonism. Although disco culture had thrived in the mainstream, the rave culture would make an effort to stay underground to avoid the animosity that was still surrounding disco and dance music. The key motive for remaining underground in many parts of the US had to do with curfew and the standard 2:00 am closing of clubs. It was a desire to keep the party going past legal hours that created the underground direction. Because of the legality, they had to be secretive about time and place.
Growth in Chicago (1980s)
Within the early 1980s Chicago created "House music
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
" and quickly grew with the city. This music scene has been one of the earliest and most influential scenes in dance music history. Frankie Knuckles
Francis Warren Nicholls Jr. (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014), known professionally as Frankie Knuckles, was an American DJ, record producer, and remixer. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music, a genre of mus ...
also known as "Godfather of House Music" who was a dj-producer that was considered to have invented "Chicago House Music". He would mix a range of disco classics, indie-label soul tunes, European synth-disco that is now considered to be "House Music
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
". Frankie played his house beats at The Warehouse A warehouse is a storage facility.
Warehouse or The Warehouse may also refer to:
Buildings and places Canada
* The Warehouse (Toronto), a defunct nightclub in Toronto, Ontario
* The Warehouse Studio, a recording facility and photography studio i ...
(1977–1982) that was a club for members only, that attracted many black gay men but his music gained a wider crowd which then attracted straighter, whiter crowds. Leading its owner of the club, Robert Williams, to get rid of memberships entirely. Frankie left to create his own club called, "Power Plant" (1983–1985) which gained the attention of an entirely diverse crowd. He created his House music by using his own edits and extending the grooves within the tunes to keep the dance floor filled all-night. Ultimately, this phenomenon spread exponentially throughout Chicago during 1986–1987. Chicago house influenced music which is what created "House Music" in England during 1986 this is what grew into Electronic Dance Music today.
New York Raves and Party Promoters (1980s)
In the late 1980s, rave culture began to filter through into North America from English expatriates and from US DJs who would visit Europe. However, rave culture's major expansion in North America is often credited to Frankie Bones
Frankie "Bones" Mitchell is a prominent figure in the development of dance music in the United States, widely regarded as the “Godfather of American Rave Culture.” Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Bones played a major role in shaping New York ...
, who after spinning a party in an aircraft hangar in England, helped organise some of the earliest American raves in the 1990s in New York City called "Storm Raves". Storm Raves had a consistent core audience, fostered by zines by fellow Storm DJ (and co-founder, with Adam X and Frankie Bones, of the US techno record store, Groove Records). Heather Heart
Heather Lotruglio (born 1971), better known as Heather Heart, is an American (New York) based Techno DJ.
In 1991, her zine called Under One Sky laid the foundation for a network of techno music fans across the US. In 1992, she began DJing, espec ...
held Under One Sky. Simultaneously in NYC, events were introducing electronic dance music to this city's dance scene. Between 1992 and 1994, promotional groups sprung up across the east coast.
Southern California and Latin America (1990s)
In the 1990s, San Diego held large raves with audiences of thousands. These festivals were held on Indian reservations and ski resorts during the summer months and were headlined by DJs such as Doc Martin, Daniel Moontribe, Dimitri of Deee-lite
Deee-Lite was an American House music, house and Dance music, dance music group formed in New York City. The group's Single (music), single "Groove Is in the Heart", which was released in 1990 from their debut studio album, ''World Clique'' (19 ...
, Afrika Islam and the Hardkiss
Hardkiss is the group moniker of San Francisco electronic music pioneers Scott (who died on March 25, 2013), Gavin, and Robbie Hardkiss. The trio formed a record label called Hardkiss Music in San Francisco in 1991. Initially promoting undergr ...
brothers from San Francisco. They helped to create the Right to Dance movement—a non-violent protest held in San Diego and later in Los Angeles.
Featuring local San Diego DJs Jon Bishop, Steve Pagan, Alien Tom, Jeff Skot, Jon-e Thin, Paolo, Merlyn, Gmaxim, Tony Fiore, Damon and Mark E. Quark performed at these events. The events used large props and themes. The fairy and pixie craze, with ravers getting fairy tattoos and wearing fairy wings to parties was associated with the region. The percussive group Crash Worship
Crash Worship or ADRV (''Adoración de rotura violenta'', Spanish for "crash worship") was a San Diego, California based experimental music and performance art ensemble formed in 1986. They were most renowned for live performances partly inspire ...
was active here.
In 1993 out of the Los Angeles underground rave movement came Moontribe the original Southern California Full Moon Gathering and featured Dj's Daniel Moontribe (aka Daniel Chavez aka Dcomplex aka Dcomplexity) and more.
Growth in California
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a boom in rave culture in the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
. At first, small underground parties sprung up all over the SOMA
Soma may refer to:
Businesses and brands
* SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects
* Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems
* SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...
district in vacant warehouses, loft spaces, and clubs. The no alcohol rule fuelled the ecstasy-driven parties. Small underground raves were just starting out and expanding beyond SF to include the East Bay, the South Bay area including San Jose, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz beaches.
In late 1991, raves started to expand across northern California, and cities like Sacramento, Oakland, Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, San Jose). The massive parties were taking place in outdoor fields, aeroplane hangars and hilltops that surround the valley. San Francisco's early promoters and DJs were from the UK and Europe. Raves took place in some of the SOMA art museum event such as, 'Where the wild things are' in the museum on top of the Sony Metreon, and in the Maritime hall (1998–2002).
By the end of 1994, a new generation of ravers were attracted by the new sounds. EDM began to become popular. Raves could be found in many different kinds of venues, as opposed to just basements and warehouses. Promoters started to take notice and put together the massives of the late 1990s with many music forms under one roof for 12-hour events. Until 2003, the raves scene continued to grow slow and stay stable until there was increasingly awareness and publicity about illicit drug usage at raves, particularly ecstasy. Parallel to the rave scene growth, was an increase in anti drug policies, which were directly aimed and indirectly influenced rave organizational management and event. On 30 April 2003, the US Congress passed the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act
The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act of 2003 is a United States federal law enacted as a rider within the PROTECT Act on April 30, 2003. A substantially similar Act was proposed during the previous Congress as the Reducing Americans' Vulne ...
, which has origins from a similarly purposed, but not passed, 2002 bill. That bill is notably named The RAVE Act. Consequentially, by mid 2000s and late 2000s larger raves appeared more sporadically. Nevertheless, and parallel to new city ordinances regarding curfews and drug enforcement, rave event promoter companies like Go ventures and Insomniac
Insomniac or The Insomniac may refer to:
* A person who has insomnia
Music
* Insomniac (Green Day album), ''Insomniac'' (Green Day album), 1995
* Insomniac (Enrique Iglesias album), ''Insomniac'' (Enrique Iglesias album), 2007
* Insomniac (song ...
persisted and continued annual scheduled rave events like Monster Massive
Monster Massive was a Halloween-themed electronic music festival held annually on a weekend near Halloween at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. Many of the attendees dressed in costume. The event was sponsored by Go Venture ...
, Together as One, and Electric Daisy Carnival
Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is the largest e ...
. From this base of routine and consistency scheduled events, the rave scene reemerged with in 2010 with even more attendance and dance locations. The overwhelming attendance, including from lack of underage attendance restrictions, reached a changing point with the 185,000 estimated in attendance 2010 Electric Daisy Carnival
Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is the largest e ...
(EDC). That 2010 event gained widespread attention because of the death and overdose of a 15-year-old girl, Sasha Rodriguez. The death prompted an investigation of EDC's Insomniac's founder Pasquale Rotella. That investigation resulted in him being charged with bribery of public employee Todd DeStefano. At the time, DeStefano was the LA Coliseum event manager, which was the location of 2010's EDC. This in turn lead to a reorganisation of Insomniac rave events. For EDC in particular, while free on bail, Pasquale Rotella moved 2011's EDC from Los Angeles to Las Vegas from then on as well as increased the EDC scheduled locations. Rotella later reached a plea bargain and avoided jail time.
Seattle
Through the mid-1990s and into the 2000s the city of Seattle also shared in the tradition of West Coast rave culture. Though a smaller scene compared to San Francisco, Seattle also had many different rave crews, promoters, DJs, and fans. Candy Raver style, friendship and culture became popular in the West Coast rave scene, both in Seattle and San Francisco. At the peak of West Coast rave, Candy Raver, and massive rave popularity (1996–1999,) it was common to meet groups of ravers, promoters, and DJs who frequently travelled between Seattle and San Francisco, as well as Bellingham, Vancouver, Canada and Portland, Oregon. This spread the overall sense of West Coast rave culture and the phenomenon of West Coast "massives".
Recent years (2000s)
By 2010, raves were becoming the equivalent of large-scale rock music festivals, but many times even bigger and more profitable. The Electric Daisy Carnival
Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is the largest e ...
in Las Vegas drew more than 300,000 fans over three days in the summer of 2012, making it the largest EDM music festival in North America. Ultra Music Festival
Ultra Music Festival (UMF) is an annual outdoor electronic music Music festival, festival that takes place in March in Miami, Florida. The festival was founded in 1999 by Russell Faibisch and Alex Omes.
It was first held on Miami Beach, but bes ...
in Miami drew 150,000 fans over three days in 2012 while other raves like Electric Zoo
Electric Zoo was an annual electronic music festival held over Labor Day weekend in New York City on Randall's Island. The festival represents all genres of electronic music, bringing top international DJs and live acts from multiple countries t ...
in New York, Beyond Wonderland
Beyond Wonderland is an electronic dance festival organized by Insomniac Events. The event has been held in various locations across the west coast including Seattle, San Bernardino, and Mountain View spanning either one or two days. As th ...
in LA, Movement
Movement may refer to:
Generic uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Movement (sign language), a hand movement when signing
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
* Movement (music), a division of a larger co ...
in Detroit, Electric Forest
Electric Forest is a multi-genre music festival produced by Madison House Presents and Insomniac Events, with a focus on electronic music and jam band genres.
Originally named Rothbury Festival in 2008, it is held in Rothbury, Michigan at ...
in Michigan, Spring Awakening Music Festival
Spring Awakening Music Festival (SAMF) was an annual electronic dance music (EDM) festival held in Chicago. The festival started at a theater in 2008, moved to Soldier Field in 2012–2015, and to Addams/Medill Park in 2016–2018. In 2019, ...
in Chicago, and dozens more now attract hundreds of thousands of "ravers" every year. These new EDM-based rave events (now simply referred generically to as "music festivals
A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...
") sell out. Festival attendance at the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) increased by 39.1%, or 90,000 attendees from 2011 to 2012. In 2013, EDC had attendance of approximately 345,000 people, a record for the festival. The average ticket for EDC cost over $300 and the event contributed $278 million to the Clark County economy in 2013. This festival takes place at a 1,000-acre complex featuring a half dozen custom built stages, enormous interactive art installations, and hundreds of EDM artists. Insomniac
Insomniac or The Insomniac may refer to:
* A person who has insomnia
Music
* Insomniac (Green Day album), ''Insomniac'' (Green Day album), 1995
* Insomniac (Enrique Iglesias album), ''Insomniac'' (Enrique Iglesias album), 2007
* Insomniac (song ...
, a US EDM event promoter, holds yearly EDC and other EDM events.
Australia
1980s and 1990s: outdoor raves and the Sydney scene
Rave parties began in Australia as early as the 1980s and continued well into the late 1990s. They were mobilised versions of the 'warehouse parties', across Britain. Similar to the United States and Britain, raves in Australia were unlicensed and held in spaces normally used for industrial and manufacturing purposes, such as warehouses
A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, to ...
, factories and carpet showrooms. In addition, suburban locations were also used: basketball gymnasiums, train stations and even circus tents were all common venues. In Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, common areas used for outdoor events included Sydney Park
Sydney Park is a recreational area in the inner-city area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The parkland is located in the suburb of Alexandria, sitting along the borders with Newtown and Erskineville.
Sydney Park is the third largest ...
, a reclaimed garbage dump in the inner south west of the city, Cataract Park and various other natural, unused locations and bush lands. The raves placed a heavy emphasis on the connection between humans and the natural environment, thus many raves in Sydney were held outdoors, notably the 'Happy Valley' parties (1991–1994), 'Ecology' (1992) and 'Field of Dreams 4' (6 July 1996). The mid-late 1990s saw a slight decline in rave attendance, attributed to the death of Anna Wood at a licensed inner-city Sydney venue, which was hosting a rave party known as "Apache". Wood had taken ecstasy
Ecstasy most often refers to:
* Ecstasy (emotion), a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness
* Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness, visions or absolute euphoria
* Ecstasy (philosophy), to be or stand o ...
and died in hospital a few days later, leading to extensive media exposure on the correlation of drug culture and its links to the rave scene in Australia.
2000s–present
The tradition continued in Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, with 'Earthcore' parties. Raves also became less underground as they were in the 1990s, and many were held at licensed venues well into the 2000s. Despite this, rave parties of 1990s size became less common. Nonetheless, the rave scene in Australia experienced a resurgence during the 2010s. During this period the resurfacing of the "Melbourne Shuffle", a Melbourne club/rave dance style, became a YouTube trend and videos were uploaded. The rave subculture in Melbourne was strengthened with the opening of clubs such as Bass Station and Hard Candy and the rise of free party
A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the Free festival, free festival movement. It typically involves a Sound system (DJ)#Free party, sound system playing electronic dance music from late at ...
groups such as Melbourne Underground. In Melbourne, warehouse squat party and outdoor raves were frequently held throughout the 2010s, with attendance occasionally entering the thousands.
Notable events
The following is an incomplete list of notable raves.
1980s
* Storm Raves (1991)
* Rat Parties
RAT Parties were a series of large dance parties held in Sydney, Australia during the 1980s and early 1990s. The Powerhouse Museum said that they "formed a key element of an emerging subculture" that was fashion-aware, gay-friendly, appreciate ...
(1983– 1992)
* Full Moon Party
The Full Moon Party (Thai: ฟูลมูนปาร์ตี้) is an all-night beach party that originated in Haad Rin on the island of Ko Pha-ngan, Thailand in 1985. The party takes place on the night of, before, or after every full mo ...
(1985–present)
* Winter Music Conference
The Winter Music Conference (WMC) is a week-long electronic music conference, held every March in Miami Beach, Florida, United States since 1985. It is also known as the premiere platform for electronic dance music. The conference brings togethe ...
(1985–present)
* Genesis '88 (1988–92)
*Raindance (rave)
Raindance are British rave event organisers. They were one of the best known rave names on the rave scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The start
The first event was held at a circus tent on 16 September 1989 at Jenkins Lane, Beckton in ea ...
(1989–present)
* Sunrise/Back to the Future (1989–1995)
* Real Bad (1989–present)
* Helter Skelter (1989–2004)
*Love Parade
The Love Parade () was an electronic dance music festival and technoparade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin, Germany. It was held annually in Berlin from 1989 to 2003 and in 2006, then from 2007 to 2010 in the Ruhr region. Events scheduled ...
(1989–2010)
1990s
*Mayday (music festival)
Mayday was an electronic music festival in Germany, where it began in 1991, and in Katowice in southern Poland where it debuted in 2000. Despite the name, Mayday festivals date oscillates between April and December (these being called Winter May ...
(1991–present)
*Fantazia (dance)
Fantazia was a rave music promoter and organiser based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1991 by James Perkins, Gideon Dawson & Chris Griffin, and held a number of seminal raves at the height of the breakbeat hardcore scene in the early 19 ...
(1991–97)
*Earthcore
Earthcore was an Australian outdoor dance music festival and electronic music event. The outdoor events were generally held in forest environments around Victoria, Australia, with some events held in Queensland and overseas in New Caledonia. ...
(1992–present)
*Castlemorton Common Festival
The Castlemorton Common Festival was a week-long free festival and rave held in the Malvern Hills near Malvern, Worcestershire, England, between 22 and 29 May 1992. The media interest and controversy surrounding the festival, and concerns as to ...
(one-time event, 1992)
*Energy (event)
Energy was a techno-music event (see rave) taking place after the Street Parade in Zürich, Switzerland. It is considered the largest indoor event of its nature in the country. In 2010, around 14,000 people attended.
History
Hosted by Music jou ...
(1992–2013)
*Thunderdome (music festival)
Thunderdome is a concept in hardcore techno and gabber music that was mainly used for a series of parties and CD albums. It was organized by the Netherlands, Dutch entertainment company ID&T. The first party was organized in 1992 and the party hel ...
(1992–present)
* KaZantip (1992–present)
*Street Parade
The Street Parade is a techno music festival in Zurich, Switzerland. With around one million attendees, it is the world's most attended technoparade. The Street Parade takes place annually on the second Saturday in August. Officially a demonstr ...
(1992–present)
*Tribal Gathering
Tribal Gathering is the original British electronic dance music festival that between 1993 and 2004 catered for different types of dance music cultures such as techno, house and drum & bass. After 18 years, Tribal Gathering returns in 2023 for ...
(1993–2006)
* CzechTek (1994–2006)
* Bal en Blanc (1995–present)
*Rainbow Serpent Festival
Rainbow Spirit Festival, previously known as Rainbow Serpent Festival, is a four-day annual open-air music and arts festival that takes place during the Australia Day (26 January) long weekend, in Lexton, Victoria, west of Melbourne, Austral ...
(1997–present)
*Scattered (rave) (1998–present)
*Mysteryland
Mysteryland is the leading electronic dance music festival in the Netherlands, organized by the Netherlands-based promoter ID&T. Being the first of its kind in the country when it was established, its organizers have billed the event as the old ...
(1993–present)
*Dance Valley
Dance Valley ("The Woodstock of Dance") is an annual dance music festival organised by United Dance Company (UDC) in the summer in Spaarnwoude, Netherlands. The first edition was in 1995 when 8,000 people attended (and in 2001 90,000 visitors). ...
(1995–present)
*Amsterdam Dance Event
The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is a five-day electronic music conference and festival held annually in mid-October. The event, organised by The Amsterdam Dance Event Foundation, offers a full programme of daytime conferences at ADE Pro, ADE Tech ...
(1996–present)
2000s
*O.Z.O.R.A.
The Ozora Festival, stylised as O.Z.O.R.A., is an annual transformational festival and arts festival near the Hungary, Hungarian village of Ozora.
History and growth
The festival has been held on an estate in Ozora near the small village of Dá ...
(2004–present, originally started in 1999 under the name Solipse)
* Cxema (2014–present)
*Tomorrowland Tomorrowland may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Tomorrowland (Disney Parks), a theme land at a number of Disney theme parks around the world
* Tomorrowland (festival), an annual electronic dance music festival in Boom, Belgium
* ''Tom ...
(2005–present)
Artists
* Acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
and Acid techno
Acid techno, sometimes known generally as "acid", is a genre of techno that was derived from acid house and developed in Europe in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It saw younger artists apply the "squelching" synthesizer sound of Chicago acid hou ...
– 808 State
808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. Taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" the members shared, they released ...
, Guru Josh
Paul Dudley Walden (6 June 1964 – 28 December 2015), better known as Guru Josh, was a Jersey musician, active in the British post-acid house scene, best known for his debut single, "Infinity (Guru Josh song), Infinity".
Biography Musical ...
, Brian Dougans
Brian Robert Dougans (born 1965) is a Scottish musician and composer who is a member of the British electronic duo the Future Sound of London (FSOL).
Dougans is the more technical member of FSOL, doing most of the programming, circuit bending ...
, the KLF
The KLF (also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, the JAMs, the Timelords and other names) are a British electronic band who originated in Liverpool and London in the late 1980s. Scottish people, Scottish musician Bill Drummond (alias Ki ...
, Josh Wink
Joshua Winkelman (born April 20, 1970), better known by his stage name Josh Wink, is an American electronic dance music DJ, label owner, producer, and remixer. He is a native of Philadelphia, United States. A pioneering DJ in the American rave ...
, Michele Sainte, Phuture
Phuture is an American house music group from Chicago, founded in 1985 by Earl "Spanky" Smith Jr., Nathaniel Pierre Jones aka DJ Pierre, and Herbert "Herb J" Jackson. The group is renowned for inventing and defining the sound of acid house, a ...
, Luke Vibert
Luke Vibert (born 26 January 1973) is a British electronic musician and producer, also known for his work under several aliases such as Plug and Wagon Christ. Raised in Cornwall, Vibert began releasing projects in the 1990s across varied genre ...
, Acidwolf, Lone
Lone may refer to:
People
*Destroy Lonely, a nickname for the artist
* Lone (given name), a given name (including a list of people with this name)
* Lone (musician), Matt Cutler, an electronic musician from Nottingham, United Kingdom
* Lone (surn ...
* Breakbeat
Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...
– Chase & Status
Chase & Status are an English electronic music duo composed of Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status). In addition, Andy Gangadeen is the drummer when the band performs live. MC Rage formerly performed as MC with the group, but left in ...
* Breakbeat hardcore
Breakbeat hardcore (also referred to as hardcore rave, oldskool hardcore or simply hardcore) is a music genre that spawned from the UK rave scene during the early 1990s. It combines four-on-the-floor rhythms with breakbeats usually sampled from ...
a.k.a. "Oldskool Rave" – Acen
Acen Razvi is an English breakbeat hardcore/techno music producer. Acen was known for tracks such as "Close Your Eyes", "Window in the Sky" and "Trip II the Moon" (the latter two both 1992). He worked for the Production House Records stable, w ...
, Altern-8
Altern 8 is a British electronic music act, comprising Mark Archer and Chris Peat, until Peat left the group in 1994. Best known in the early 1990s, their trademark was electronic rave music with a heavy bass line. Notable Altern 8 tracks inc ...
, the Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1992. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.
Originally known as The Dust Brothers, th ...
, Little Big
Little Big is a Russian rave band founded in Saint Petersburg in 2013 and currently based in Los Angeles, California, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. , the Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboardist, and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured
Rapping, MC and vocalist Maxim (musician), Maxim, dancer and occasi ...
, Shades of Rhythm
Shades of Rhythm are an English electronic dance music group most active from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, still performing live today and hailing from Peterborough in 1988. They are best known for being a part of the early '90s rave scene.
...
, Shut Up and Dance
* Brostep
Brostep is a harder form of dubstep that emerged during the late 2000s and early 2010s and pioneered by artists like Skrillex and Rusko (musician), Rusko.
In 2011, dubstep gained significant traction in the US market, by way of a post-dubst ...
/ Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...
– Rusko
Rusko () is a municipality of Finland.
It is located in Western Finland and is part of the Southwest Finland region. The municipality has a population of
() and covers an area of of
which
is water. The population density
Population densi ...
, Skrillex
Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ, record producer, musician, singer. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the ...
, Flux Pavilion
Joshua Kiekegaard Grant Steele (born 15 January 1989), known professionally as Flux Pavilion, is an English EDM producer, DJ, singer-songwriter and label owner. He started performing in 2008.
Flux Pavilion has headlined three US tours, two UK ...
, Datsik, Chase & Status
Chase & Status are an English electronic music duo composed of Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status). In addition, Andy Gangadeen is the drummer when the band performs live. MC Rage formerly performed as MC with the group, but left in ...
, Doctor P
Doctor P is the stage name of the English dubstep producer and DJ, Shaun Brockhurst (born 9 April 1986). Brockhurst has also produced drum and bass under the aliases Sounds Destructive (with Zachary Kemp, currently known as Trolley Snatcha), ...
, Borgore
Yosef Asaf Borger (; born 20 October 1987), known professionally as Borgore, is an Israeli EDM producer, DJ, singer-songwriter and rapper. He is the founder of the label Buygore Records.
Biography
Yosef Asaf Borger was born to a Jewish fam ...
, TC, Modestep, Feed Me, Kill the Noise
Jacob Stanczak, known professionally as Kill the Noise, is an American DJ and record producer from Rochester, New York. His collaboration with Skrillex, Fatman Scoop and Michael Angelakos, "Recess (song), Recess", entered the UK Singles Chart at ...
, Excision
* Drum and bass
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
/ Jungle
jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century.
Etymology
The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...
– Drumsound & Bassline Smith
Drumsound & Bassline Smith are a British electronic music production group, consisting of Andy Wright and Ben Wiggett (the duo known as Drumsound) along with Simon 'Bassline' Smith. They met at one of Derby's club nights in the summer of 1998. ...
, 4Hero
4hero (sometimes referred to as 4 Hero or 4-Hero) are an electronic music group from Dollis Hill, London, comprising producers Mark "Marc Mac" Clair & Denis "Dego" McFarlane. 4hero are known for being pioneers of breakbeat hardcore, jungle/drum ...
, Logistics
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...
, Andy C
Andrew Michael Clarke (born 7 April 1976) is an English DJ, record producer and co-founder of RAM Records, a label in the drum and bass genre.
Music career
Early years
Andy C was a DJ in his own right but gained a strong reputation and more ...
, Spor, Goldie
Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is an English music producer, DJ, and actor.
Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musi ...
, DJ Ron
Ron Samuels, better known as DJ Ron, is a British jungle and drum and bass DJ, record producer, and film maker.
Biography Early life
Ron was born in 1967, in London. In the early 1980s, he began his career in music culture starting with hi ...
, Dieselboy
Damian Higgins (born 1972) better known by his stage name Dieselboy, is an American drum and bass DJ and music producer.
Early life
Dieselboy was born Damian Higgins in Tarpon Springs, Florida in 1972. At the age of six he moved to Colorado ...
, DJ Fresh
Daniel Edward Stein (born 11 April 1977), known professionally as DJ Fresh, is an English DJ and record producer. He is one of the principal members of the drum and bass group Bad Company, alongside Darren White ( dBridge), Jason Maldini and M ...
, Pendulum
A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...
, Freq Nasty, Freaky Flow, Shy FX
Andre Williams, better known as Shy FX, is a British DJ and producer from London. He specialises in drum and bass and jungle music.
Biography
Shy FX's debut record was "Jungle Love", released in 1992 on the Permission to Dance label. Soon after ...
, Rebel MC
Michael Alec Anthony West (born 27 August 1964 in Islington, London, England), better known as Rebel MC and Congo Natty, is a British jungle producer, spiritual chanter and toaster. He has also gone by aliases including Conquering Lion, Blackst ...
, Ragga Twins
The Ragga Twins, also known as RTC, are an English ragga and jungle MC duo of Deman Rocker (David Destouche) and Flinty Badman (Trevor Destouche). Originating from Hackney, England, they started out on London's Unity sound system, and are reg ...
* Drumstep
Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-bass lines, samples, and synthesizers. The genre ...
– Excision, Dirtyphonics
Dirtyphonics is a French electronic music band from Paris, consisting of members Charly Barranger and Julien "PitchIn" Corrales. Known for blending Drum and bass, Dubstep, and other bass music genres with heavy metal and cinematic influences, t ...
, Figure
Figure may refer to:
General
*A shape, drawing, depiction, or geometric configuration
*Figure (wood), wood appearance
*Figure (music), distinguished from musical motif
* Noise figure, in telecommunication
* Dance figure, an elementary dance patt ...
, Knife Party
Knife Party are an Australian electronic music duo consisting of Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen, two members of the drum and bass band Pendulum.
The duo has worked with artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Steve Aoki, MistaJam, Foreign ...
, Kill The Noise
Jacob Stanczak, known professionally as Kill the Noise, is an American DJ and record producer from Rochester, New York. His collaboration with Skrillex, Fatman Scoop and Michael Angelakos, "Recess (song), Recess", entered the UK Singles Chart at ...
, Au5
* Future rave – David Guetta
Pierre David Guetta (; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and record producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 30 billion streams on Spotify. Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag ...
, Morten
Morten is a common male given name in Denmark and Norway. Approximately 22,138 have this name as a given name in Norway and about 52 people have it as a surname. The origin of the surname is less clear. Notable people with the name include:
People ...
, Shapov
* Goa trance
Goa trance is an electronic dance music style that originated in the early 1990s in the Indian state of Goa. Goa trance often has drone-like basslines, similar to the techno minimalism of 21st century psychedelic trance (psytrance). Psychede ...
/ Psychedelic trance
Psychedelic trance, psytrance, or psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...
– Ajja, Burn in Noise, Alien Project, Astral Projection
In Western esotericism, esotericism, astral projection (also known as astral travel, soul journey, soul wandering, spiritual journey, spiritual travel) is an intentional out-of-body experience (OBE) in which a subtle body, known as the astra ...
, Electric Universe
Electric Universe is a psychedelic trance project from Germany formed by Boris Blenn and Michael Dressler in 1991. Their first EP release, ''Solar Energy'', was an instant hit with the underground trance scene and is often credited with putting th ...
, Hallucinogen
Hallucinogens, also known as psychedelics, entheogens, or historically as psychotomimetics, are a large and diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mo ...
, Infected Mushroom
Infected Mushroom () is an Israeli musical duo formed in Haifa in 1996 by producers Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani. They produce and perform psytrance, electronica, dream trance and psychedelic music. They are one of the best-selling groups in ...
* Belgian hardcore techno
Belgian hardcore techno (also referred to as Belgian techno or rave techno) is an early style of hardcore techno that emerged from new beat as EBM and techno influences became more prevalent in this genre. This particular style has been describ ...
a.k.a. "Rave Techno" – Channel X, Digital Orgasm, L.A. Style
L.A. Style was a Dutch electronic dance music group, consisting of founder, producer and radio DJ Wessel van Diepen (who later also created Nakatomi and the successful Vengaboys), composer Denzil Slemming (a.k.a. Michiel Van Der Kuy of Laser ...
, Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
, Praga Khan
Maurice Joseph François Engelen (born 7 January 1959), known by his stage name Praga Khan, is a Belgian electronic musician. Khan is considered one of the leading pioneers of the new beat/acid house/techno electronic dance music scene that origi ...
, Quadrophonia
Quadrophonia were a Dutch/Belgian electronic music collective, formed by Olivier Abbeloos (also known as part of T99) and Lucien Foort in the late 1980s, with several of their tracks performed by Marvin D (Marvin Tholen).
They had two top 40 ...
, T99, U96.
* Modern Hardcore techno
Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...
styles – Happy hardcore
Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s ...
, Acidcore, Hardcore house, Gabber
Gabber ( ; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as hardcore, and is characterised by fast beats ...
, Frenchcore – Punish Yourself, Angerfist
Danny Masseling (born 20 June 1981), better known by his stage name Angerfist, is a Dutch hardcore producer and DJ.
Aside from his main alias, he also produces for other genres and subgenres under various aliases and is part of the following ...
, Dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...
, Outblast, Scooter, Anthony Acid, Darren Styles
Darren James Mew (born 23 May 1975), better known as Darren Styles, is an English music producer, DJ, singer and songwriter from Clacton-On-Sea, Essex. Originally a member of the breakbeat hardcore group DJ Force & the Evolution, Styles found s ...
, Pastis & Buenri
* Hardstyle
Hardstyle is an electronic dance music, electronic dance genre that emerged in the late 1990s, with origins in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Hardstyle mixes influences from techno, new beat and Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), har ...
and Dubstyle – Technoboy
Cristiano Giusberti (born December 19, 1970), known by his primary stage name Technoboy, is an Italian hardstyle DJ and producer from Bologna.
Cristiano is also a manager and producer for 'The Saifam Group', a record company. He began in 1992 ...
, Showtek
Showtek is a Dutch electronic dance music duo consisting of two brothers from Eindhoven, Wouter Janssen (; born 20 August 1982). and Sjoerd Janssen (; born 6 April 1984). The duo regularly manages to reach the top of multiple music charts and wor ...
, Headhunterz
Willem Rebergen (born 12 September 1985), better known by his stage name ''Headhunterz'', is a Dutch Disc jockey, DJ and Record producer, music producer. Rebergen is also a Voice acting, voice actor. He has done Dubbing (filmmaking), dubbing for ...
, Wildstylez
Joram Metekohy (born 7 January 1983), better known by his stage name Wildstylez, is a Dutch hardstyle DJ and record producer. Having previously released hardstyle records under the alias 'Seizure', Joram Metekohy had his first solo release as Wil ...
, Brennan Heart
Fabian Bohn (born 2 March 1982), known professionally as Brennan Heart, is a Dutch DJ and hardstyle producer.
Career Brennan & Heart
In 2002, Fabian Bohn co-founded with Pieter Heijnen (known as DJ Thera) a duo named Brennan & Heart concentrati ...
, DJ Lady Dana, Blutonium Boy
Dirk Adamiak (born 1970), better known by his stage name Blutonium Boy, is a hardstyle producer and DJ from Germany. He started playing as a DJ in 1988.
Career
In 1986, Blutonium Boy began his DJ career in a small club in southern Germany. In ...
* Liquid funk
Liquid funk, liquid drum & bass, liquid DnB, melodic drum & bass, or sometimes just liquid is a subgenre of drum and bass. While it uses similar basslines and bar layouts to other styles, it contains fewer bar-oriented samples and more instrume ...
– Netsky, High Contrast
Lincoln Barrett (born 18 September 1979), better known by the stage name High Contrast, is a Welsh electronic music producer, DJ and record producer. He produces drum and bass music, and his 2009 album '' Confidential'' reached BPI gold cert ...
, Fred V & Grafix
Fred V & Grafix were an English drum and bass duo made up of Frederick "Fred V" Vahrman (born 12 January 1990) and Joshua "Grafix" Jackson (born 14 June 1991). The duo was signed to Hospital Records and hailed from Devon, England. They have gu ...
, Fox Stevenson
Stanley Stevenson-Byrne (born 25 January 1993), better known by his stage name Fox Stevenson (formerly Stan SB / Stan SSB), is an English singer-songwriter, DJ and producer of bass music, mostly drum and bass and glitch hop. He has released el ...
, Brookes Brothers
Phil and Dan Brookes, otherwise known as the Brookes Brothers, are two London-based drum and bass producers.
History
In 2006 they surfaced with "Portal" / "Desert Island" on Danny Wheeler's W10 imprint. This was followed by "Verano", a collabo ...
, Rudimental
Rudimental are a British drum and bass band, signed to Asylum Records, Atlantic Records and Black Butter Records. The band consists of Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon "Locksmith" Rolle.
They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2013, and ...
* Moombahton
Moombahton (, ) is an electronic dance music genre, derived from house music and reggaeton, that was created by American DJ and producer Dave Nada in Washington, D.C., in 2009. Nada coined the name as a portmanteau of "Moombah" (a track by Sur ...
– Knife Party
Knife Party are an Australian electronic music duo consisting of Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen, two members of the drum and bass band Pendulum.
The duo has worked with artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Steve Aoki, MistaJam, Foreign ...
, Dillon Francis
Dillon Hart Francis (born October 5, 1987), also known as DJ Hanzel, is an American electronic music producer and DJ. He played a key role in popularizing moombahton and later developed its heavier variants, moombahcore and EDM trap.
Earl ...
, Munchi, Diplo
Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is a co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer; a member of the supergroup LSD (group), ...
, Bro Safari
Nicholas Weiller, better known by his stage name Bro Safari, also known as Knick, is an American moombahton, trap, and dubstep producer.
Biography
Weiller was born in Rome, Italy, into a family with three brothers and one sister. The entire f ...
,
* New rave
New rave (also typeset as nu-rave, nu rave or neu rave) is a genre of music described by ''The Guardian'' as "an in-yer-face, DIY disco riposte to the sensitive indie rock touted by bands like Bloc Party." It is most commonly applied to a Brit ...
– Klaxons
Klaxons were an English Rock music, rock band, based in London. Following the release of several Gramophone record, 7-inch singles on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles "Magick (Klaxons song), Magick ...
, Hadouken!, Shitdisco
Shitdisco were a dance-punk band from Glasgow, Scotland. They formed in 2003 while studying at the Glasgow School of Art, consisting of
Joel Stone (bass, guitar, vocals), Joe Reeves (bass, guitar, vocals), Jan Lee (keyboards, backing vocals) ...
, Trash Fashion
Trash Fashion are a four-piece band made up of brothers Tom Marsh and Ben Marsh (lead vocals and lead guitar, respectively) joined by Matt Emerson (as drummer) and Jim Ready (as bassist). Their current UK record label is Propaganda Records a ...
, New Young Pony Club
NYPC (also known as New Young Pony Club) are an English electronic music band from London. The band was formed by Andy Spence and Tahita Bulmer in 2004. Their influences are predominantly post-punk and new wave artists.
Career Forming and si ...
* Speed garage
Speed garage (occasionally known as plus-8) is a genre of electronic dance music, associated with the UK garage scene, of which it is regarded as one of its subgenres.
Characteristics
Speed garage features sped-up NY garage 4-to-the-floor rhyth ...
and Bassline
Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched P ...
– Platnum
Platnum are a British bassline vocal group from Manchester, England. The original line-up consisted of male vocalist Aaron Evers and female vocalists Mina Poli and Michelle McKenna. The trio are best known for providing the vocals on H "Two" O' ...
, DJXP, T2
Notable soundsystems
The following is an incomplete list of notable sound systems Sound system may refer to:
Technology media
* Sound reinforcement system, a system for amplifying audio for an audience
* High fidelity, a sound system intended for accurate reproduction of music in the home
* Public address system, an institution ...
:
*Defunkt
Defunkt is an American musical group founded by the trombonist and singer Joseph Bowie in 1978 in New York City. Their music touches on elements of punk rock, funk, and jazz.
Career
Joseph Bowie is the brother of big band musician Byron Bowie ...
*DiY Sound System
DiY Sound System, also known as the DiY Collective, was a British house music sound system, co-founded by Harry Harrison, Rick "Digs" Down, Simon "DK" Smith and Pete "Woosh" Birch, in 1989. The group "divided their activities between free parties ...
*Insomniac Events
Insomniac (formerly Insomniac Events) is an American electronic music event promoter and music distributor. Founded by Pasquale Rotella, it is the organizer of various music festivals, including its flagship electronic music festival Electric ...
*Spiral Tribe
Spiral Tribe is an arts collective and free party Sound system (DJ), sound system formed in 1990. It organised free party, free parties, festivals and raves in the UK and later Europe in the 1990s. Spiral Tribe was involved in the Castlemorton ...
See also
* ArtRave: The Artpop Ball
* New Rave
New rave (also typeset as nu-rave, nu rave or neu rave) is a genre of music described by ''The Guardian'' as "an in-yer-face, DIY disco riposte to the sensitive indie rock touted by bands like Bloc Party." It is most commonly applied to a Brit ...
* Outline of entertainment
The following outline provides an overview of and topical guide to entertainment and the entertainment industry:
Entertainment is any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time, and may also p ...
* RAVE Act – An American law targeting raves.
* ''Rave'' Board Game – 1991 board game based on the UK Rave scene
*
* Zippies
* Cxema, organiser of raves in Ukraine
References
Further reading
* Collin, Matthew. ''Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy and Acid House''. London: 1997 : Serpent's Tail – How rave dances began in Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, England in the Summer of 1988 (the Second Summer of Love
The Second Summer of Love was a late-1980s social phenomenon in the United Kingdom which saw the rise of acid house music and unlicensed rave parties. Although primarily referring to the summer of 1988, it lasted into the summer of 1989, when e ...
) and the aftermath. .
* Griffin, Tom. ''Playgrounds: a portrait of rave culture''. 2005. . Official Websit
WALLAWALLA
* Evans, Helen.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: An Analysis of Rave Culture
. Wimbledon School of Art, London. 1992. Includes bibliography through 1994.
Tips for Parents: The Truth About Club Drugs
FBI.
* Kotarba, Joseph. 1993
The Rave Scene in Houston, Texas: An Ethnographic Analysis
. Austin: Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
* Ott, Brian L. and Herman, Bill D
Excerpt from ''Mixed Messages: Resistance and Reappropriation in Rave Culture''
. 2003.
* Simon Reynolds, Reynolds, Simon. ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the world of Techno and Rave culture''. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. .
* St John, Graham (ed.) 2004
''Rave Culture and Religion''
. New York: Routledge. .
* St John, Graham 2009
. London: Equinox. .
* Thomas, Majeedah (2013)
''Together: Friday Nights at the Roxy''
. .
Music further reading
* Bennett Andy, Peterson Richard A.:''Music Scenes: Local, Translocal and Virtual''. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004
* Lang, Morgan: ''Futuresound: Techno Music and Mediation''. University of Washington, Seattle, 1996.
* Matos, Michaelangelo: ''The Underground Is Massive''. New York: HarperCollins Publishing, 2015.
* Reynolds, Simon: ''Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture''. New York: Routledge, 1999.
External links
{{Authority control
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1980s fads and trends
1990s fads and trends
2000s fads and trends
Counterculture of the 1980s
Articles containing video clips
Dance music
DJing
Drug culture
Electronic dance music
Generation X
Musical subcultures
Music and fashion