Raves as Implicit Religion?

(very brief) History - pre-1980’s

•  Origin of the term “rave” found within London Caribbean community, to mean “party.”

•  Alternate term: “rave-up” - 1965, The Yardbirds release an album titled “Having a Rave-Up”

•  1960’s - “to rave” - to speak enthusiastically about something

•  1967 - Million Volt Light and Sound Rave - featuring Lennon and McCartney experimental electronica piece “Carnival of Light”

(very brief) History- 1980’s

•  Early 1980’s –  Warehouse parties –  Chicago’s “The

Warehouse” - DJ Frankie Knuckles

–  “House” music (disco, synthpop, new wave, industrial, and punk mixes)

–  Social cross-section appeal - gay community, black, white, hispanic, straight, etc.

–  Sampling, remixing, DJ as artist

•  Late 1980’s –  Acid House Summers - the

“mainstreaming” of free parties? –  1988/89 - Summer of Love –  Beginning of opposition by

government authorities –  Dominant link between “house”

music and drugs “ecstasy” and “acid”

(very brief) History –

1990’s – 2000’s

•  The Love Parade - 1989-2010 •  2008 - attracted over 1.6 million people •  2010- 510 people injured, 21 dead in “crush” – end of the Love Parade. •  Political movement (peace) mixed with electronic dance music •  Parade floats must be sponsored by “techno” concerns •  Bastion of electronic dance music, fueling rebirth of rave phenomenon

worldwide? •  Festivals, teknivals, dance parties, free parties, underground parties… the

return of the rave? •  Mid-1990’s often cited as the “end” of the rave era •  Today - New terminology adopted - same scene?

Philosophy •  PLUR (peace, love,

unity, respect) •  Acceptance •  Openness •  Positivity •  Community (tribe) -

website forums •  D.I.Y. - anti-

establishment origins, still true?

Mythic dimension of Raves •  Golden age of the future

- electronica music, techno beat, UFO symbols, laser lights - images of a idealized, technological future

•  Symbolic of ambiguities confronting society today re: technology?

Mythic dimension of Raves

•  Candy ravers •  Golden age childhood -

innocence, playfulness, trust

•  Symbolic of stresses of growing up in our “dangerous” world?

Mythic dimension of Raves •  Idealized “warrior

model” - military symbols (camoflage pants, abandoned military bases, etc.)

•  Symbolic of resistance to cultural norms?

Religious dimensions of Raves

•  Raves as religious ritual

•  Turner’s model of initiation rituals - separation, marginalization, return

•  Turner’s model - based on tribal initiations, this model has been widely applied to other religious rituals (incl. pilgrimage)

•  Reintegration with “normal” community integral to model - do Raves faciliate this?

Religious dimensions of Raves

•  Separation - distancing from mainstream mode via gathering information (where will it be?), getting tickets, supplies, etc.

•  Marginalization - “entering the soundscape” - you are not in Kansas anymore, Toto! - lights, music, location, combine to create liminal place/state

•  Return - “coming down” - need for come-down rituals, (after parties, coffee houses, friend’s house - gradual return to normal mode

Raves as festival? •  Religious festivals

usually associated with some mythic story, date or place

•  But - elements of religious festivals are ends in themselves (justification for it not relevant to the experience of it)

•  Raves as end in themselves - no mythic dimension, sacred place, etc…. Reason for happening is simply to happen?

Raves as transgressive? •  Foundational experience at religious

festival - transcending “normal” everyday experience to evoke, through dance, music, pageantry, etc. a collective euphoria - “collective effervescence” to use Durkheim’s term

•  Religious festivals break down individualist, everyday experiences by mocking, inverting, undermining, etc. cultural/religious norms.

•  Religious festivals reassert cultural norms by highlighting the illusory nature of their opposite.

•  Raves creating “collective effervescence” - a unity of community that transcends everyday social status and roles?

•  Raves inverting cultural norms, reestablishing them afterwards?

Commitment •  Defining the self in relation to the

implicitly religious focus - understanding oneself as a Raver

•  Understanding oneself in relation to community - other ravers, global techno culture

•  Understanding oneself in relation to the philosophy of raves - PLUR

•  Raves as dependent on commitment of DJs, organizers, ravers… as underground events, require commitment to “come off”

Integrating Foci •  Integrating foci are places, moments, objects,

events, concerns, etc. that transcend difference and lead to an amalgamation of, uniting of, overcoming of difference, so that a new mode of being emerges.

•  The idea of a Rave as an integrating foci: –  fostering unity, community through

individual self-expression –  fostering a way of being that is more

authentic, tribal, primitive, etc. through the use of technology, technological symbolism

–  Sharing in a global phenomenon - participating in global community - accepting of difference of other nations, cultures, styles, etc. through unique, transitory experience.

•  Is community, unity, overcoming of difference really manifest? The language of Tourists, Hippies, Ravers reveals status and hierarchy still exists. But, this is true in religious contexts also (ie pilgrimage)

Integrating Foci •  The location of a Rave as

an integrating foci: –  Changing locations as

symbolic of Rave ethic - non mainstream, not mundane, not ordinary

–  Peripheral locations - farmland, abandoned warehouses, etc. - the “re-enchantment” of forgotten places

–  Dance floor as integrating foci - old self left behind, music, motion, dance, community, etc. become new reality

Integrating Foci

•  Other integrating foci –  Timeframe - from 10pm to unknown

end - dawn, mid-morning, tomorrow… timelessness overcoming rigid temporal structure of daily life

–  “pontiffs” - figures of authority - organizers, DJs integrated into oneness of community

–  Gift transactions - giving (money, bracelets, candy, water, drugs) as a symbolic statement of affirmation of community and participation in it

–  Music - electronica the primary vector which allows the community to exist outside the context of the rave itself

–  Dance - integrating mind, body, spirit through motion, rhythm, integrating individual with all other dancers into community

–  Drugs - ecstasy - transgressive element that integrates self with community, ethos of raves

Intensive Concerns, extensive effects

•  Social expression of “commitment” - ideology and symbols that shape an organic community, impacting how one views the wider community and world

•  Raves as having “extensive effects” - do Ravers try to change the world?

•  Do raves shape how they see the world (central symbols and places?)

•  Do raves change the way ravers view themselves in relation to the world?

Are Raves just “like” religion, or are they religion?

•  Francois Gauthier argues that they are not just “like” religion - instead he defines Raves as:

•  “a fragmented, non-institutionalized religiosity… in which truth and meaning come from and are judged on a scale of experience… with their logic of sacrificial consumption, excess and communion, raves brew mythologies of an elsewhere which illustrate their striving towards the experiencing of otherness in a society that markets sameness…”