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Explaining Rave Culture To Americans article (pg. 2)
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| Sykonee |
| quote: | Originally posted by DOOMBOT
You don't think people in NA knew what a rave was all about in the late 90s? |
Of course they did. We had Groove, after all.:p |
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| SYSTEM-J |
The first article is funny, the second article is terrible. If you're going to get offended and look like a humourless bastard by taking a joke piece seriously, at least hit the obvious targets. Sax is never cool in dance music? Man With The Red Face, anyone?
But yeah, there is still a lingering sense that Americans just don't get dance music, and never will. |
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| DOOMBOT |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
The first article is funny, the second article is terrible. If you're going to get offended and look like a humourless bastard by taking a joke piece seriously, at least hit the obvious targets. Sax is never cool in dance music? Man With The Red Face, anyone?
But yeah, there is still a lingering sense that Americans just don't get dance music, and never will. |
I'm curious how that stereotype came about. I understand that a lot of people are caught up into mainstream music, even mainstream electronic, but the "underground" scene is pretty darn good here as well and has been for some time. Is it because more producers and djs that have an underground name for themselves are foreign? |
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| corjay9 |
Times are changing, electronic music is the new stadium rock. Montreal's always had a great scene, but I'm noticing that dance music has been taking over. House music is being played in all the trendy clubs, there's an over-saturation of DJs playing house music, and a concert venue with a state of the art audio visual set up opened last year with a capcity of 3000 people, open club hours. Every weekend its packed, DJs like Tiesto, AVB, Boys Noize, Steve Angello, Calvin Harris, Skrillex, Porter Robinson, etc.. pack the club every week. Drinks are crazy expensive..
These places are killing our afterhours scene. No alcohol is served at Stereo and Circus, and people no longer need to stay up all night to listen to 'crazy techno beats'.
The small promoters who bring in quality acts are struggling to fill up small rooms for the die hard patrons because people have too many party options.. its getting out of hand!
thank god for Igloofest, Piknic Electronik and Mutek who keep it real! Kink and Mathias Kaden tonight, Josh Wink and DJ Sneak tomorrow. |
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| Sykonee |
| quote: | Originally posted by DOOMBOT
I'm curious how that stereotype came about. I understand that a lot of people are caught up into mainstream music, even mainstream electronic, but the "underground" scene is pretty darn good here as well and has been for some time. Is it because more producers and djs that have an underground name for themselves are foreign? |
I think it's more to do with the fact a lot of these EDM fans aren't really going to these festivals for the music, but for the experience. They'd be raging just as hard if it was some thrashing nu-metal band or Tier 1 rap artist up on stage, if such acts garnered the same level of publicity as they once did. Throwing a massive festival with DJs is much easier to pull off though. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| quote: | Originally posted by DOOMBOT
You don't think people in NA knew what a rave was all about in the late 90s? |
In the mid 90s , no.
I mean it was a scary word for anyone that don't go. Not everyone was a dj. You had to call info lines. You had to go to checkpoints. Raves are mainstream at least the way the term is used now. It used to be a counter culture. |
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| Guest |
| quote: | Originally posted by DOOMBOT
I disagree. For example, after I had been going to them and they weren't necessarily new to me, I began introducing other people to them who didn'tknow about them, so the experience was completely fresh for them. I don't think anyone now is trying to replicate anything other then just trying to throw a party and have a good time. You seem to have the "it was better back in my day" attitude, which is a shame because if you let that get to you, you'll never be able to enjoy yourself anymore when you go out to these parties today. |
Those Deep Nights parties were rave-esque but I've talked to people who were doing the rave scene in the mid 90's and they described drugs being given out in color coded cups (blue cup for acid, red cup for e, green cup for whatever else). There was also blatant acts of sex and group sex.
Those Deep Nights parties were epic and they did their best to create that vibe, but I believe that a real true underground rave was much more ridiculous than anything we ever saw at the warehouse. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| quote: | Originally posted by DOOMBOT
I'm curious how that stereotype came about. I understand that a lot of people are caught up into mainstream music, even mainstream electronic, but the "underground" scene is pretty darn good here as well and has been for some time. Is it because more producers and djs that have an underground name for themselves are foreign? |
There have always been Americans who get dance music, but they have always felt like isolated pockets. In a country of 300,000,000 people there is always room for subcultures, but if you zoom out and look at the overall culture, America has mostly rejected and alienated dance music for the past 30 years. Compare that to the UK where acid house touched down in '88 and completely revolutionised youth culture forever. We ing loved dance music from the moment we heard it, and as a nation, we get it.
This whole "EDM" thing still feels strange to us, perhaps because we've been doing it for 25 years and it's part of the furniture. The idea that young people find dance music totally new and fresh is a little bizarre. And because it's being picked up by a new demographic, they're doing things differently to how we're used to doing it. It's just hard not to cynical as a Brit, because when acid house exploded in 1988 it went from the underground upwards: illegal raves, records gatecrashing the pop charts with zero radio play, mass media hysteria. In the US it feels like the opposite: it's super-commercial from day one, and everyone is waiting for it to trickle down to the underground. To us, that's totally backwards, and it's very easy just to look at it as yet another youth fad that'll be gone in five years, and all these kids are merely buying what's being advertised to them. |
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| enydo |
| Again, I gotta blame the geography of the country. |
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| iLLiE586 |
The way I see America is that the people go to these events for the names and not the music. Yeah sure, they like the music, but they like it because the new super cool DJ is behind the booth, and it is the new hip thing to do.
In Europe people go for the music and enjoy what is coming out of the speakers more than who is behind the booth. Of course names will always have a huge impact, but I just feel like America purely revolves around the names. Another thing I have always noticed that is a huge difference in America, is that short of a few types of crowds, hardly anyone dances. They just wait for the big "drop" so they can jump around and high five each other while they "rage."
Another thing about the US is it is fad crazy. We find something and make it explode into a huge success. The only problem is everyone and everything jumps into the new fad to get a taste of its success. Eventually it becomes depleted, and not only do people move away from it, they end up despising it and leaving it like a used condom. All of the old school people that were around from the beginning got sick of it around the peak of popularity and burn out. Meanwhile, the mainstream fad kicks for another two - four years at massive levels before dying. Once the mainstream crowd moves on to the next fad, the old fad(dance music) will be left with nothing, as the old school crowd abandoned it years earlier, and now the fadsters have moved away in hordes. At this point it is over, within no time it will shrivel up and be forgotten in the US. |
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| Sykonee |
| quote: | Originally posted by iLLiE586
Another thing about the US is it is fad crazy. We find something and make it explode into a huge success. The only problem is everyone and everything jumps into the new fad to get a taste of its success. Eventually it becomes depleted, and not only do people move away from it, they end up despising it and leaving it like a used condom. All of the old school people that were around from the beginning got sick of it around the peak of popularity and burn out. Meanwhile, the mainstream fad kicks for another two - four years at massive levels before dying. Once the mainstream crowd moves on to the next fad, the old fad(dance music) will be left with nothing, as the old school crowd abandoned it years earlier, and now the fadsters have moved away in hordes. At this point it is over, within no time it will shrivel up and be forgotten in the US. |
Why yes, I do remember when Latin music was hot in America. |
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| paulversuspaul |
| The us isnt even really into dance music, its in to pop music masquerading as dance music or just noisy crap pretending to be dance music. Its basically a fad or an excuse for aholes to do drugs or get really smashed and "rave". Fn losers. As someone who has lived in the states and been around before these aholes ruined the whole thing, the quicker it dies, the better off the entire scene will be. The US as a culture will never really embrace dance music for the same reason they dont like soccer, european art house cinema, or diplomacy, its a culture based on on aggression and hyper masculinity that rejects all subtlety and nuance as feminine. Its the land of mcdonalds not duck confit, and thats the same appetite it applies to EDM. But what is nice and I hope remains, is that there are always pockets or enclaves fighting against the stupidity of the masses. Twilo was legendary and part of its uniqueness was quintessential american in that the crowds were bigger and better because of the love that those people had for something that wasnt accepted by the larger population that europeans had just taken for granted. I still remember, how excited I would get if i ever meet someone else into dance music more than ten years ago, it was like making an instant friend. And that excitement was passed around everyone at all those great shows I went to. Great |
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