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Trance is usually achieved at communal rituals, with plenty of loud music and dancing. The specifics the costumes, music, and dance vary from culture to culture, but the pattern underneath is identical: loud music and vigorous dancing lead to a state of over stimulation that can produce a form of egoless ness that is the ground for any sacred exploration. Mickey Hart (Hart, 119) Two types of music cultures today use community, music, and drugs to achieve a state of trance that aids them in spiritual exploration. These two groups are the newly formed electronic music rave scene of Europe and the United States and the 7000 year-old tradition of peyote ceremonies still practiced by members of the Native American Church. Each culture has very different music and settings for this exploration, but they have similar ideologies for a better life and planet. Raves are all night parties where people dance to electronic music.
The main ingredients are loud music, light shows, selected narcotics, and people (called Ravers). Ravers have an ideology about Peace, Love, Unity and Respect (PLUR), for the raver, that all night party is an escape from what her society wants her to be; material-oriented, financially successful, a consumer, an a work-atomic. Ravers feel deeply connected to all the people dancing around them and revert to a time when play was the most important thing in their lives. In essence, ravers feel that they are living rather than merely surviving (Estiens).
Raves began appearing in Manchester, England and Ibiza (popular English vacation spots) in 1987 and 1988. At the same time, the same type of parties appeared in Germany, specifically Berlin. Soon thereafter, the rave phenomenon was attracting thousands of kids, aged between 16 and late twenties. It also attracted the attention of DJs from the United States.
The energy that fueled these parties was so great that American DJs wanted to introduce it to the US, and UK DJs wanted to expand their horizons. The first US raves began in San Francisco, which is long known for its eager acceptance of counterculture, and also in Los Angeles. The scene spread quickly to the east coast in New York City as well as the Mid-West, specifically Milwaukee (Estiens). The new raves in the US were far from legal. They were advertised on flyers often containing only a psychedelic image and a phone number. Directions to the rave site were not divulged until the day of the party.
As little as 50 to tens of thousands of kids would show up for a night of PLUR. DJs would set up their equipment on private beaches or broken-into abandoned warehouses. When (or if) the rave was found by authorities, the dancers and DJs would quickly break down and flee with a speaker in tow to find somewhere else to continue the party. Ravers who were present remember relocating up to ten times in one night. Illicit drugs were also present, the raves in the US began primarily with LSD and marijuana, but ecstasy and amphetamines from the UK scene soon became staples in the ravers drug diet. However, many ravers feel that drugs are unnecessary in order to have a good time; the positive vibe from the rave is more than enough (Estiens).
Raves began in the United Kingdom, but the music has been developing since the 70 s when disco was popular. Techno, a broad term for electronic music created with a couple of turntables, a drum machine, an equalizer, and sometimes a synthesizer, evolved from disco and gay clubs in Chicago and Detroit, as well as progressive music from the UK such as Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk. The US and UK traded musical influences for decades and in the late 80 s and early 90 s, techno was born and began to mutate into many sub-genres such as trance, house, acid-trance, acid-house, trance-house, industrial, hardcore, drum & bass, happy house, jungle, gabber the list goes on (Estiens). Rave music in general is purely electronic, oriented largely around bass lines and is usually anywhere between 115 beats per minute and 300 beats per minute.
Some say that 120 beats per minute is preferred, since it simulates the pace of the heart as heard in the womb. The DJ spins the music at a rave. Spinning refers to the DJ taking multiple pre-recorded techno songs and blending them together to create a multi-layered effect. He may change speeds of the original recordings, add samples (seconds of another recording), and use a synthesizer. Rave music therefore is spontaneous like the event itself, the music is always changing and new genres are constantly being formed (Estiens). The musical selections on the accompanying cassette represent two contrasting types of techno music.
The first selection, Angelic Particles, is an example of the trance genre of electronica. The song sounds very smooth, connected and dreamlike. It is metric like most techno pieces and is played at about 120 beats per minute. It keeps the listener moving, but also deeply entranced at the same time.
The bass and treble are equally represented, giving the song a mellow feel. There are no vocals, and the texture is mainly polyphonic. Harmony seems to be present, because nothing about it is discordant, however it is hard to pick out specific chord progressions. This song is intended to be emotionally gratifying, with the listener becoming very involved with the music and feeling its power encircling her. The second selection Shake that Ass! !
is an example of the house genre. It has a lot more repetition in lyrics and is strophic in form. The texture is homophonic with the voice being the melody. Treble is a little more prevalent in house music as displayed by the female vocals. Harmony is apparent and portrays a feeling of happiness. The metric nature of this piece makes it a good dance song, although not capable of enthralling the listener as much as Angelic Particles.
The DJ plays the most important role at the rave, since he has to feel out the crowd and respond accordingly. Ravers talk of a mutual energy that flows between them and the DJ, the crowd receives inspiration from the DJ to do new fantastic dance moves, or simply a feeling of utter joy; in turn the DJ feels the renewed energy surging through the crowd and he creates new unbelievable sounds for the ravers. The DJ leads the dancers into a trance like state of bliss (Estiens). The ideology of the raver for the rave community is one of PLUR, Peace, Love Unity, and Respect. Peace refers to an inner peace that is gained by being entranced by the music.
When in a trance-like state, the raver becomes egoless; this egoless ness assists in inner peace, a peace that can be spread to others. Love is given a more broad definition and left for more interpretation, but Peter Douglas (a raver) sums it up well; It means people not only call out to you "Are you okay mate?" when they hear you heaving your dinner in the toilet cubicle, but they care about the answer. Unity is something left to be desired in the rave community, and exemplifies an ideal rather than a reality. There is tension between fans of different sub-genres, a were better than you attitude.
The ideal of unity is that the rave community as a whole can teach society about their ideals and the validity of their culture. Respect is just that, the idea that people can accept others beliefs and live harmoniously with them. Peter Douglas also states that he envisions the day that a club can have coat hooks where people can leave their stuff and actually find it there at the end of the night (Douglass). These are the ideals of the rave community, and like any ideals, one should remember that just because people envision these ideals, they are not necessarily present. For many people, PLUR is a personal commitment, and the ravers try to bring these values to their everyday life. Rave ideology centers around the writings of anarchist philosopher Hakim Bey, specifically his writings on the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ).
The TAZ is spontaneous and temporary. It is a place where no federal or state law, no religious norm, no societal taboo or expectation exists. People are allowed to become egoless and forget about everything that they are expected to do. In the case of raves, 18 -year-old girls are allowed to suck on pacifiers, pants can be as big as possible, hugs are exchanged with total strangers, and people share water and candy (Estiens). These conditions must be temporary because eventually the real world authorities will break the TAZ up. Hakim states that they must be temporary because if they are allowed to perpetuate, authority will manifest itself from within the group.
Raves in essence are a TAZ, as well as other historical...
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