The Rave wave

This week, I am going to have a look at the rave scene in Britain. The rave seen evolved from the Acid house movement of the late 80's/ early 90's. When Police tried to clamp down on the acid house movement by enforcing strict laws on raves in quarries etc/ organises began to carry out even bigger raves in abandoned warehouses in the city.

Raves were all about 3 things, the music, the drugs and the clothes. The style of music was a cocktail of sounds that combined various tracks. These remixed tracks would be played by DJ's and would feature certain characteristics such as drum and bass and jazz step. Rave was a 'happy' genre for 'happy' people. The music derived from Chicago and Ibiza.

The trance sound the DJ's played often reflected the trance state that the majority of ravers would enter at some point of the night. This euphoric high often came from taking E tablets (ecstasy). Hugging strangers was part and parcel of the whole rave experience. This peaceful environment may have been aided by the consumption of drugs. It was far less troublesome than the alcohol fueled riots of the casual mid/late 80’s.

There was also a fashion attached to the rave scene. Loose clothes, baggy jeans, T-shirts (particularly with a smiley face icon), runners and tie-dye were all part and parcel of the experience. Wearing white gloves could accessorise the rave outfit, along with high vis jackets, whistles and soothers.

The British government tried to clamp down on the rave scene by passing the criminal justice act of 1994.

In 1995, at the height of the rave scene, 18-year-old Leah Bett's died from taking ecstasy and consequently drinking 7 litres of water over a 4-hour period. Bett's fell into a coma and never regained consciousness. Although Bett's didn't collapse at a nightclub, the drug was heavily associated with the rave scene. The mass media contributed to moral panic surrounding the event. Organisers of the rave scene began having more wide spread legalised raves in clubs such as Ministry of Sound in London.

The rave scene in britain had various affects on contemporary society.

Today we go to any night club and there is usually always a live DJ playing. Before acid house/rave scene, the disc jockey didn't have a place in the club scene. Also the style of music the DJ plays would not have been heard in mainstream nightclubs as it is today. Some DJ’s even claim their remixes have prevented the death of British pop music.

Today you can go to a nightclub and dress in a smart casual style, wearing jeans, t-shirts even runners. Prior to the acid house movement/rave scene, the dress code was quite strict so unless you wore shoes and dressed more formal, there was a good chance you wouldn't get in. If you go in to HMV today, they sell t-shirts that stem from the British rave scene. In terms of pop culture, movies such as train spotting derived from the rave scene.

Also, at the height of the rave scene tens of thousands of people attended raves in quarries/forests and abandoned warehouses. Major festival's today such as oxygen and electric picnic, stem from the roots of the British rave scene.

Drugs are very much part of the nightclub culture in today’s society. Drugs such as cocaine are easily accessible along with ecstasy and this accessibility may also have stemmed from the rave scene.

However, enough culturing around for this week.

Until next time,

Robin

P.S

I . . . .I forget!

Relax its only a moral panic!

This week I was looking at moral panic. According to Stanley Cohen, moral panic is a feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the society. One of the first uses of the term was its association with hyped media coverage of the Mods and Rockers of the 60's which led to hysteria among the public.


The best way to understand moral panic is to look at an example so here we go. 
A good example of moral panic was the millennium bug. In the late 90's, researcher peter De Jager spotted a potential flaw with the system clocks on the operating system windows. The problem wasn't a big one but it required addressing all the same. So when industry experts paid little attention to De Jager's research, he hyped it up a little bit by publishing an article entitled 'Doomsday 2000'. The mass media then took note of De Jager's purposely-exagerated theories and hyped them even further. Bizarre reports emerged in newspapers and on TV. This report on Sky News even shows what will 'probably' happen on the 1st of January 2000. 


From this people then worried that internet hackers would use the occasion as a chance to make a statement. The media reported further on the matter to further exaggerate the situation. This article from the independent even states that the then British prime-minister, Tony Blair, had "taken a lead" by setting up a "special cabinet committee". Some people, such as the Perron's from Scotland, prepared for 'doomsday' by moving to the country side to brace themselves for a new way of life. The first of January 2000 passed without any significant problems. As the Sunday Independent of the 9th of January 2000 reports "Nothing even came close to last summer's fiasco at the passport agency when staff tried to upgrade a computer system that was already overloaded.". The media got it wrong on this occasion.


Moral panic is often associated with youth subculture and the example Cohen talks about in 'Folk Devils and Moral Panics' is that of the Mod/Rocker's riot in Brighton. Again the riots were over exaggerated by the press which lead to an angry response from the Public, particularly parents of the youths that belonged to the respective subcultures.


More recent examples include foot and mouth disease and swine flu. The media published articles that would tell you how to blow your nose and wash your hands correctly. On the news, the amount of serious cases of swine flu were reported daily and if you were in the 'high-risk' strategy, you needed a vaccine or 'you could die'. Then the vaccines caused more problems of their own. In reality people gradually stopped using the hand wash dispensers and nothing bad happened. Swine flu slowly receded.


The next potential moral panic could be the Schmallenberg virus. It has already reached the UK and if it becomes wide scale, speculation about the virus mutating into a strand that effects humans could possibly emerge from media reports.


However, enough culturing around for this week.

Until next time,

Robin

P.S

I . . . .I forget!

Sub culture.

Sub-culture, whats it all about then. From what I gather it usually involves fashion. If you've seen somebody walking by you recently wearing unusual clothes that you normally can't find too easily in the shops, the chances are they are part of a sub culture. Historically sub-culture is more associated with boys than it is with girls. The teddy's, the rocker's, the skinheads, all were known as masculine styles so girls generally weren't associated with them. Women are also child bearers so according to history it is their duty to look after themselves and not muck around like the lads.

Two subcultures that I looked at this week were the Mod subculture of the late 50's/ early mid 60's and the Casual subculture of the late 70's/80's/early 90's.

Who are the 'mods' then? 'we are the mods we are the mods, we are we are we are the mods' according to Sting and Kev wicks from 'Eastenders' who star in the mod inspired film 'Quadrophenia'. I've always wondered myself who the mod's where because anytime I'd buy a new jacket or something when I was younger my Gran would always say it was 'very mod'. I never knew what she was talking about, I thought maybe she meant modern which in-fact is where the term 'Mod' derived from, Modernist. However now that I've discovered that Mod is a subculture I realise that my Gran didn't know what she was talking about either.

Mod's wore tailor made suits, had over customised scooters, and wore these hideous green coats, I mean come on Gran, I've never once worn a jacket like that. Mod's went to all night parties and of the subcultures I've looked at, woman were accepted into the mod culture more so than any other subculture. It was considered to be a more feminine look but women still had to look the part to be in the gang. It died out in the mid 60's because it became commercialised.

The other subculture I looked at was the casual's. I do like to watch and play the footie whenever I can so I was naturally interested to learn about the casuals. Especially because it was the Liverpool fans that started the sub culture. Come on Liverpool YNWA. The fans followed their team to cities across europe and saw these unusual runners and designer tracksuit tops. They liked them so much they would acquire stuff all across europe. They would do this by looting shops and stealing their products. Away fans would come to Anfield and notticed how well dressed and impressive some of the Red's fans looked and so got in on the act. The casual culture was born. However, casual's were all about violence. They dressed in designer labels such as Lacoste and Adidas Original's to avoid the attention of the police. They had firms that would riot with rivalling firms from other football clubs. Firms would therefore recognise each other from their 'casual' uniforms.

Liverpool, like most cities now has an Adidas original shop along with many more designer brands so like most sub culture, once it becomes mass and widely available, it dies down. There are still many football firms today however. So 'Dry your eyes mate' because The streets often sport the casual look in their music videos.

Well thats enough culturing about for this week,

Robin

P.S

I forget!