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Who killed the rave?

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Re: Who killed the rave?

#111

Anyone go to cat head's parties in the early 90's. There were cat's head spray painted on the sidewalk leading to abandoned warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront. The legend was they were worlwide. Some friend of mine knew to follow them.

or the pile of solo cups on the corner when you turn, for those of us or went to illegal beach bonfire parties in the outer banks!

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Re: Who killed the rave?

#112

I love electronic music. Been listening to it for 30 years. Mostly drumbass, dubstep, some house. Groups like subfocus. I used to listen to tiesto, bt, etc. One, I hated the term "raving". I was thought raves were finding an abandoned house, playing music and drugs. I just like the music and don't need the dance clubs or the drugs. But with the said, I think the "club" scene has dropped off. Expensive drinks. Expensi…

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Re: Who killed the rave?

#113
post #78

I cannot comment on the article - it’s paywalled - but I can talk about the claim in the headline. I can tell from my personal experience that I stopped going because most club shows start earliest at 10 pm, and even then headliner probably goes on at 1, and that’s just not sustainable for me, especially if I wanted to take a risk and see someone I was 50/50 on. I’m aging, I’m 29, I enjoy the morning a lot more than…

I'm in my mid 40s and it's the same problem for me. I can push myself through an all-nighter if the music is really great, but most of the time it isn't, and then it's just tedious waiting around for something better to come on when I know I could go home and buy a couple dozen new tracks on Bandcamp that are exactly to my taste. Sure I wouldn't get to listen to them on a banging sound system or stomp my heart out amongst a couple hundred like-minded nutters, but if I'm honest half the time I'm going wild on the dancefloor these days the rest of the crowd is waiting around for a different style of music than the one I'm particularly into so it's not an especially communal event anyway.

I'm not sure if I have gotten more picky about music than I used to be - I certainly remember getting into ridiculous arguments over sub-sub-subgenres back in the 90s - but when I was younger perhaps I was simply a bit more tolerant of dancing to music that wasn't exactly what I liked? Or maybe I was so full of energy and excitement about going out in the first place that the music wasn't as make-or-break for me back then?

Last year I settled into a routine of going to a small outdoor rave once every few months or so, ones with daytime components so I could join at dawn. The music played at outdoor parties in my area is not exactly my favorite, but at least it's still electronic and because it's less exhausting to dance during my normal waking hours I don't mind so much.

I definitely miss being so sucked into the vibe that I can't pull myself away, but I've just accepted that that's not something you can really get everywhere all the time. In certain cities, at certain times, when there's a big enough local crew whose tastes exactly align with yours, you'll have a magical few years, but then the music changes, the people change, and it'll be another dry spell. I like to think, though, that my dry spells are someone else's peak years. Maybe it all balances out in the end?

Re: Who killed the rave?

#114
post #86

In the two cities either side of me, a large portion of the organised events (on the DnB side at least) seem to be going daytime with a 10pm or 11pm finish on a weekend. Great fun. And there's still nighttime ones (also great fun) and illegal ones (which look to also be great fun).

I’d love to find DnB with 10-11pm finish time. Any tips on finding them in the SF bay area?

Re: Who killed the rave?

#115

Maybe this is a dumb take, but how much of this is just demographics? Countries are getting older as birth rates decline, so you would expect a decline in things that skew younger in the audiences they attract.

Also the people who go to raves aren’t helping with this, as most of them aren’t family focused. They have to get outsiders to join their subculture.

Re: Who killed the rave?

#116
Interesting. My experience in NYC even with folks in the 20s is they prefer going out BEFORE it gets super late, with the super late nights only happening for shows (where the DJ/main act doesn't come on till 1:30 AM).

I've also anecdotally seen more day parties which might be driven by demand from the former rave crews who are aging out.

Re: Who killed the rave?

#117

In my time night clubs were about hooking up, guess no need for that in the age of tinder?

What? That's kind of creepy. Raves are and always have been about dancing. The creeps walking around looking for hookups are just that, a bunch of weird creeps that annoy people trying to dance. Edit: To clarify, it's creepy becaucse a lot of people are on something and pretty vulnerable, they're there to dance and enjoy the music and now some creep is trying to get in their pants while they're rolling and drunk

It's creepy if you have bad vibes. If you can read the room and take rejection with a smile I think it's chill

Re: Who killed the rave?

#118
Probably a bunch of factors...

Tier 1 city RE prices have made live entertainment venues harder to run profitably.

GenZ studies have found a lower participation in "risky behavior" which late night clubbing may or not be considered.

Mobile internet & smartphones seem to be killing all forms of live in person interaction.

And finally electronic music of various forms used to be a niche, and now it's mainstream. In the 90s/00s my consumption of electronic music was mp3 downloads of BBC late night recordings. Now pop is electronic, electronic is pop, it's all on the radio, it's unavoidable.

Re: Who killed the rave?

#120
One big change is that they got better and much more organized. I go to an annual event with a few hundred of my friends and family. We rent a lodge in a national forest, set up an enormous sound system, and dance for 3 days around some very confused deer. There are food trucks and coffee bars and dozens of portapotties scattered around, plus daytime poolside sets while we swim around and listen to 100dB house.

We grayvers still like to have fun, just more comfortably. We have work next week, you know.

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