Raves Essay, Research Paper

Raves

Imagine you are in your room and it?s about 1:00 in the morning. It?s pitch black outside and you?ve been lost for hours. There?s nothing good on the radio. You?re dying of thirst and you?re drenched with sweat. You?re just about to turn around and open your window for some fresh air and you hear it. The bass is in sync with your heartbeat and the lights are flashing everywhere. So you follow this music and you arrive at your destination: A rave. It is the vibe that is so commonly talked about within this culture.

The dictionary defines “Rave” as: to utter in madness or frenzy; to say wildly; to rave nonsense, which makes you wonder why raves were ever called raves to begin with. Raves consist of about 300-6,000 kids aged to about 17-25. A big empty wear house, lights, a fog machine and a DJ. Every single rave has 1 type of music: techno with a lot of base. It’s electronically created with a very fast-pace. Techno music has its origins in gay dance clubs. Hip-hop also has had a big impact on techno music. Rave dancing ranges from being highly choreographed and stylistic all the way to thrusting your body back and forth. Ravers say they lose themselves to the beat and become one with the music by letting the music control their movements. Someone once said: Techno was made not only to be played, but to be listened to loud?we are called not to listen, but to feel.

How do you know when the rave is and where? Well flyers are put up. A flyer isn?t going to straight out say ?RAVE!? you have to look for the secret messages only Ravers know. They do this to avoid the mainstream. A rave poster can be spotted by noticing that within the words that are on the poster, every E, X, and K, are capitalized. There are certain colors that the flyers will have on them. A lot of times there will be a cartoon character on it, or smiley faces and aliens. Now, I could do a whole paper on fashion.

There are four classes of people grouped by what they wear not how much money you have or what kind of car you drive. The most common class is the ?Candy Ravers? they are always female and have short hair that?s usually in barrettes or pigtails. They?re also usually carrying around stuffed animals, or sucking on lollipops or pacifiers. They wear glitter all over their bodies and stickers on each cheek. They?ll sport a shirt with childhood heroes such as my little pony, care bears, strawberry shortcake etc. The next class knows as the Hip-Hop Boys are usually pared up w/ Candy Ravers. Hip Hop boys are in fat pants and head to toe Adidas Logos. Occasionally you will see them wearing bug eyed glasses with suspenders. The 3rd of many rave classes is the Gwen Stefani class. They are always girls and are wearing crop tops or anything that will bare their belly. They wear track pants, or swish pants and are sporting every piercing known to man and more. Gwen Stefani?s match is the Club Ravers. These males dress in wife beaters; tube socks up to their knees, and very roomy cargo or army pants. They will have a tight shirt or no shirt and every club Ravers’ boxers WILL always be exposed. They will have spiky hair usually with frosted tips and they wear either a visor, or no hat at all. Regardless of these 4 classes (out of many) the rave scene will include snow hats; electronic colored wigs, 5-inch platforms and everyone will have glow sticks in their mouths. The main thing to remember when you dress for a rave is; Are you comfortable? This is the way I dress to go out. The sneakers, baggy pants to be sure that I can move my legs correctly to the beat. In my opinion the less you where up top the better off you are because once you get started you can bet that you’ll sweat up a storm and if you?re a girl it’s not called perspiration anymore it’s called sweat and your armpits show it. So as you can see it is very hard to stick out at a rave.

From the time you walk into the door, to the time you walk out the door, reality is non-existent. You believe that sure, tomorrow I will work on my homework. And Monday I will go to school, but right now, right now I?m going to play. A rave is a culture of escape. A rave is a culture where diversity comes to a halt. Where race, gender, age, sexual preference and everything else that our society focuses so much on, just fades into the background. A raver once said, ?I was on my way to a rave with some friends when they got stuck in standstill traffic. All of the sudden 30 Ravers or so on their way to the party got out of their cars, turned on music, and danced in the middle of the interstate. Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. P.L.U.R. is the Raver code that, if everyone lived by, the world would be infinitely better than it is today. This phrase is commonly thrown around at a rave. TAZ. Temporary autonomous zone, meaning a zone that is there temporarily that?s self-governed. TAZ is an event that continually rises up. Wild, but gentle, a seducer, not a rapist, and a smuggler rather than a pirate.

But even with the harmony and peace, there is a downside: Drugs. You cannot separate a rave from drug use. It?s impossible. Ecstasy is the popular one. There is also Crystal Meth, which is the dirtiest most addictive drug going, also very popular. The next bad one is GHB, more commonly know to the public as the date rape drug. Special K is very popular among the eastern crowd, and that’s pain and simple a horse tranquilizer. The people that go to raves just to get high, are the people that put bad labels on raves. No one that?s never been to a rave looks past the drugs and into the culture. They automatically assume they know everything about the rave scene since there are drugs involved. Though true Ravers can?t stand the drug use, they won?t do anything about it because they believe that you should be accepted as a person not what drugs you do. While some people are in it for the dark side, the other people that are into giving hugs, sharing love and having new experiences.

I would like to give a brief check on the main drug Ecstasy. The pills are handed out, as if they were orderves. It is important to understand what it is and its background. Ecstasy or MDMA first originated in 1914 and was used as an appetite suppressant; it was not heavily used again until the 1970?s and was used to treat psychological disorders. Finally in the 1980?s the drug administration banned any open use of ecstasy. The main concern was the findings of research about more severe long-term problems. Research reveals evidence of the MDMA damaging the serotonin neurons of the brain. Damages to serotonin transmitters can cause faults in important human responses such as aggression, memory, emotion, sleep and pain. Recently the drug has become very popular for the influence of the rave movement. The ravers have created many popular slang names for ecstasy such as, Adam, XTC, Clarity, Essence, Doves, Rave Energy, Cloud 9 and Lover?s Speed.

*censored*balls and cock

I conclusion I hope that you see that raves aren’t all what you hear they are. There may be drugs and with knowing that people have a tendency to judge a person when they hear that he or she is a Raver. Not all of us ravers are into that part of it we go deeper than that.