Raves Essay, Research Paper

Raves

Imagine you are in your at about 1:00 in the morning. It?s pitch black outside and you?ve been lost for hours. Nothings good on the radio. Your dying of thirst and your drenched with sweat. Your just about to turn around, when you open your windows for some fresh air and you hear it. The bass is in sync with your heartbeat. It is the vibe that is so commonly talked about within this culture. You follow this music and you?ve arrived at your destination: A rave. Raves consist of about 300-6,000 kids aged to about 17-25. A big empty wear house, a fog machine and a DJ.

Every single rave has 1 type of music: techno with a ton of base. It tends to be electronically created with a very fast-paced. 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 their selves 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.

And 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. Basically there are classes of people grouped by what they wear, not how much money you have and what not.

The most common class is the ?Candy Ravers? you would define a candy raver by being a female or male (but mostly female). Candy Ravers have short hair that?s usually in barrettes or pigtails they?re usually carrying around stuffed animals, or sucking on lollipops or pacifiers. They wear glitter all over their bodies and stickers on each cheek. Normally they will have a TON of jewelry weighing

down each cheek. They?ll sport a shirt with childhood hero?s such as my little pony, care bares, strawberry shortcake ect.

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 are the club Ravers.

These males dress in wife beaters; tube socks up to their knees, and very room cargo or army print pants. They will have a tight shirt or no shirt and every club Ravers boxers WILL 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.

As you can observe it is very hard to stick out at a rave. The candy Ravers dress like little girls because they know that they are there and that is all that matters. They feel they need to recapture the child that has died in them. The kid they used to be when play was the most important thing and it didn?t matter that mom and dad were fighting. It didn?t matter that they were having money problems and it did not matter that there was a hole in the o-zone layer. 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. Ravers are people gathering for the attainment of mutual bliss?

PLUR. Peace, love, unity and respect. 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. The pills are handed out as they were orderves. 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 are really happy and are into giving hugs, sharing love and having new experiences?and that?s what the world is about.?

Bibliography

http://www.malcalester.edu/~estiens/writings/raveindex.html

Http://www.nbc.com

http://www.hyperreal.com