Dance nostalgia for the internet age
A new generation is discovering the sound and spirit of 1980s raves – but the law and the internet make it impossible to recreate that sense of being part of a privileged group.
Rave first took off in Britain at the end of the 1980s. News of a one-off event would spread via word of mouth, and ravers would meet in car parks before travelling in convoy to the destination – typically a field or an empty warehouse.
White gloves, strobe lighting and T-shirts with smiley faces were all associated with rave. But it was also associated with drug taking – primarily ecstasy and acid. And as a result, the Government passed the Criminal Justice Act to ban raves.
But now rave is making a comeback. And as with many cultural revivals, this comeback is partly fuelled by nostalgia.
There are parallels between the fact that there are bands and acts coming back together like there are in pop. But I suppose it is how music has always been. There’s a certain cyclical nature in people looking back at how things were and remembering how good times used to be.
A scene fuelled by dance and drugs
When the rave scene exploded at the end of the 1980s, I was in my mid-teens, blogs Channel 4 News Culture Editor Matthew Cain.
I didn't ever go to a one-off rave in a temporary location, the kind of event people would hear about via word of mouth and then travel to in convoy after meeting up in car parks.
But I did go several times to the now legendary rave venue LIFE at Bowlers in Trafford Park, on the outskirts of Manchester. Bowlers was basically some kind of huge industrial unit that held 3,500 people, all of them ostensibly there to dance to the music. But the truth is that they were also there to take drugs.
Read more: Fuelled by 1980s nostalgia, the rave scene is back
Later this year, the film Weekender, set against the backdrop of the rave scene of 1990, will be released in cinemas. And DJs and producers Chase and Status have just a major hit with the song Blind Faith. The video was designed to recreate the emotions associated with the original rave scene.
A lot of people, when they first went to a rave, might have ingested a pill or something and suddenly had an epiphany: this is me, this is what I want to do!
Perhaps the biggest chance in the last 20 years has been the rise of the internet and mobile phones.
But the rebirth of rave isn’t fuelled by nostalgia alone. As well as the original rave generation, new, younger generations are discovering both the sound and spirit of rave for themselves.
The last time rave was popular, a Conservative government was in power and there were violent protests on the streets. It is a parallel that is not lost on Chase and Status.
But some things have changed enormously over the last 20 years. Perhaps the biggest change has been the rise of the internet and mobile phones.
Together, they make it practically impossible to keep the whereabouts of one-off raves secret – and therefore equally impossible to recreate the feeling among ravers of being in a special, privileged group. Today’s ravers have to make do with regular rave-themed nights in clubs.
