Global Configuration of Rave Scene: A Vision of Reflexive and Deviant Southern Asia
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Huang, Sun-Quan
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Abstract
In the 1990s, rave became one of the most dominant forms of global youth culture. Rave constituted a spectacle by its large-scale gathering, night parties, chemical pleasure, electronic network and de-sexualized costume and make-up. Rave challenged social rules and regulations. Its a-political consciousness based on pleasure subverted traditional rock and roll discourses. Ravers invaded city centers, rural areas and ruined factories. Rave transgressed national boundaries and became a global form of consumption. Through its music, chemical, technological and digital arrangement, it entered the arena of daily lives and re-organized social relations. It was not only one of the best entertainments in the capitalist market but also transmitted an “altered state of consciousness” which changed our feeling, thought, experience and practice.
This thesis does not address the question of what rave should be, its “authentic” form and content, and how it mutated in different regions. Instead, it aims to map out the global formation of rave, which includes the process and effect of its being disseminated from the West to the Global. The hypothesis is: it is impossible to understand rave without exploring how it was relocated in Asia.
In this thesis, mapping rave’s global scene starts from the journeys made by Euro-American ravers and New Age Travelers in the 1990s, and responds to Jack Kerouac’s book On the Road. These hippies of the 1990s abandoned ideology, be it leftist or rightist. They followed Zen Buddhism and desired peace, love and respect. They pursued the East, the primitive and Nature. They created their own territory in the context of global tourism. The film Beach can be seen as a representation of their journeys. In the clubs in the metropolitan South Asian cities, together with local youth they performed a new form of localized global rave.
Rave was also resulted from DIY culture. Through such practices as large-scale festivals and street parties, it occupied and appropriated public spaces and reclaimed its use. Hence, it offered a way to initiate collective solidarity and social movement on the basis of pleasure-making. With the critique of rave informed by such concern over spatial liberation and its potential for social movement, this thesis seeks to define spatiality through “situation” rather than “position”.
Keywords: rave, subculture, electronic music, youth, club, Asia, new age traveler, globalization, drugs, carnival, social movement
Subjects
rave, subculture, electronic music, youth, club, Asia, new age traveler, globalization, drugs, carnival, social movement, space
Type
thesis
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