Reddit reviews Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures (Studies in Popular Music)
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originally posted in: https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/comments/58ikxy/can_someone_define_rave/d90p5io/
The definition is different depending on who you talk to.
Personally I think of a rave as a recontextualized space in a Temporary Autonomous Zone spirit with a sound system playing electronic music
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Over the years I have grown to appreciate "freedom" as a very important aspect for ravers especially in the underground scene.
Going back out to a macro scale - with electronic dance music culture having grown and spread over the last 30ish years, there now exist differing layers of "rave culture" or as academia likes to call it "EDMC" (electronic dance music culture)
If you take people who have only gone to top 40 night clubs with stringent dress codes/discriminatory entry policies, then you plop them into something like EDC, they might think "wow this is so much freedom, I love raves"
But if you take those people and plop them into a free tekno rave, they might not even know what to do with themselves. "it's just a sound system in the woods, what am I supposed to do?!?" In the perfect case, the answer is: "whatever you want" - but not everyone gets this point of view, or is even interested. People make tradeoffs between music styles, sound system/visual production quality, personal freedom, personal opportunity costs (price of event/time to get there), feelings of safety, level of acceptance, etc. when deciding what to do with their lives.
Everything from the most basic of club nights to the most farout bunker rave, people will call "rave" - I think it's good to ask what people think the term means, but I personally wouldn't get too hung up about anyone's individual definition. It's been re-used for different purposes by people/groups that want to market a specific element of "original rave" (e.g. the sound system/electronic dance music) without including the freedom/friendly anarchy/TAZ aspects. I don't blame people for using the term in various ways, especially people who haven't studied or researched the culture, or haven't been to a free party themselves.
If anyone is interested in reading about EDMC on a global scale and its sociological/cultural impact, I highly recommend checking out Technomad by Graham St John and also the authors who contribute to Dancecult