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<TITLE>CDNE Chapter 7 - Rave, Techno, and Acid</TITLE>
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<p align="center"><FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman"></FONT> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Times New Roman"></FONT>
<FONT SIZE=3 FACE="Times New Roman"><b><font size="+2">Chapter 7<br>
RAVE, TECHNO AND ACID</font></b></FONT></p>
<table width="620" border="0" align="center">
<tr>
<td>
<p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>During the 80's</b>, something strange
occurred in Sweden. The DJ's that had grown up in the seventies (and were
intended as replacements for the grossly expensive and uncontrollable
live music) suddenly acquired artistic ambitions. Small companies in the
form of a mix between record companies and DJ houses started appearing
all over the Western world. They produced records containing music for
one single purpose - to be played at discos and dance clubs. It should
be as rhythmic as possible, and at a rate of about 120 beats per minute
- a perfect pace for dancing. <b>Swemix</b> and <b>Nordic Beats</b> were
companies that were typical of Sweden. Among the DJ's who became successes
by combining dance and pop music were <b>Robert Wåtz</b> and <b>Rasmus
Lindvall</b>, later known as <b>Rob n' Raz</b>, and they were most famous
for adapting tracks from the rock group <b>Electric Boys</b> to the dance
floor. Others preferred to stay less commercial and do <i>their own thing</i>.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">During the middle and end of the 80's, and
in Sweden in particular in 1987-88, the new dance culture emerged. It
was careless and carefree dancing for its own sake, nothing well-organized
and tidy that you subjected yourself to for social reasons at discos or
in physical education classes, but rather wild, uninhibited dancing. It
was the resurrection of the rhythmic, ritualistic dance that had for centuries
remained repressed and subjugated by the West's religious and ethical
values, and it returned in the form of <i>acid house</i>. Naturally, established
society, with its politicians, musicians, and counselors, was outraged
and terrified. And naturally, all the young people with enough brains
to be rebellious bought acid house records to freak out their parents
(including your author, who bought his first acid record, <i>House Nation</i>
by <b>MBO</b>, in 1987).</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Pure <i>house</i> was the most successful
in the beginning, probably because it was based on funk, soul, and disco
music a la George Clinton and James Brown rather than synthetic music.
The synthetic parts were limited to some bass line, generated by a drum
machine or stolen outright from some Kraftwerk record. The style was created
in Chicago, and supposedly derived its name from the fact that dance parties
were often held in warehouses (one of the first European house music clubs
was thereafter named <b>Warehouse</b>, and was located in Köln, West
Germany). Together with the contemporary Detroit-based <i>techno</i> genre
(which was purely electronic), this new dance music came to be called
<i>acid house</i>. Early house bands include <b>The Royal House</b>, the
previously named <b>MBO</b>, and <b>D-Mob</b>. When the music gained in
popularity, the two styles became mixed together, particularly in Europe
where it was simply called <i>acid</i>, and no one really knew what music
belonged to what style. The first really influential European house clubs
appeared around Manchester, England.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Acid house was a special form of dance music
which used <i>samples</i> (fragments of sounds) in specific ways. It was
inspired by the cacophony of machine sounds employed by industrial music
(as with <b>Throbbing Gristle</b> or <b>Einstürzende Neubauten</b>),
William S. Burroughs' style of building larger texts from small text fragments
(read more about him in the next chapter), and from the art of collage
and mosaic. The acid musicians constructed a mosaic of sound phrases,
and were almost exclusively DJ's who knew how to emphasize good dance
rhythms. You could say that it was the first instance of <i>concrete music</i>
(the brainchild of Pierre Schaeffer) reaching a wide audience. Sampling
machines were first introduced among musicians engaged in making concrete
music.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Musically speaking, acid house developed
the already existing electro-pop trend of well-composed riffs, in the
form of synthetically generated loops that set the mood and ambience of
the song. "Acid" is unfortunately also a slang term for lysergic
acid-25 (LSD). Acid house has, however, probably not derived its name
from any such association. It has been said that the true originator of
the term is the slang expression "burn acid", which was DJ jargon
and referred to the sampling sounds from records. There are, of course,
others who say that this is just a euphemistic lie, and that the term
originated from a few English musicians who visited Detroit around 1986,
buying anything with the word "acid" on it in the search for
Grateful Dead and other "hippie" recordings, but instead ended
up with a slew of strange synthesized music which turned out to be early
techno and house. The name for the genre supposedly emerged from this
event. Acid house also has a characteristic sound, a little heavier
and faster than regular dance music, but milder than the "raw synth"
mentioned earlier. Sounds from synthesizers and drum machines such as
<b>Roland 303, 707, 808, and 909</b> were especially popular (hence, for
example, the house group <b>808 State</b>).</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Acid music gained popularity at the time
of the golden age of personal computers. 1987-88-89 are considered the
absolutely most intense years of the early history of personal computing
culture, which is why many demos, pseudonyms, and group names among the
subcultural hackers drew inspiration from acid house. The two cultures
rest on the same cultural base of amateurs, and emerged thanks to the
increased availability of low-cost computers and consumer electronics
during the same period. Also note a vague influence of hacker culture
on acid musicians: DJ's with names like <b>Phuture</b> or <b>Phusion</b>
(if you observe the spelling) have obviously been inspired by hackers.
Acid house also formed a kind of symbolism for youth rebellion during
these years.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">There has long existed a total conceptual
confusion with respect to dance music. Acid house grew explosively into
a number of sub-categories; every larger city in England and Germany seemed
to develop its own house genre, with the same trend taking place in the
US. Many quickly tired of the eternal compromises between electronic dance
music and the verse-refrain style of rock music, or rap (which was mandatory
within hip-hop), and reverted to the original and purely electronic dance
music: <i>techno</i>.<br>
<br>
<b>Techno</b><br>
Techno sought to return to the roots of electronic pop music - the sounds
and harmonies used in regular dance music had grown tiresome, and acid
house had started sounding the same across the board. Acid was no longer
breaking new ground, and it was time for something new. DJ's who were
now full-fledged electronic musicians sat through their nights listening
to <b>Kraftwerk, Ultravox, D.A.F. </b>(<b>Deutsche-Amerikanische Freundschaft</b>)
and other early synth bands that had contributed to music culture, in
an attempt to find the good stuff that had been left behind and at the
same time try to create something new. And they succeeded, especially
by using early synthesizers such as <b>Prophet</b>, <b>Fairlight</b>,
and <b>Roland</b> brands. The reason for this return to yesterday's technology
was supposedly that they couldn't really afford anything else.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Techno was, as noted earlier, born in Detroit.
The origin of the entire genre can be traced to three DJ's named <b>Magic</b>
(Juan Atkins), <b>Reese</b> (Kevin Saunderon), and <b>Mayday</b> (Derrik
May). They claim to have been inspired especially by Kraftwerk and <b>Parliament</b>
(George Clinton). Mayday toured England in 1987 and provided inspiration
for the underground acid scene through his compositions. Most likely,
this legendary DJ has lent his name to the enormous <i>Mayday</i> rave,
which is held annually in Germany and has reached astronomical proportions.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Frankfurt had early on become inspired by
Detroit techno and created its own version, <i>eurotechno</i>, by trashing
their Japanese synthesizers and hunting down old relics from the seventies.
<b>SNAP</b> invented the winning combination of a black rapper and a female
vocalist, and <b>LA Style</b> made a loud and provocative song called
<i>James Brown is Dead</i>, to signify the end of techno's affair with
funk and R&B. Groups like <b>2 Unlimited, Pandora, Captain Hollywood
Project, </b>and<b> Culture Beat</b> fall under the collective term <i>eurodance</i>
(in the US, this genre is called <i>techno/rave</i>).</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">These and other early eurotechno bands brought
something new that many had long been waiting for. They abandoned the
120 bpm that had been the mark of beauty for acid house, and pushed the
pace of their songs to a level that most closely resembled energetic punk.
The tempo increased on dance floors around the world at the same time
that MTV grew really large and further expanded the production of popular
culture. We ended up with a new, wearied youth generation which was called
<i>Generation X</i>, who walked out of movie theaters if nothing had happened
by the first ten minutes of the film.<br>
At the same time, the indefinable <b>KLF</b> (Kopyright Liberation Front)
appeared from nowhere and toured the hit lists with only one album and
an incredible amount of singles, only to later withdraw from the scene
and, in their own words, "never again make music". The group
consisted of <b>Bill Drummond</b>, the disillusioned former manager of
(among others) <i>Echo and the Bunnymen</i>, and <b>Jimmy Cauty</b>, a
former member of <i>Killing Joke.</i> They introduced a totally new element
to popular music by combining the instrumentation and dance-oriented tempo
of dance music with classical rock formulations. The result was music
palatable to synth, techno and rock fans.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">KLF were very aware of what they were doing.
In the early stages of their career, they wrote a book titled <i>The Manual</i>,
and promised a full refund to anyone who could not make it to England's
hit list with the help of the book. Before they became KLF they called
themselves <b>The Timelords </b>and<b> The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu</b>
(a name which together with much of KLF's image is taken from the cult
book <i>Illuminatus</i>!). In reality, you should probably consider KLF's
commercial career as an example of modern art making a protest against
the pop industry. At the end of their career, they actually hated this
self-perpetuating machine that churned out the same garbage over and over
again. Throughout their career, the group was characterized by a total
lack of respect for money and established pop music, as well as a generally
cynical view of life. The leader, Drummond, was highly inspired by Zen
Buddhism, and provoked those who posed questions about the band by accusing
them of being under the influence of the four mistresses of Lucifer: <i>Why,
What, Where, </i>and<i> When,</i> which are questions that according to
Zen cannot be answered by words. Early on, Drummond worked with Alex Paterson
on <i>The Orb</i>, and the two together could be said to have invented
the genre of <i>ambient techno</i>.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">KLF also clearly shows the connection between
attitudes in the underground dance culture and among hackers. As many
other DJ's, they sampled extensively from other artists, and more or less
held the opinion that music should not be patented. On one occasion they
sampled ABBA and wrote (somewhat provocatively) on the back of the album
that "<i>KLF hereby declares all material on this record free of
copyright</i>", which eventually resulted in the entire issue being
burned on a field somewhere in central Sweden. This took place after KLF
failed to convince ABBA to withdraw their threat of legal action that
they received from ABBA's Swedish representatives. On another occasion,
Drummond began to "liberate" the group's equipment during a
gig at a London club, which forced the club owners to intervene to stop
the guests from taking the machines home with them.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">In England, there is a whole array of strange
musicians in addition to KLF: among others, the ambient music revolutionaries
<b>Black Dog Productions</b> and an idiosyncratic group named <b>The Prodigy</b>,
who invented their own style of music called <i>breakbeat</i>. These groups,
like KLF, appeared in the late 80's in synch with various independent
bands such as <i>Pop Will Eat Itself</i>. The explosive development of
the music business in England was due to the very pop industry that KLF
specifically protested.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">A considerable proportion of people in England
go to "in" clubs and listen to the latest music before it is
released, and the top hits list is a creation based on lobbying, without
any connection to reality whatsoever. In actuality, England's Top 40 is
simply an institution of power that the pop industry employs to tell the
public what they should buy. Since entries on the list go up and down
at a violent rate, new music and new artists must be generated constantly
(<i>translator's note</i>: At the time of this translation, a clear-cut
example would be <i>The Spice Girls</i>). In this frenzy, hundreds of
artists get their chance to show what they can do, for better or for worse.
Originality is much more interesting than technical skill. In this manner,
the pop industry sought out acid house music from the small suburban clubs,
and the improbable event that this narrow genre made the hits list actually
occurred. This phenomenon has turned England into the "engine"
behind European popular music.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">In Germany, Sven Väth and a myriad
of other DJ's produced a mix of techno and ambient clearly influenced
by the eighties' acid house: <i>trance</i>, which in England was combined
with influences from the Indian vacation paradise Goa and labeled <i>goa-techno</i>.
Some half-crazed Dutch guys who called themselves <b>Rotterdam Termination
Source</b> made a piece of music using only drums and sound effects: <i>Poing</i>.
In this manner they created a genre called hardcore techno, which has
developed into a hybrid of techno and death metal, often using a tempo
of 300-400 bpm. This hybrid has gotten some former metalheads into techno.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Electronic pop music is never static: there's
always something new, and there's constant experimentation in small studios
around the world. Crossover techno, in which techno is mixed with other
music genres, springs up everywhere. It is often very commercial, with
perhaps the exception of the hyper-experimental <b>The Grid</b>, who have
for the first time in their career made a commercial success with <i>Swamp
Thing</i> - a mix of techno and banjo pieces. <i>Jungle</i> is a genre
which is both a predecessor to and a continuation of The Prodigy's breakbeat-techno
- a mix of techno, rag and dub music which seems very promising and which
is also not particularly commercialized. The most hardcore is <i>gabber</i>,
which is a corrupted version of hardcore techno. God knows what's going
to be invented next: <i>gospel techno</i>, perhaps?</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Other musicians, such as Future Sound of
London, Black Dog Productions and the Swedish <b>Lucky People Center</b>,
have approached electronic music and make up a genre known as progressive
house, i. e. house music which is going somewhere, and is always under
development. These people want to escape the concept of genres by breaking
all norms. Thanklessly, genre-breaking becomes a genre in itself; there
is a similar phenomenon within jazz.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">As soon as a genre becomes commercial, as
when techno became eurodance through U96, the smaller clubs tend to invent
some new variant and sneak back into the underground. Examples of this
include Jungle, Goa-techno and Gabber. Jungle is, at the time of this
writing, on its way out of the underground, and new styles are most certainly
being created as we speak in some studio in Germany, England, Holland
or Belgium. You can hold whatever opinion you want on this; in practice,
the entire underground club culture is simply a concept factory for the
pop industry. They find something new, polish it and water it down a bit,
and then release it for a mass audience. If you believe in infinite artistic
integrity and creative art, it's probably a horrible thing to witness.
On the other hand, maybe we should be thankful that we're not listening
to the same chewing-gum pop music of twenty years ago.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Clubs and Raves<br>
</b>Techno is mostly played in small private clubs, even though it is
today <i>possible</i> to sell techno albums to people who are not DJ's.
As a cultural manifestation, techno has strong ties to the dance floor,
and the two could be said to constitute a unified whole.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Dance music has changed the music market.
In the old days, you listened to the radio and checked out your friends'
preferences, bought the records and listened to them at home. Nowadays,
you go to a dance club or even a rave, and become influenced by the music
you hear there - the type of music that's made for dancing. Later, you
might by an album or two. Eurodance mix albums are especially strong sellers.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Techno is not designed for "easy listening"
at home, and it can have a stressful effect if it is used as background
music. In England, where the public traditionally is very open to new
forms of music, heavy and uncompromising techno music has made a commercial
breakthrough; likewise in Germany, which with its tradition of electronic
music <i>a la</i> Kraftwerk welcomes any new innovations in that realm.
Even in Southern Europe, really heavy techno tracks are played on pop
radio.<sup><a href="#FTNT1">(1)</a></sup></font> </p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Raves are still very underground events
in Sweden and Scandinavia, even if its interest base has grown explosively
since 1988. Today, there are <i>thousands</i> of happy ravers in Sweden,
who are often willing to travel far to attend a good rave. In Germany
and Great Britain, raves are already accepted cultural events, which in
some cases attract up to150,000 people, such as the well-known <i>Mayday</i>
rave in Germany (which is sometimes described as the Woodstock of our
time). Special raves are also arranged for different genres. Raves in
Scandinavia are usually not announced in the daily press; the information
is spread through the grapevine and through flyers that are available
given the right contacts.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">A type of rave that receives a lot of attention
is the so-called <i>bryt-rave</i> (English: <i>break-rave</i>), which
entails breaking into a warehouse, setting up a sound stage and starting
to dance. It is reminiscent of a sort of house occupation, and if the
number of attendees is large, the police stands powerless. This type of
rave has been somewhat frequent in Hammarbyhamnen (<i>Hammarby Harbor</i>)
in Stockholm. One could make a connection to the Prodigy track <i>break
& enter</i>, in which sounds of glass braking and doors being pushed
open accompany the music. The sense of revolt and insolence against society
is complete.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The rave culture is primarily based on the
Trance genre, which can keep a dance floor alive all through the night
with its long songs in a perfect dance tempo. A rave is not an event to
attend to get drunk or pick up someone. A rave is a place for dancing,
listening to music, meeting and looking at other people. Whoever attends
a rave with different intentions will invariably be disappointed.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Rave culture is claiming expansion - even
futuristic dress and other methods of creating a homogeneous group identity
have started to develop. The rave sites (mostly warehouses) have also
started to receive futuristic interiors to give more of a "cyber-feeling"
to the environment. The phenomenon has gained a Swedish face through<b>
Mikael Jägerbrand</b>, editor-in-chief of the relatively new magazine
<b>NU NRG Update</b> (pronounced "New Energy"), which has a
run of about 1000 copies and has a layout that really screams "underground";
the page layout is reminiscent of American tabloid classifieds. It is
of course a good move - ravers <i>love</i> being underground. Despite
its small circulation, the magazine is not sectarian or single-minded,
and it shows a certain sense of distance and social awareness.<sup><a href="#FTNT2">(2)</a></sup></font>
<font face="Times New Roman"> There's also a few smaller fanzines, and
naturally a few electronic bulletins and magazines.<br>
</font> <font face="Times New Roman"><br>
<b>Clubs, Trends, and Drugs<br>
</b>The (Swedish) debate around dance events such as acid parties and
raves is severely inflamed by the narcotics debate. The underground dance
culture is under no circumstances endorsing or approving of drug use.
Unfortunately, sometimes people attending dance events can be total spacebrains<sup><a href="#FTNT3">(3)</a></sup></font>
<font face="Times New Roman">. The main purpose of dance parties was and
remains dancing and music. Originally, acid parties were completely drug-free
events.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">As early as the late 80's, the discos on
Ibiza (a Spanish island resort) hooked on to the acid house trend and
created their own version, <i>balearic beat</i>, a mix between house,
flamenco (!), and a few other styles mostly associated with the artist
<b>Paul Oakenfold</b>. Ibiza is primarily visited by rich people, mostly
from England, and it has drugs in abundance.<br>
The reason for the popular connection between drugs and acid house/rave
is thus that those who enjoyed partying all night before the introduction
of the acid parties, brought their strange fashionable drugs when they
went to visit one. Especially the "designer drug" Ecstasy, a
mix between amphetamines and LSD, has figured heavily in the media. Ecstasy
is originally a "yuppie-drug", which has become a sort of exclusive
marijuana for the rich. In the beginning it was sold as a diet drug. The
greatest culpability for the narcotic stamp on rave and acid culture falls
on English upper-class youths. The drugs ruined the reputation of all
the intense house-clubs around Manchester, and the stigma remains.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Nonetheless, Ecstasy, amphetamines, and
cocaine are present at some rave-like events. As expected, it seems to
occur more at purely commercial dances, to which the "in" crowd
that want to stay abreast of the new culture is drawn. Enthusiasts at
small techno clubs are mostly of the opinion that Ecstasy is a nuisance
which ruins the reputation of techno culture. Unfortunately, since everything
that is prohibited is also "rebellious", drugs have spread to
several acid and techno clubs, including Swedish ones. The clueless middle-class
rebel thinks, as usual, that you're a <i>real</i> rebel only when you
do drugs. Independent thought is never popular among conformist groups.
In short: ravers with brains stay away from drugs, and those who don't
know anything naturally think drugs are really cool (no, it's true - people
<i>never</i> learn).</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Large clubs are frequent in major cities.
They are kitschy, well decorated, with mean bouncers and a fairly long
line regardless of whether it's full or not (to create demand, of course).
They are not about supporting some subculture, even though many DJ's from
the underground scene get a chance to make some money in these clubs.
Drugs are consumed in the bathrooms.<sup><a href="#FTNT4">(4)</a></sup></font>
</p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The terror in homes around the country is
complete. The poor parents of these young people remember with horror
those few years at the end of the 60's, when they themselves were swept
up by the wind from San Francisco, smoked marijuana and hasch, and tried
LSD. Not many are willing to admit to that today, but their fear of their
kids doing the same thing today is genuine. The main theme then was protesting
the Vietnam War and society, and the main theme today is dancing and having
fun. Ravers don't need politics as an excuse to meet and enjoy themselves.
Drugs are tangential, and not at all as prevalent as media would have
it appear. Fear and misunderstanding often inflates the problem to bizarre
proportions.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">One thing that ravers do enjoy are so-called
<i>smart drinks</i> - energy drinks that help rave dancers keep dancing
a long, long time. Mostly it is a matter of substances that can be found
in any pharmacy or herbal medicine store, but with different labels. There
is no reason to suppose that this should be harmful - middle-aged Swedes
have consumed the pills for decades without suffering harm. What is worse
is the tendency to mix prescription drugs with the drinks, which is something
that cyperpunks in particular do sometimes (more on this in the next chapter).
Most of the "emergencies" reported about drugs on rave parties
is due to journalists attending some event and seeing these sugar pills
and sodas on the bar, frequently wrapped in some pastel-colored paper
or foil, which naturally appear very ominous. If you interview young people
who have been to a rave, they most likely will say yes to having taken
Ecstasy, even if they've actually consumed a bunch of St. John's Wort.
It happens, sometimes.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Some member of the debate has tried to submit
the fact that the dancing itself is harmful. The statement that the capacity
of ecstatic dance - which is imprinted in our genes since thousands of
years - fails by virtue of its own stupidity. Such a statement is thus
rather an expression of conservative cultural values or even xenophobia,
which seems to be a characteristic of many "opiners". Obviously,
the people that do not attend regular dance clubs and listen to Stairway
to Heaven for the 18803<sup>rd</sup> time, while drinking themselves silly,
and are not there just to try to get laid, must be <i>suspect</i>…
cluelessness, in short.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Even in Sweden, frightened cops have broken
up rave parties for no reason whatsoever in their total ignorance of how
underground culture works. Some police raids against rave dances most
closely resemble ethnic discrimination - of the same kind practiced by
customs agents and retail security officers who target people of different
pigmentation or dress. Some cops are apparently susceptible to excessive
stereotypical categorization.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The cause of the cultural phenomenon of
rave is that the actual dancing at the larger, commercial clubs has become
secondary. The organizers are mostly interested in selling as much beer
and liquor as possible, and the patrons are more oriented towards boozing
and picking up someone than dancing. The inherent value of the dance has
been abandoned.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">It has occurred to me that it might actually
be a good thing that rave suffers from a bad reputation. It prevents people
with purely commercial interests from advertising gigantic rave parties,
and thereby commercializing the vibrant underground technoculture. Sometimes
it even seems that ravers are somewhat amused by having a "bad reputation",
for identifying with the underground. In Sweden, this negative image has
only had the effect of attracting more young people to the parties.<br>
<br>
<b>Music and Music Culture</b><br>
In reference to electronic music, it generally seems as if every new generation
of innovative musicians is scorned by the previous one: classical electronic
musicians look with distaste on electronic pop music, synth pop fans despise
heavy synth and techno musicians, techno musicians dislike hardcore techno
musicians etc. etc. It might be redundant to mention that classical and
rock musicians scorn all forms of electronic music.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">This is probably a necessary state of affairs.
It is the distancing from older norms that creates a new subcultural group
within an accepted domain, and this is how culture grows and develops.
The argument is applicable to literature, film, theater - in short, all
types of art. Techno music and techno culture is, especially due
to the influence of television, inextricably associated with the art of
video and computing. That techno is inseparable from dance has already
been illustrated. This development of popular culture has resulted in
many artists that are more like some form of product than people. The
music is created in a studio, performed by a group of photo models, etc.
Popular music becomes more than music - it becomes part of a culture.
You don't buy just a record, you buy a lifestyle. Fashion, dance, film
- everything is included. It could be summarized and called "art".
Popular art.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">Art grows and develops when individuals,
with a desire to create something new where not everything has been tried,
go against the norms and create something new. Mostly the individuals
are young, such as Sex Pistols, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan or Jack Kerouac
(well, they were young when they started). Sometimes it is some eccentric
artistic soul like Marcel Proust, James Joyce, or Frank Zappa. When a
young artist breaks out of the norms there arises, given the right circumstances,
a new subculture, which under even more conducive circumstances creates
a new spirit of a generation.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">The smaller the Earth becomes, and the farther
our mass media reach, the more subcultures develop, generations change
faster, and society changes faster. This is a characteristic of the post-industrial
society which I will later explore further. Let it be stated that the
breaking of norms and creation of new ones is very important for these
new styles of music. It also has a considerable importance for the more
central points of this book.</font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman">We will now see how the pulsing rhythm in
culture generated an entirely new literary genre, a new view of society,
and - soon - a new ideology. <br>
</font></p>
<hr>
<br>
<font color="#999999"><a name="FTNT1"></a> 1. In Sweden, as of late 1996
no such breakthrough has taken place. Perhaps the Swedish public is simply
too conservative. However, things are slowly moving forward. Kalle Dernulf,
of P3 (part of Swedish national public radio), is probably the one who has
dedicated himself the most to spreading Swedish and foreign techno in the
ether.<br>
<br>
<a name="FTNT2"></a> 2. Jägerbrand and the Swedish Rave Organization
(SRO) are at the time of this writing organizing a "raverixdag"
(English (loosely translated): <i>Rave Congress</i>) to coordinate Swedish
rave organizers. Someone remarked sarcastically that "they seem to
have to make <i>everything</i> political", but in light of the Nacka
Police Department's dubious raids against Docklands (a rave site) during
the Spring of 1996, the need for an organized resistance group is understandable.<br>
<br>
<a name="FTNT3"></a> 3. Some have made the observation that it shouldn't
be a great experience to attend a rave on a "downer" drug, such
as hasch. I have personally observed that it appears fairly abundundantly
at raves; why, I do not understand. Possibly it may be due to the hasch
(THC) having a mildly psychedelic effect. In this context, I'd like to take
the opportunity to mention that I'm personally neither for nor against drugs
<i>per se</i>, which you might conclude from the strong formulation above.
What I am against is the tendency to blame drug use on culture. On drugs
in general I don't have a clear and expressed opinion, rather I reserve
the privilege of ignoring that debate, which is sure to piss somebody off.<br>
<br>
<a name="FTNT4"></a> 4. If someone interprets this to mean that I think
that these "beer cafés</font><font color="#999999">"</font>
<font color="#999999"> are the pathetic hangouts of the "in" crowd,
that someone has interpreted me correctly.</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
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