Music Essays- Rave Culture Music

practice of medicine Essays- Rave Culture medicationRave Culture MusicSince its emergence in the late 1980s, the subfuroreure referred to as jet has be pay off a signifi trampt global early days phenomenon. Postmodern scholars tend to treat the rant sub kitchen-gardening as iodin of disappearance and pleasure. The armchair approach of postmodernists is entirely blemish because it fails to ac accreditledge the meaningful spiritual experiences of those attending spouts. Scott R. Hutsons The Rave Spiritual Healing in unexampled Western Subculturesintroduces an opposing theory that raving is a spiritual practice wherein the symbolic processes embedded in culture create appropriate frameworks for healing. Gilbert Rougets conceptualization of take in and how it is managed in the ritual condition provide the analytical foundations for this spiritual practice. This paper will analyze the role of the DJ as a leader of a self-discipline trance ritual who aided by key symbols, a ddresss the ravers on an joyous journey to paradise- a pre-social res publica of non-differentiation and communitas (Hutson 199954).Raves shit increasingly compel the focus of books, movies, and media c everyplaceage, and the culture has been the undercurrent prat just about of the latest medical specialty and fashion trends. Described by Merchant and McDonald as the most vibrant, democratic and visible heathenish expression of young people (Merchant and McDonald 199416), rave culture has had such an enormous conflict on the mainstream youth and popular culture that it is now often considered disjoint of the mainstream. The electronic and cadenceically exigent nature of the harmony, the long hours of leap, the semi-legal secret location, and the ingestion of psychoactive substances, differentiate raves from other youth parties. When have, these features ar ad hocally designed to promote feelings of connectedness, spirituality, and a state of ecstasy among modern-d ay youth. At the heart of these proceedings one encounters the respective(prenominal) responsible for the success or failure of the compensatet the Disc-Jockey or DJ. Using equipment to command the rhythm, run short, and lighting, the DJ guides individuals through a psychological journey of what some move over described as healing, identity operator transformation, and spiritual growth.Get help with your essay from our expert essay writersA small body of upstart publications on raves reflects the growing recognition that the rave scene provides a spiritual outlet for m whatever contemporary youth. The DJs position within this culture as a spiritual leader and guide has also been noted. What is uncertain, however, is the specific nature of this role. Poschardt contends that the DJs tendency toward laconic autism has made him a problematic object of study that has remained untouched by donnish study (Poschardt 199517). Similarly, Fikentscher observes that his gradual rise in the power structure of the medicinal drug industry has not been accompanied by a corresponding growth in academic literature (Fikentscher 200033). Although similarities hold been noted betwixt the function of the DJ in the rave culture, and that of the shaman in traditional cultures, a critical and in-depth academic analysis of the DJs work is inadequacying. It is often untrue that what ravers experience during raves is ecstasy, but a definition or thorough investigation of this state of knowingness is lacking. Similarly, references to trance or hypnotic states argon also presented as fact but explanations and indications of these states and how they are elicited are usually glossed over. Some authors appear to be completely baffled by the altered states of consciousness (ASCs) encountered at raves, their position clearly illustrates a poor appreciation of ASC phenomena. One author explains that ravers move in a hypnotic delirium which has been described as a trance jump. It is as if some sort of whirl has been cast over them causing the throng to lose themselves in their own thoughts while the pounding of the practice of medicine remains starkly unobtrusive (MacDonald et al. 1998243). Postmodern scholars shoot the breezem to avoid the subject of ASCs altogether, while ac drive inledging the atrocious fiber of the experience as grounds for its exclusion from academic inquiry. Additionally, the DJs expertise and the symbiotic human singingship he develops with the boundrs has also been neglected, perhaps due to the embodied, performative, and intuitive pieces under which these processes are informed. In an tone-beginning to explain this neglect, Gerard states that while the jump medication press, insider accounts and testimonials from DJs and dancers suggested a fertile ground for investigation, scholars tended to avoid the dialectical possibilities inherent in surgical operation analyses or phenomenologically inspired investigations by s imply treating such interactions as somehow undefinable (Gerard 2004170).Another embodied element so central to raving is body movement, that is the dance experience, and as Malbon remarks I note the reticence and/or in great power of both clubbers and academics to discuss dancing (Malbon 199971). It is probable that this reticence is partly rooted in the limitations of an armchair approach. It is obvious that many scholars of rave and club culture behave never physically participated in the contexts they are writing about. This armchair methodology is addressed by Gerard and Sidnell who call for an approach that is instead close in in the immediateRather than attempting to extricate symbolic meanings or covert subcultural agendas, future studies of contemporary dance practice of medicine would be best served from the dance floor and not the armchair. If as a number of authors have suggested, these music and dance spaces can be likened to ritual resultantidets, we should app roach them as such-not by serving portrait from text, as Bruce Kapferer has cautioned, but by framing analysis in the immediate and locally organized contexts of cordial process (Gerard and Sidnell 200036).This paper is an investigation the precise function of the DJ within the rave culture. This involves an investigation of the DJs training, of his techniques of the mechanisms involved in inducing altered states of consciousness (ASCs) in the rave context, of the experience of the participants with these states, and of the relationship amongst the DJ and rave participants.Much of the DJs elevated status and recent success has to do with the artistic license and technological innovations in music production that afford todays DJs with apparently limitless opportunities for creative development. This forces the DJ into a role as a paradoxical artist, a meta-musician whose performance is based on prerecorded music. The profession hence questions the traditional notion of alive performance and as Poschardt states, questions the traditional concept of the artist, blows it apart and re- try outes it in overhauled form (Poschardt 199515-16). An emblematic figure of the postmodern era, the DJ has been likened to a writer, an editor, and even a weaver of mosaics and tapestries. This is largely due to the techniques of mixing, remixing, and take, procedures that make each performance spontaneous, unique, unexpected, and thus live as opposed to prerecorded. Combining two records is referred to as mixing, remixing involves altering and thitherfore reinterpreting and existing song, and sampling consists of inserting any sound, melodious passage, or rhythm into an existing track at any desired point. This is where the creative element and metaphor of the DJ as writer is relevantI love the idea of continuous sampling like remixing e rattling(prenominal)thing as you go so writing is like that. Just like youre probably going to do edits, cuts and splice when youre editing this tape, I mean you do that with language, even when youre speaking, youre al courses picking and choosing what words youre using, the way youre going to describe something so everything is a mix. Im mainly a writer, DJing to me every DJ is a writer, youre using the urban landscape as your book, as your novel, as your text, so everything is writing (DJ unquiet in Reiss 1999).The ability to create new sounds and sample virtually anything also emphasizes the freedom of the artist.While there are DJ schools, information resources on the internet, and technical manuals available to those entering the DJ profession, most DJs are self-taught and the process of learning and refining skills for oneself seems to be the ultimate rite of passage into the trade. For the most part, DJs seem to turn down upon professional schools that offer courses in DJing, feeling that these schools are no more than the product of a recent fad. Most seemed to agree that experience and intuition are the greatest tools for learning available to an amateur, and these cannot be acquired in an academic institution.The notion of being self taught still allows DJs to be influenced by others or to have their careers assisted along the way. Fikentscher characterizes DJing as an oral tradition where experience is passed down to new artists from the DJs that hang before them (Fikentscher 200044). Like raves, DJs on the rise develop a following through word of give tongue to and the circulation of their music. At clubs and raves, the local and unknown DJs are given the probability to spin in the peripheral dwell while the headliner DJs spin in the main room. Through this tolerant of exposure, a DJ can develop a following and eventually graduate to the central room which mobs the best lighting and sound equipment. DJs have also been known to collaborate with other musicians in producing records, and even tour with other DJs thus picking up techniques along the way.A DJ must have an extensive knowledge of music tracks and remember such details as the rhythm, the vocals, and key structure, so that the current song will be complementary to the track that it is being combined or sampled with. Just as many ravers note an transmutation in the way they perceive Techno music through continued participation in the subculture, DJs also place a change in their tuneful perception that is oriented toward the more technical aspects of the music. Evidence for this kind of neural entertainment is support by the finding that the analytic left brain tends to dominate melodious processing in trained musicians, whereas for the untrained it is the right hemisphere that dominates (Wilkinson 20001).While there has been considerable news surrounding MDMA or Ecstasy use as a prerequisite for fully understanding and appreciating electronic music, in contrast to the majority of rave-goers who advocate drug use to get into the music, all of the DJs interviewed in a study by Dr. Mela nie L. Takahashi disagreed with this view. Although a majority had tried MDMA or other dance related drugs, the sentiment that the music combined with the skill of the DJ in its own right were fair to middling to elicit an ASC appeared to dominate. The DJs adeptness for musical perception and producing musical triggers for trance states could explain the incongruousness surrounded by DJs and participants views concerning drug use. All subjects interviewed performed their sets without taking drugs, the reason given being that these substances would negatively affect the assiduity required to perform a live show.Instrumentalists of possession rituals are reported to not ingest psychoactives or enter into trance during performances for similar reasons. According to Rouget, to do so would be incompatible with their function, which is to provide for hours on end and sometimes on several consecutive days, music whose execution must continuously aline itself to the circumstances (Roug et 1985103-104). Rouget argues that these musicians must therefore be external to the cult, such that they are not vulnerable to the music, or they must be experienced adepts who are able to withstand the effects of the music (Rouget 1985104).As the DJ is given the power to introduce the participants to an experience, it becomes increasingly important for the DJ to sustain the integrity of that experience. In Gerards 2004 article Selecting Ritual DJs, Dancers and Liminality in Underground Dance Music, Gerard describes the wideness of flow by framing the dance experience, and the process of mixing, as conduits for liminality as defined by Victor Turner (Turner 2003176). The DJ employs what Gerard coins as techniques of liminality which create periods of distrust for the dancers following the resolution. When the flow is interrupted by poor mixing the flash of spontaneous communitas is potentially threatened dancers are often drawn out of their rapturous state they return to an inc reased knowingness of both setting and self, and sometimes abandon the dance floor (Gerard 2004 176).In order to avoid losing existential integrity, DJs function in a manner similar to role players in possession rituals by developing an evoke and symbiotic relationship with the dancers. The dancers ability to achieve an ecstatic state is dependent on the DJs stage nominal head, his proficiency in intuitively reading and responding to the crowd, and his ability to form a temporary lodge with the dancers. Without these skills, the techniques of trance inductance on their own right are generally inadequate for eliciting what participants call an ecstatic state.In ceremonial possession, the notion of performance is a central element to the ritual. Instrumentalists perform for an auditory modality, and irrespective of an individuals familiarity with the music, the trance state is only gaind within the ritual context in the presence of others. Furthermore, additional aspects of rav es that are paired with the music (i.e. lighting, psychoactives) are generally absent at home even though they play an important role in trance induction. Also absent outside of the rave context is the inter mortalal relationship between the DJ and the participants. Similarly on the subject of possession rituals, Rouget emphasizes the importance of the connection between the instrumentalists and the dancers, stating in order to own trance in a particular person the priests and musicians establish a special relationship with him, make him an object of their solicitude, address themselves to him in an exclusive way, and become at the same time very attentive to what he himself is feeling (Rouget 1985112).At raves, participants recognize that a DJ must be selfless in order to establish this special bond. Although most DJs have a general idea of the style of music and the songs that they will play, it is accepted that flexibility is more important, and this is particularly relevant fo r touring DJs who must also adapt to regional differences in music tasteI know the records that are good to start the evening, but I dont prepare my set in advance. I watch and I react. I try to adapt. Every city is influenced by the people who ab initio created the scene. You have to adapt and still be true to yourself. In Germany, I play techno. In Belgium and Switzerland, its more funky tech house. In Spain, its predominantly techno, except in Barcelona and Ibiza where its house (Jack de Marseille in Huegli 200269).The active role of the crowd in shaping the mood and nimbus of the society also favors a more spontaneous approach.It is believed that DJs who prioritize the tastes of the crowd over their own, are humble DJs and that this quality is a precondition to a peoples DJ (Brewster and Broughton 199911-12). Cues indicating a DJs humility that were remarked upon, are gestures suggesting appreciation and gratitude toward the crowd such as bowing, clapping, eye-contact, and s miling. These gestures also play an important role in prisonbreak the artist/spectator barrier and this strengthens, and reifies the connection between the DJ and the dancers. Breaking the barrier between the artist and participant is another reason why DJ booths are centrally located at raves. It is important that the DJ see the dancers so that he can respond to them, and it is equally important for the participants to be in close physical proximity to the DJ, so that his ad hominemity and presence are able to come throughI dont feel like I have to hide and say, No one should see me when I DJ. Its all about the music. Bullshit People constantly fill someone they can connect to and they can identify with. I always felt that I could bring forth the music across in a more convincing way by using my personality. Because I give people an honest feeling. The most important thing is to see people standing mirthfully on the dance floor in the end (Sven Vath in Huegli 200218).All of t hese factors are conducive to breaking the barrier between the DJ and the dancers. The communication that occurs between the two is much more than music, lyrics, and the dance movements, or what Rouget refers to as the level of the code (Rouget 1985113). In reference to possession rituals, communication is established at the personal level, the emotional level of direct person-to-person relationships (Rouget 1985113).The active role of the dancers also reinforces the dismantling of the barrier between the performer and audience, and this is where the concept of the feedback loop between the DJ and participants is relevant. As DJ Spooky puts it, the DJ/audience relationship is like a symbiosis you know, its like a biological structure you know, I mean its like you are sending out information and pulses that the crowd in a way then sends back to you, and like youre like a focal point of the life force of these gathered people (Reiss 1999). There is also an emotional element involved in this symbiotic relationship which targets the DJ with responsibility for the emotions of the crowd of dancers. The DJs emotional state can be transmitted to the crowd through his music and consequently impacts the condition of the dancers.A DJs seeming lack of enthusiasm, his failure to make eye-contact, smile, or dance are indicators suggesting that he isnt having a good time, and this has consequences on the crowd. While the crowd is sensitive to these nonverbal indicators of the DJs affective state, the DJs mental state can influence his choice of music, and this too will impact the experience of the dancers. While electronic music has been accused by some of being repetitive, bland, and even minimal, there is a strong correlativity between the genres of Techno music and affect. For example, Terrorcore, Industrial Hardcore, Jungle, and Drum n Bass, are noted for bringing out obstreperous and negative emotional states in some individuals. Bold, militant rhythmic patterns, so unds of machinery, people screaming, and vocals with coarse language, are the kinds of sounds attributed to some of these music styles. It is generally felt that the people who are looking to experience negative and aggressive states hear out these types of events. In contrast, Trance, House, and Happy Hardcore, are generally characterized by warm melodic styles and positive lyrics that are noted for engendering such feelings as love, a ace of well-being, connectedness, and spirituality among participants.Depending on his mood, the DJ can strike tracks with vocals and melodies that accentuate positive floors, or tracks with sounds and lyrics that concentrate on the darker aspects of life. This is why a participants sense of trust in the DJ is so important. It becomes evident that there is a shared feeling of uncertainty arising from the inability to pinpoint the DJs intentionsI realized that the DJ had POWER over me. I was basically prostituting for the DJ I was a slave to what he had (the promise of the climax) and he was flexing his power and tweaking with me to see how much I could stretch myself out for it. It really scared me I think some DJs unimpeachably hold the power of a cult in their turntables and in their speakers, and its really not something that I want to get down on my knees for. Just a thought, Im not bag here. I still think rave is one of the best things the 20th century has to offer, but I think that if left unchecked, it could turn on us (cited in Takahashi and Olaveson 200386).At raves, the trance state is very much dependent on the individuals willingness to let go and trust the DJ in allowing him to guide the nature of his or her experience. One DJ regards the dancers as having a responsibility to meet him half(prenominal) way, As long as they are open for a while and let themselves go, they have the opportunity to feel things the way I intended them to (Heiko Laux, in Huegli 2002). Here again, the similarities between possession rituals and raves are apparent. Rouget characterizes the relation of the possessee to the musicians as the submission of the former to the latter (Rouget 1985112). The following description of the ndop ceremony highlights many of these striking resemblances including the instrumentalists ability to observe and respond to the dancers movements, and the bond established between the twoIn fact, a close interpersonal relationship develops at this point between drummer and possessee. The drummer takes charge of her, so to speak. Keeping very close to her, never leaving her side, concentrating on her slightest movements, incessantly observing her behavior in order to festinate up the tempo, or, on the contrary, relax it select the necessary types of beat and adjust the intensity of the stroke. Communicating the rhythm of the dance to her, he holds the possessed woman in his sway and leads her into the ever more violent whirlwind of his music. that if he is able to lead her in this way, and finally guide her where he wishes, it is because he has been able to establish a close understanding with her. It is because he can follow her that he is able to dominate her and compel his will upon her. He is the master of the game, but within a dialogue. He speaks music and she replies dance (Rouget 1985112).The theme of submission is also apparent in possession ceremonies in relation to the spirit beings that possess cult members. In the case of Haitian Vodou, for example, Bourguignon highlights extreme passivity as one of the prerequisites for trance inductionHowever, one aspect of submission-dominance seems of importance in relation to possession trance in person, as we have seen, is said to be mounted by the spirit, to be his horse. The personality of the individual, one of his souls called gros bon ange, is displaced and the body is taken over by the spirit. In other words, there is total subjection to the spirit and total submission to him (or her). The spirit, as a p owerful superhuman entity, can do as he pleases, both with the horse he has mounted and with other human beings present. We thus have an expression of extreme passivity in this interpretation of possession trance (Bourguignon 197640).At raves, references to the power of music in directing the body are reminiscent of possessions horse and rider metaphor. According to Sylvan, these accounts of submitting to the music suggest a trance state very similar to possession, in which music becomes the rider and the body becomes the horse, but without reference to any specific possessing spirit (Sylvan 2002129).In the rave locale, the DJ is equally influenced by the emotions of the crowd, where participant feedback is transmitted at the visceral level. While it is not unusual for participants to demonstrate their admiration for a DJ by whistling or chanting his name, for the most part, crowd feedback is nonverbal. Occurring as sets of coordinated body techniques that all ravers seem to intui tively know and all DJs can follow, these moves are acquired at the corporal level and most ravers seem to be unconscious or unaware of these movements. The responses to the DJ are well coordinated from an observers point of view. Fikentscher calls the essence of individual dancing bodies the corporal performance wherein the bodies of the dancers can potentially unite to form one musical instrument (Fikentscher 200058-59). As McCall suggests, this process is mediated by dancers observation of subconscious cues. These cues create a placement where people are helping each other dance without knowing it, feeding off the collective anticipation for that moment of synergy where it feels like utter madness cheers, claps, whistles, hands in the air. Suddenly everyone is dancing in unison (McCall 200193).When the dancers are in sync with one another, the boundaries between individuals seem to vanish as the crowd appears to function as one organism (McCall 200195). This process of synchro nization also encompasses the entry into a collective psychic space.In Music and Trance A Theory of the Relations Between Music and Possession, Rouget emphasizes that rituals of possession are embedded within rich cultural traditions wherein trance is a learned and culturally patterned process. In these traditions, the musical motifs, instruments, and dance steps are localized to specific gods and myths, and thus the music operates as the principal authority of socializing trance (Rouget 1985323). Rouget argues that it is the possessees ability to identify emotionally with the music and dancing as signifiers of cultural knowledge, that enables him to enter the trance state. This is where electronic music departs from possession music. Although raves are emotionally charged events, the music and dance movements are not rooted in a specific cultural tradition other than rave. Nevertheless, there is an inherent power in the music to evoke extraordinary states of consciousness and this is where the universal agents involved in triggering trance are paramount. DJs have not only utilized these mechanisms to induce trance among participants, but the available technology in sound and music production has given artists the agency to refine these practices into a science of precision. To a certain extent, these technological advancements compensate for the lack of cultural signifiers, as DJs have access to a range of equipment that is clearly absent in ceremonial possession.Electronic music producers are creating works that are intended to elicit specific states in the brain, and advancements in sound and ocular effects at raves create the optimal listen environment for these tracks. Even though the sophisticated scripted process of initiation as observed in ceremonial possession is lacking at raves, these features when combined with the DJs proficiency in track selection and crowd interaction, and the learning on the part of participants in recognizing and respond ing to the DJs cues, account for the ASCs that people are reporting at raves. many a(prenominal) DJs as well as experienced rave participants have developed their senses in such a way that they perceive Techno music differently than those who have never been exposed to it. This shift in musical perception is a learned by-product of repeatedly exposing the auditory system to new stimuli, and this transition is a key part of the scripted process as well as a prerequisite to ASC induction. For DJs and their fans, listening entertainment is only a small part of the electronic music scene. Specifically, the tones, frequencies and beats of electronic music are designed by producers and further refined by DJs to target the body in precise ways. Electronic music is intended to be physically experienced and this is evinced by the fact that many veterans of the rave scene describe the music as having a three-dimensional vibrational quality that transcends the traditional way music is perceive d. The body-centered quality of the music is deeply intrinsic to electronic music culture and this is the common meander that links the numerous classifications of rave music.Computer technology has provided the DJ with the power to totally control the means of perception at raves. Whereas the tonalities and structures of traditional music are limited by the parameters of the instruments on which they are play electronic music sets tonality loose releasing creativity from the discipline-and exclusivity-of musicianship (Hemment 199729). As Gauthier remarks, Techno becomes a presence that cannot be ignored-more, it is a shock whose intensity is only matched by the bodys urge to give in to it, an aggression made positive through the festive context (Gauthier 200475). The dominance of the music is also supported by the high volume of the music. According to Fikentscher, this ensures the authority of the DJ as the music establishes absolute anteriority over other acoustic phenomena con versation, handclapping, foot stomping, yelling, whistling (Fikentscher 200385). Some electronic musicians are even experimenting with sounds that go beyond the human auditory range. Fritz argues that sounds that vibrate through the body without being heard may be partly responsible for the powerful emotional response people have when listening to rave music (Fritz 199978).While the majority of DJs are not necessarily versed in the scientific literature on trance states, or use scientific language to describe what they do, there is an underlying intuitive knowledge of what works with the crowd at raves. Rouget observes that an interruption in the musics flow is used cross-culturally to induce trance. Such catalysts as the acceleration of tempo, the crescendo in volume, the use of polyrhythm, rhythmic changes such as syncopation, and even a brief cessation of the music, are techniques that interrupt the musics flow, triggering trance (Rouget 198580-84). Rouget notes that most possess ion ceremonies begin slowly, gradually intensifying throughout the evening with the onset of possession being the climax of the event (ibid 198580-84). The methods implemented by instrumentalists in interrupting the musics flow function to intensify the sound and atmosphere of possession rituals. With electronic music, the idea of accent and release is a built-in characteristic of all classifications of rave music. Thus while Trance, Jungle, and House may differ with regard to tempo, meter, instrumentation, and use of lyrics, the same techniques of building tension are employed by DJs in all three genres. As Reynolds notes rave music has always been structured around the delay of climax and the anticipation of a plateau of bliss that can be neither exceeded nor released (Reynolds 199456).This paper examined the role of the electronic music DJ, and how DJing has evolved into an art-from as well as a science. Technology has played a pivotal role in shaping the development of rave cult ure. At its core, the music that binds this global culture together is created, exchanged, performed, and experienced through computer-mediated technology. According to Wilson, a reverence to and celebration of technology, and an implicit and explicit belief in progress through technology, is one of the underlying doctrines of rave culture (Wilson 2003386). As Gauthier remarks in reference to rave culture, technology is synonymous with possibility, and stands as a prerequisite for creation, collection and effervescence (Gauthier 200471). Raves would be crippled without technology and this reinforces Reynolds point that rave music is not about what the music means but how it works (Reynolds 19989). The DJ is the expert in knowing how electronic music works. His marvelous knowledge of repertoire, aptitude for musical memory, technical prowess at the turntable, charismatic presence on stage, and ability to interact with, read, and manipulate the crowd, have awarded him the power to take his dancers on what participants have described as an ecstatic journey.