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"Forever Young": Consumption and Evolving Neo-tribes in the Sydney Rave Scene

BigTrancer

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"Forever Young": Consumption and Evolving Neo-tribes in the Sydney Rave Scene

Thesis --> http://www.cia.com.au/peril/youth/brookman.pdf
Found on the following page which contains lots of interesting material: http://www.cia.com.au/peril/youth/
I'm yet to read the whole thesis, but the chapter headings are killer (particularly Secions 3.1 and 5.1 IMHO)
Table of Contents
List of Figures iv
List of Plates iv
Acknowledgements v
Chapter 1 Introduction: Theoretical Overview 1
1.1 The Geographies of consumption 2
1.2 Youth Subcultures, Subordination and Hegemony 4
1.3 A paradigm for rave culture? 5
1.4 Maffesoli's Tribes 7
1.5 Resistance, Incorporation and Consumption 9
1.6 Themes in Context 10
Chapter 2 Dance Music and Geography 12
2.1 Experiential Consumption in Dance Cultures 14
2.2 The Rave as Ritual 16
2.3 Beyond the Performative Nature of Raves 23
Chapter 3 Fragmentation and Consolidation: Historical Perspectives of The Sydney Rave Scene 25
3.1 The Sydney Rave Scene 1996-2000 - 'Old Skool' vs 'New Skool', and Disappearing PLUR 28
3.2 Media, Moral Panic and Regulation of Dance Parties in Sydney 31
3.3 Divisions in Terms of Genre of Music 34
3.4 Other Divisions and Threats to the Scene 37
3.5 Themes in Context 1996-2000 38
3.6 Fragmentation and Consolidation within the Sydney Rave Scene 39
Chapter 4 Commodities, Clubs and DIY Raves 43
4.1 Cultural Signs and Commodities within Sydney Rave Culture Today 45
4.2 The Place of Rave Within 'Club Cultures' 52
4.3 DIY Raves - Regulating the Temporary Autonomous Zone 54
Chapter 5 Identity, Credibility and the Underground 56
5.1 Raver Identities, PLUR and Teeny Boppers 56
5.2 Credibility, Authenticity and Sponsorship in the Sydney Rave scene 60
5.3 'Underground - 'Where its Warm and Safe' 65
Chapter 6 Contextualising Rave as a Commodity Culture 66
6.1 Sydney Rave Culture - Evolving Neo-tribes 67
6.2 Geographical Perspectives of the Sydney Rave Scene 71
Appendix A 74
Methodology 74
Constructing the Questionnaire 75
Recruiting Participants 76
Appendix B 78
E-mail Questionnaire 78
Written Questionnaire 82
Glossary of Musical Terms 88
Bibliography 90
Filmography 94
(This Table Of Contents is quoted directly from the thesis linked above)
Might be worth a read :) I found what I've read so far to be pretty obvious, but that's speaking from a point of view knowing what the rave scene is like now and has been like for the last few years.
BigTrancer :)
 
The funny thing is the book that I'm writing (part fiction, part autobiography) focuses exactly on the rise (and fall) of the *sighs at use of buzzword* "Neotribes". What I am trying to do is capture the hope that all this generation needs to overthrow the world is to capture the true essence of the rave.
You know the feeling, it's about 4 o'clock in the morning, the chemicals (if you choose) have well and truely kicked in and then some track which you might call "cheezy" in a more sober state starts playing and hands shoot up to grasp at the lasers. You know at that point that you are all here, for a single infinite moment the crowd is one and it's all about Peace, Love, Unity and Respect.
Or you're just a jaded mofo all bitter because you've lost that sense of perfect idealism. ;)
I think I'm going to have to buy/read his whole paper just so the book can sound that bit more "authentic."
Anyone have something to add on the concept of "Neo-tribes" or "the rave community", I think we could turn this thread into an excellent discussion... I sure as hell could talk for hours about it. :)
[ 13 November 2002: Message edited by: Fetish Jester ]
 
Originally posted by Fetish Jester:

You know the feeling, it's about 4 o'clock in the morning, the chemicals (if you choose) have well and truely kicked in and then some track which you might call "cheezy" in a more sober state starts playing and hands shoot up to grasp at the lasers. You know at that point that you are all here, for a single infinite moment the crowd is one and it's all about Peace, Love, Unity and Respect.
Or you're just a jaded mofo all bitter because you've lost that sense of perfect idealism. ;)
[ 13 November 2002: Message edited by: Fetish Jester ]

you captured that so well jester. *pats on back*
 
fantastic...
BT where do you get 'em from?
life imitating art imitating a mass-marketable commodity imitating a spontaneous social movement .....that happened somewhere else nearly a decade earlier...brilliant
a fresh darwin mango for someone who can come up with the correct post-modern-neo-reflective label...
ahhh...pass me my medication nurse.
 
Or you're just a jaded mofo all bitter because you've lost that sense of perfect idealism. ;)
Sadly, there are people out there who latch onto such a perfect example of post modern existance and turn it into something worth fighting for. Call us slaves, puppets, the impressionable youth, the dregs of a failed mission to enlighten the world.
Thing is, I'm stupid enough to think that I can make a difference in this world just with a few well placed words.
Are you bitter because outsiders flock to give it a label? That places that used to be sites of great and powerful things are now packed to the brim with people that can't, haven't or won't try to break down the final barrier? Do you resent that what once was no longer is except in the hearts of those where the dance never ends?
You have to struggle to keep your head above the water as wave of wave of banalites crash down, drowning us all in $80 a night lightshow spectactulars, but there is one thing that keeps us going: The knowledge, that out there in the field there is going to be another one just like us, taking their first steps into a world where beauty really is truth and the truth is beauty.
 
If anyone attends Monash Uni (clayton) in Melb and has a spare 6 points for an elective in their degree (for those non arts bums with core subjects ;) ) I reccomend an interesting 1st year Politics subject, PLT 1120: "Power and Resistance in Contemporary Culture."
It covers quite closely some of the salient chapters in this guy's thesis, such as his ones on "youth subcultures, subordination and hegemony, resistance and incorporation, and the medias role in moral panics (Anna Wood & the rave scene serves as a case study). Also, heaps of other stuff people here would probably be like scratching the surface of, like the politics of health & drugs, graffitti, internet, identity etc... Tortured looking canadian lecturer too, who was a nice guy.
Bah enough, sorry. Nice thesis!
The knowledge, that out there in the field there is going to be another one just like us, taking their first steps into a world where beauty really is truth and the truth is beauty.
No offence dude, but don't get too carried away with the rhetoric... Perhaps its just me, but 'true believer syndrome' tends to kindle a sense of unease ;)
[ 13 November 2002: Message edited by: -Thoth ]
 
No offence dude, but don't get too carried away with the rhetoric... Perhaps its just me, but 'true believer syndrome' tends to kindle a sense of unease.
Yeah, I suspect it would, wouldn't it? ;)
"Thing is, I'm stupid enough to think that I can make a difference in this world just with a few well placed words."
True believer, or heavily veiled cynic? You make the choice...
 
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