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Why is everyone so ECSTATIC about Techno?!?

djmonkey

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 14, 2003
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78
I took a Writing class about a year ago and our final paper had the following prompt:

Choose some aspect of popular music and write a 12-15 research paper. Try to apply it to your major area of study.

I was a Pharmacology major at the UC Santa Barbara...and I specialize in psychopharmacology. I have done a variety of research both in the library and the laboratory and I have taught a few different classes at UCSB, including the pharmacology lab for majors. I am also a techno fanatic and so, for the Writing class, I chose to explore the reason that there is such a strong correlation between ecstasy use and a general interest in electronic dance music. I received an A+ in the class...so at least one person liked my paper. :D I'm hoping to catch the interest of some of you bluelighters...please respond with any criticisms, opinions, questions, and/or feelings.

My sources are listed at the bottom. Please excuse inconvenient formatting (lack of paragraph indents and such)...if you would like to read something that is a little easier to look at, e-mail me at [email protected] and I would be happy to send you the Microsoft WORD document.



Why is Everyone so Ecstatic about Techno?!?

Introduction
Recreational use of psychoactive drugs has historically taken place in musical environments. An important observation is that specific drugs have been used in specific musical environments. An example is the great number of LSD users that spent the majority of their trips listening to the Grateful Dead. There is also the disco era, which was in part defined by the supplementary cocaine use of the time. The most recent development in the relationship between drugs and music is in the use of methylenedioxylated amphetamines such as methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and methylenedioxyethamphetamine (MDEA), three of a variety of compounds that are collectively known as “ecstasy”, with MDMA being the most popular. MDMA is commonly used at all-night dance parties called “raves” where the central focus is the shared experience of loud, booming, electronic dance music mixed with the psychedelic qualities of the drug (Cuomo 272). The goal of this report is to explore the relationship between MDMA and electronic dance music and elucidate the mechanisms that drive the relevant phenomena.

The evolution of a club drug
Merck first synthesized MDMA in 1912, but recreational use did not begin until at least a half-century later, when small groups of people would use it in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Thereafter, its entactogenic and empathogenic qualities, which involve inhibition of the user’s ordinary reluctance to establish close social contacts (Reynolds 83), were utilized professionally in the United States as an adjunct to psychotherapy, particularly in marriage counseling. This went on until its potential for abuse put it in the federal eye, and it was classified as a Schedule I substance in 1988, legally designating it as devoid of an accepted medical purpose and thus illegal to use for anything besides federally-approved laboratory research. Up to that point, recreational use of the drug was still lacking in popularity (qtd. in Cami 455).
It was when clubs in Chicago, Detroit, and New York hosting small communities of primarily African-American, homosexual males first mixed MDMA with dance music that recreational use increased sharply and the rave culture was born (Collin and Godfrey). The music and the drug have quickly evolved into what they are today…a weekly activity for much of the Western world’s teenagers and young adults. In his book Generation Ecstasy, Simon Reynolds offers a historical critique of the subculture, and he addresses the significance of ecstasy use and electronic dance music with the following:

“All music sounds better on E…[but] house and techno sound especially fabulous. The music’s emphasis on texture and timbre enhances the drug’s mildly synesthetic effects so that sounds seem to caress the listener’s skin. You feel like you’re dancing inside the music…[which] instills a pleasurable tension, a rapt sensation that fits perfectly with the sustained pre-orgasmic plateau of the MDMA high.”
“These Ecstasy-enhancing aspects latent in house and techno were unintended by their original creators…But over the years, rave music has gradually evolved into a self-conscious science of intensifying MDMA’s sensations. House and techno producers have developed a drug-determined repertoire of effects, textures, and riffs that are expressly designed to trigger the tingly rushes that traverse the Ecstatic body. Processes like EQ-ing, phasing, panning, and filtering are used to tweak the frequencies, harmonics, and stereo imaging of different sounds, making them leap out of the mix with an eerie three-dimensionality or glisten with a hallucinatory vividness” (84-85).


In 1999, Pedersen and Skrondal conducted a survey of 10,812 adolescents in Oslo, the capital and only metropolitan town in Norway. The results demonstrated a correlation between the use of ecstasy and preferences for house and techno, two subgenres of electronic dance music that are commonly featured at raves. More importantly, it was found that this correlation was greater than that between the use of ecstasy and conduct problems, and even that between the use of ecstasy and the use of tobacco. On average, conduct problems and the use of tobacco are highly associated with all other commonly abused drugs, and so the relationship between ecstasy use and house/techno as a music preference is significant. Earlier research by Forsyth et al. with a population of adolescents in Scotland produced similar results.
An entire sub-culture has revolved around this phenomenon, one that carries its own fashions and rituals, just like any other. Thus, the easy explanation for the correlation between ecstasy use and a preference for electronic dance music is to simply say that it is a trend. However, the strength of the correlation suggests that the explanation must somehow be transcendent of that (Pedersen et al. 1702-1703). It seems reasonable to conjecture that there are one or more unique psychopharmacological mechanisms of action of MDMA that somehow draw the user to one or more unique properties of electronic dance music.

MDMA psychopharmacology
Neurobiological function is dependent on the ability of two neurons to communicate. This communication relies on the interaction between small molecules known as neurotransmitters released by one neuron and the receptors with which they interact in a neighboring neuron. These neurotransmitter-receptor interactions are dependent on the shape of the neurotransmitter, such that other molecules of similar shape are able to bind to the same receptors. Amphetamines are a class of compounds that belong to a larger class known as phenethylamines, which includes dopamine and noradrenaline, two neurotransmitters that mediate a complex array of neurobiological functions. The similarity in structure between amphetamines and these neurotransmitters enables them to produce a biological effect; the receptors that are normally bound by dopamine and noradrenaline can be bound by amphetamines but with a slight difference in the resulting biological effect due to the slight differences in chemical structure. By analogy, there may be more than one key (neurotransmitter) that can fit into a given lock (receptor) but not all of these keys will actually turn the lock because of slight differences in structure (Julien; Stahl).
In general, amphetamines tend to increase transmission of dopamine and noradrenaline by binding to specialized types of receptors called transporters. These transporters pull specific neurotransmitters back into the neurons from which they were released, disabling them from further interaction with receptors on neighboring neurons. When blocked by non-neurotransmitter molecules like amphetamines, transporters cannot serve their normal function in reducing neurotransmission because they don’t have access to the neurotransmitters, thus prolonging the interaction between the neurotransmitters and their receptors. In the case of dopamine, this increased transmission results primarily in wakefulness, euphoria, and a reinforcement of the causal behavior. In the case of noradrenaline, this increased transmission results in increased alertness via stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, one’s “fight or flight” response (Julien; Stahl).
MDMA and other methylenedioxylated amphetamines are subjectively distinguishable from other amphetamines because of their unique action on the neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), which is commonly known as serotonin. Current neurobiological theories of depression point at decreased levels of serotonergic transmission, and many currently available antidepressants including fluoxetine (Prozac®) and paroxetine (Paxil®) function by blocking the serotonin transporter (SERT). This allows the depressed patient’s low levels of 5-HT to have increased interaction with its receptors, retaining the number of neurotransmitter-receptor interactions that would occur at normal levels of 5-HT. Unlike other amphetamines, MDMA is also capable of blocking SERT. So taken together, these mechanisms allow MDMA to increase transmission of dopamine, noradrenaline, and 5-HT, essentially resulting in a sensation that blends elements of euphoria, alertness, and happiness (Julien; Stahl).

The urge to dance
Given that most amphetamines do not make the user “feel like [he is] dancing inside the music” (Reynolds 84), and given that the main neuropharmacological difference between MDMA and other amphetamines is its action on the serotonergic system, it seems that this action should somehow be responsible for the correlation between ecstasy use and house/techno preferences.
Ecstasy users often report an urge to dance (“The Vaults of Erowid”; “Hyperreal”; “The Lycaeum”). Nicholas Saunders has written a number of books that explore his relationship with ecstasy. In a book that he wrote with Rick Doblin, Ecstasy: Dance, Trance & Transformation, Saunders writes about his first experience of mixing techno with ecstasy:

“That experience was a revelation. I felt as though I completely understood what raves are all about—including the music, which had always grated on me…the music constantly provided energy to lift me up without ever letting me down…I found myself not only dancing to the heavy beat but breathing it too, sometimes letting out sounds along with the music…Every part of my body felt free and flexible…I danced continuously until 6 a.m. without any effort, even though I would normally have been exhausted after an hour of such vigorous exercise.” (3-4, my emphasis)

Commenting on the evolution of ecstasy use from the pre-rave era to today’s “generation ecstasy”, Reynolds notes that “MDMA turned out to have a uniquely synergistic/synesthetic interaction with music, especially uptempo, repetitive, electronic dance music.” (83, my emphasis) Since it is MDMA’s serotonergic effects that set it apart from other amphetamines and the relationship between the use of other amphetamines and house/techno preferences is less than that considering MDMA, then MDMA’s serotonergic effects must somehow play a role in the user’s urge to dance.
Intrinsic both to dance music and dancing is repetition. From the simple waltz to the complex array of deep bass and snare drumming in jungle, there is always some fixed portion of the sound that is repeated, creating a focal point for the dancer to follow with repetitive body movements. A necessary component of these repetitive body movements is the ability of the dancer to follow this repetition, to maintain a behavior known as timing. A myriad of behavioral experiments have implicated the serotonergic system in timing behavior, which would suggest that MDMA may be able to affect this behavior in a manner that is distinguishable from other drugs.
In 2000, Chiang et al. published an article in Psychopharmacology summarizing an experiment conducted to examine the effect of 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), an activator of a specific receptor for 5-HT (the 5-HT1A receptor) on a specific type of operant timing schedule referred to as “immediate”. In immediate timing schedules, the subjects, which in this experiment were rats, are required to regulate their own behavior in time. The rats were trained to push levers at constant time intervals by first starving them and then providing them with a sucrose solution when they successfully followed a predetermined timing schedule. It is important to note that this experiment examines the subject’s decision to follow the timing schedule in an attempt to obtain a potential reward, much like an ecstasy user’s decision to follow a repetitive beat in an attempt to obtain the rewards associated with MDMA’s “uniquely synergistic/synesthetic interaction with music”. Interestingly, when the rats were administered 8-OH-DPAT, they were less able to follow the timing schedule, even after previous successful training without 8-OH-DPAT.
Since 8-OH-DPAT is a specific activator of the 5-HT1A receptor, it seems reasonable from Chiang et al.’s experiment to conclude that excessive activation of 5-HT1A receptors inhibits the ability to regulate one’s own behavior in time. Since MDMA is able to block SERT and thus allow 5-HT to have increased interaction with its receptors, MDMA should also inhibit the ability to regulate one’s own behavior in time because it should allow excessive activation of the 5-HT1A receptor by 5-HT, mimicking the excessive activation by 8-OH-DPAT. This may at first seem to counter-argue the relationship between MDMA and electronic dance music because it suggests that MDMA would reduce the ability to dance, but it is important to revisit the fact that ecstasy users tend to report an urge to dance, suggesting that they don’t have to consciously regulate timing.
Reynolds points out the way that ecstasy “melts bodily and psychological rigidities, enabling the dancer to move with greater fluency and lock into the groove,” and he refers to the music as “hypnotic” in this regard (84, my emphasis). It is quite possible that the ecstasy user’s urge to dance comes in part from the novelty of the fact that they don’t have to try to dance but rather that it happens in a way that is less voluntary than normal, as if MDMA’s supposed ability to inhibit conscious timing allows a more programmed “pacemaker” to take-over. This would be consistent with the fact that rats are less able to follow an immediate timing schedule under the influence of 8-OH-DPAT, but only if there is some other mechanism by which MDMA can move the user; this pacemaker hypothesis is only valid if MDMA can somehow cause locomotor hyperactivity.

I can’t stop moving
Locomotor hyperactivity is induced by any drug that increases dopaminergic transmission in a region of the brain called the striatum, thereby increasing stimulation of dopaminergic receptors (specifically, D1 and D2 receptors), and MDMA certainly falls under this category. Most amphetamines are capable of blocking the dopaminergic transporter (DAT), and methylenedioxylated amphetamines are not an exception. By blocking DAT in the striatum, MDMA allows dopamine to have increased interaction with D1 and D2 receptors in that region, resulting in movement (Stahl).
Furthermore, the 5-HT1D receptor was implicated in the locomotor activity associated with MDMA in studies of chronic tolerance more than ten years ago. Chronic tolerance is a process that occurs over days, weeks, or months of continual drug use. Basically, a neuron containing a receptor that is being activated too frequently will pull the receptor away from the outside of the neuron and thus reduce the number of receptors available to neurotransmitters, a process known as “receptor down-regulation.” Since there are then less receptors, an increase in levels of neurotransmitters will have little effect because the neurotransmitters will have nothing with which to interact (Stahl). In 1992, Callaway and Geyer published an article in The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics summarizing their experiment that demonstrated a cross tolerance between RU24969, a selective activator of the 5-HT1B receptor (which is the rodent version of the human 5-HT1D receptor), and MDMA. Experimental rats were treated with RU24969 twice daily for three days so that down-regulation of the 5-HT1B receptor would occur, and then treated with MDMA. Control rats also received MDMA, but they did not receive any RU24969 treatments. The experimental rats, which had fewer 5-HT1B receptors available for 5-HT activation via MDMA’s SERT blockage (due to down-regulation) than the control rats, displayed far less locomotor activity. This demonstrates that the 5-HT1B receptor is in part responsible for the locomotor activity associated with MDMA treatment in rats, and thus the 5-HT1D receptor must be in part responsible for that associated with human MDMA use.
Taken together, MDMA is able to induce locomotor activity in humans by blocking DAT, thus increasing dopamine’s interaction with D1 and D2 receptors, and also by blocking SERT, thus increasing 5-HT’s interaction with 5-HT1D receptors. If it is true that MDMA’s blockage of SERT can inhibit the user’s conscious control of timing behavior via increased interaction between 5-HT and the 5-HT1A receptor, then the increased locomotor activity would provide a medium for a programmed pacemaker to induce dancing in the user.

So why not the merengue?
Although MDMA’s actions on locomotor activity and timing behavior may explain why users are drawn to dance music, these actions do not explain why users are specifically drawn to electronic dance music, let alone the subgenres that are typically featured at raves. It would of course be the shared elements of these subgenres that should define their MDMA-attractive qualities if in fact “rave music has…evolved into a self-conscious science of intensifying MDMA’s sensations.”
One obvious element shared by the various subgenres of electronic dance music is the aforementioned “emphasis on texture and timbre” (Reynolds 84). Despite the minimalism and the repetition, different tracks never sound exactly alike and it is typically easy for the MDMA user to identify a track that he has heard in the past. Somehow, the user places particular focus on timbre, the distinctive property of a complex sound, such that he remembers the next time he hears it. Producers of electronic dance music are constantly looking for new sounds in an attempt to surprise, or even startle, the MDMA user.
The startle response is part of the “fight-or-flight” response, which is mediated by stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system via noradrenaline’s ability to activate both α and β receptors. MDMA blocks the noradrenergic transporter (NET), allowing noradrenaline increased interaction with α and β receptors, resulting in heightened alertness. The actions of noradrenaline have a complex relationship with the actions of 5-HT, as increased serotonergic transmission normally inhibits noradrenergic transmission and increased noradrenergic transmission normally inhibits serotonergic transmission. In the case of MDMA, both of these modes of neurotransmission are increased simultaneously as the drug blocks both SERT and NET, and so abnormal fluctuations in sympathetic responses can occur (Stahl).
For example, if one’s shoulders are suddenly grabbed from behind, she will have an acute startle response. Simply, she will be scared. But if one’s shoulders are lightly tapped and then suddenly grabbed from behind, she will have a diminished startle response. This phenomenon is called pre-pulse inhibition (qtd. in Dulawa et al. 306). In 1999, Dulawa et al. examined pre-pulse inhibition in mice that were genetically engineered to not express the 5-HT1B receptor by treating them with a variety of drugs that increase serotonergic transmission, including MDMA. The results confirmed that activation of 5-HT1B receptors (which are again, the rodent form of human 5-HT1D receptors) by 5-HT decreases pre-pulse inhibition, and so MDMA would likely reduce the neurobiological tendency to use one stimulus as a preparation for a successive stimulus.
Saunders comments on the “subtlety hidden in the change of the beat, a kind of tease that made [him] smile each time.” (3, my emphasis) It is reasonable to conjecture that MDMA’s ability to block SERT and allow an increased amount of interaction between 5-HT and the 5-HT1D receptor played a role in this experience by diminishing pre-pulse inhibition.

The (lack of an) end
A hallmark of electronic dance music is the inherent anticipation that is intentionally woven into the tracks at the production stage; the tracks are meant to build-up to an anticipated climax that is never fully realized. Saunders remembers that the music “built up more and more without ever reaching a climax.” In addition, music featured at raves is always mixed together such that there is no start and no end. Each track begins before the previous track is completed as the DJ follows a pattern of beat-matching, cueing, and fading that is essentially meant to create the illusion that the music is one, continuous song that never ends. This characteristic is decipherable to the sober listener but it may be carrying a deeper psychopharmacological meaning for MDMA users.
All drugs with an abuse potential are capable of increasing positive hedonic tone and/or decreasing negative hedonic tone. In other words, there is an intrinsic motivation to abuse a drug that makes the user feel good or relieves the user from feeling bad. The neurobiological mechanisms governing this behavior are extremely complex but they are all rooted in a single mechanism: Any behavior that causes dopamine to be released into a region of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens to bind to that region’s D1 and D2 receptors will be reinforced, and most abusive drugs share this mechanism, including MDMA (qtd. in White et al.).
It has long been understood that drugs are commonly used as an escape from the perils and responsibilities of everyday life (Littrell). This interpretation of drug abuse can be reconciled with the neurobiology of reinforcement by saying that drugs provide the user with an opportunity to escape from the events in their life which result in reduced dopaminergic transmission and “hide-out” in a period of increased dopaminergic transmission. In the case of MDMA, the drug’s ability to increase serotonergic transmission sets it apart from other drug experiences in that there are unavoidable elements of empathogenesis and entactogenesis; the user essentially feels “in-love” with himself and the strangers that surround him, he wonders why life can’t always be this way, and loses himself in the illusion that it will never end (Reynolds 83). Reynolds elegantly describes how the anti-climactic build-ups and lack of ending in electronic dance music facilitates this process:

“Techno and house create a…form of heightened immediacy…a sort of future-now…Timbre-saturated, repetitive but tilted always toward the next now, techno is an immediacy machine, stretching time into a continuous present. Which is where the drug-technology interface comes into play. Not just because techno works well with…MDMA…which [amplifies] the sensory intensity of the present moment. But because the music itself drugs the listener, looping consciousness then derailing it, stranding it in a nowhere/nowhen, where there is only the sensation, ‘where now lasts longer’” (55).

MDMA users are often surprised at the end of the experience, confused, and even depressed by the discovery that there is actually an end. They are confronted with the harsh reality of the next day, a period of reduced dopaminergic and serotonergic transmission that the drug and the music helped them to temporarily forget (Reynolds 86). Battling with this harsh reality, they may find themselves returning to the music in hopes to relive the experience, as it may become a conditioned stimulus for dopaminergic and serotonergic transmission, small doses that bring them back to the “continuous present” (55).
The relationship between the ecstasy experience and electronic dance music is complicated and as with most psychopharmacology, a full understanding is probably too far out-of-reach. However, the fact that this music has such an intense impact on the psychopharmacology of MDMA merits further research in pursuit of harm reduction. There may be unknown neurotoxicity or other physiological harm caused by the combination that does not occur when MDMA is used alone. On the other hand, the electronic dance music may somehow be a neuroprotectant and the combination would thus be less damaging than when MDMA is used alone. In either case, the marriage of ecstasy and electronic dance music has essentially created a new drug, and the various disciplines that address psychopharmacology should approach it as such.

Works Cited
Callaway, C.W. and M.A. Geyer. "Tolerance and cross-tolerance to the activating effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and a 5-hydroxytryptamine1B agonist." The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 263(1) (1992): 318-326.
Cami, Jordí, Magí Farré, Marta Mas, Pere N. Roset, Sandra Poudevida, Anna Mas, Lluis San, and Rafael de la Torre "Human Pharmacology of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (“Ecstasy”): Psychomotor Performance and Subjective Effects." Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 20(4) (1999): 455-466.
Chiang, T.-J., A.S.A. Al-Ruwaitea, S. Mobini, M.-Y. Ho, C.M. Bradshaw, and E. Szabadi. “Effects of 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT) on performance on two operant timing schedules.” Psychopharmacology 151 (2000): 379-391.
Collin, Matthew and John Godfrey. Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House. 1997. London: Serpent’s Tail, 1998.
Cuomo, M.J., Dyment, P.G., and Gammino, V.M. "Increasing use of ‘Ecstasy’ (MDMA) and other hallucinogens on a college campus." Journal of American College Health 42 (1994): 271-274.
Dulawa, Stephanie C., Kimberly A. Scearce-Levie, Rene Hen, and Mark A. Geyer. "Serotonin releasers increase prepulse inhibition in serotonin 1B knockout mice." Psychopharmacology 149 (2000): 306-312.
Forsyth, Alasdair J.M., Marina Barnard, and Neil P. McKeganey "Musical preference as an indicator of adolescent drug use" Addiction 92 (1997): 1317-1325.
“Hyperreal”. 1992-2002 <http://www.hyperreal.org/>.
Julien, Robert M. A Primer of Drug Action: A concise, nontechnical guide to the actions, uses, and side effects of psychoactive drugs. 9th ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2001.
Littrell, Jill. "What neurobiology has to say about why people abuse alcohol and other drugs." Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions 1(3) (2001): 23-40.
“Lycaeum, The”. <http://www.lycaeum.org/>.
Pedersen, Willy and Anders Skrondal. "Ecstasy and new patterns of drug use: a normal population study." Addiction 94 (1999): 1695-1706.
Reynolds, Simon. Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1998.
Saunders, Nicholas and Rick Doblin. Ecstasy: Dance, Trance & Transformation. Oakland, CA: Quick American Archives, 1996.
Stahl, Stephen M. Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications. 2nd ed. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
“Vaults of Erowid, The”. 1996-2002 <http://www.erowid.org/>.
White, S.R., T. Obradovic, K.M. Imel, and M.J. Wheaton. "The Effects of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “Ecstasy”) on Monoaminergic Neurotransmission in the Central Nervous System." Progress in Neurobiology 49 (1996): 455-479.
 
that's a brilliant paper.. excellent work and the science is presented in a very clear and concise way..
 
Thank you dyscotopia. I appreciate it. Any criticisms? Did it provoke any wild thoughts you'd like to share?
 
uhm, it's late and i'm not very critical.. though the nicholas saunders quote was useful, i thought maybe a paragraph or so more on how users music tastes change after beginning to take mdxa would be interesting as i've never seen any academic information on that subject..

i found the animal studies elucidating as i've never really considered the biochemical basis of rhythm and timing.. and as a producer, it certainly gave me some insights into why i tweak things the way i do and will perhaps influence my next productions.. however, i enjoyed electronic music and began writing it long before i took any phenethylamines.. i think my appreciation of it came more from being slightly tone-deaf (i've trained my ear now, but it took a long time - the ability to electronically loop melodic phrases really helped) and thus focusing more on rhythm and timbre in music than melody. as you mentioned, it is the case that many of the innovators who pioneered this music format did not come at it from a drug-using or drug-augmenting perspective. instead many of them wished to create an hypnotic state without the use of chemicals, which ties in neatly with your theory that the music itself creates noticeable effects on neurochemical transport systems within the brain that can either supplant or augment drugs.

the last time i took an "ecstasy drug" (probably mda) was at a party evenly split between fully live bands and djs. i think i was more critical of the live bands than i would have been normally. though i construed my physical sensations as pleasurable, their music had a very negative psychological effect that made me intensely irritable. i also felt a palpable sense of physical relief when the djs would play between sets.
 
Now you gotta know you did a good job if it interested me enough to read the entire thing ;) hehehe Nice work and I agree with the grader you got what you deserved. Good Work!!

Trippie J
 
i thought maybe a paragraph or so more on how users music tastes change after beginning to take mdxa would be interesting

Yes...I want to know more about this as well. I didn't give a shit about electronic dance music before I tried ecstasy. All I was able to find in the literature were experiments that backed-up my own inferences...no experiments have been done that directly relate an increased interest in techno to ecstasy use.

it certainly gave me some insights into why i tweak things the way i do and will perhaps influence my next productions

I am also a producer (although don't get me wrong...I've never actually cut a record...I'm a hobbyist...same with DJing...although I've actually been paid to do that a few times) and I have always thought of my music as an opportunity to manipulate one's state of mind. The self-expression lies within the fact that my only coherent understanding of how one's mind can be so manipulated comes from my own experiences with it. In other words, I have had my mind manipulated by various producers and DJs, and I typically try to use those experiences as a basis for manipulating others.

i think i was more critical of the live bands than i would have been normally.

Yup...this speaks to why I focused so much on repitition in the paper...I think most people (including myself before I tried E) who have NOT experienced the combination of ecstasy and dance music would claim that "techno is too repetitive" and that this is why they don't like it. They might even find it annoying. But somehow, very quickly after trying ecstasy, something in their brains change so as to make repetitive music seem pleasant...even relaxing. This, in my opinion, is amazing.
 
Thanks TrippieJ...yes, sorry about the length. I appreciate your time. Any thoughts, surprises, inferences, anything?
 
Originally posted by djmonkey
Battling with this harsh reality, they may find themselves returning to the music in hopes to relive the experience, as it may become a conditioned stimulus for dopaminergic and serotonergic transmission, small doses that bring them back to the “continuous present” (55).


maybe thats why i've been stuck on a techno cloud for the past 3 years.
 
Hehe...thanks for the thumbs-up tathra. I'm stuck on a techno cloud too. An acid tech-house cloud to be specific. :D
 
DJMonkey, I imagine you've read "Future Shock" and the "Third Wave" by Dr. Toffler.

if you haven't, do it.

b.t.w.... I'd associate techno more to LSD (especially during the dawn of techno in Detroit, early 80's) than MDMA; trance is more of an MDMA thing.

same with disco/house; Frankie Knuckles used to hand out LSD tabs at the Warehouse in NY back in 80, 81
 
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^ i agree with you there. i got turned onto electronic music when i heard Massive Attack vs Mad Professor -- No Protection while on lsd.
 
Thanks, that was really nice to read. I read the whole thing too, which I can't be patient for usually.
 
djmonkey, props to you for an excellent, informative and captivating paper. I will be rereading it again soon when I have time to really let it soak in.

I'd like to leave a comment.

I will never forget the first time I "became the music." That night I had a long, slow come up and at first I began to feel the bass beats as distinct vibrations against my arms and suddenly the melody was flowing not only around me, but it was a liquid flowing through my body. I was the music and my dancing became a true expression of the music through no conscious effort of my own.
 
Holy shit, thats a great paper. Very nice man!
I have no constructive criticism to offer :)
 
Excellent!

This is a topic I've been curious about (I love mdma but rarely listen to techno). Well done =)
 
the temptation to plagiarise is almost unbearable...good job %)
 
"b.t.w.... I'd associate techno more to LSD (especially during the dawn of techno in Detroit, early 80's) than MDMA; trance is more of an MDMA "

I disagree that an MDMA high gravitates toward trance music, at least in my case..I can't think of anything more annoying while I'm monged than ridiculously long breakdowns and cheesy vocals(not saying all trance is like this, just using it as a point)..The relentlessness of really good, hard techno has blown my mind while on MDMA, LSD, or only weed(Again, the point of whatever you like sober..you will like better on MDMA)..I will definitely agree with you about how "the masses" might dig techno more on LSD, as it's repetitive and unceasing behavior could send your mind spinning off onto tangents and visuals that works like a charm with a psychedelic like LSD..
Good report BTW djmonkey, I'm a huge tech-house fan too..
 
THANKS FOR ALL THE NICE COMMENTS!!!

from mad_chemist -- DJMonkey, I imagine you've read "Future Shock" and the "Third Wave" by Dr. Toffler. if you haven't, do it.

Nope...never have. But thank you for the recommendations. I am always looking for a good book to read and if these have anything to do with the concepts or specifics of my paper then I'm sure that I would be very interested.

from mad_chemist -- b.t.w.... I'd associate techno more to LSD (especially during the dawn of techno in Detroit, early 80's) than MDMA; trance is more of an MDMA thing. same with disco/house; Frankie Knuckles used to hand out LSD tabs at the Warehouse in NY back in 80, 81

Let me answer this point by reposting a paragraph from my paper...

In 1999, Pedersen and Skrondal conducted a survey of 10,812 adolescents in Oslo, the capital and only metropolitan town in Norway. The results demonstrated a correlation between the use of ecstasy and preferences for house and techno, two subgenres of electronic dance music that are commonly featured at raves. More importantly, it was found that this correlation was greater than that between the use of ecstasy and conduct problems, and even that between the use of ecstasy and the use of tobacco. On average, conduct problems and the use of tobacco are highly associated with all other commonly abused drugs, and so the relationship between ecstasy use and house/techno as a music preference is significant. Earlier research by Forsyth et al. with a population of adolescents in Scotland produced similar results.

So I believe the correlation to be very significant...although it is important to note that what is observed as the most common phenomenon is not necessarily the case for every individual.

from vancbc -- I was the music and my dancing became a true expression of the music through no conscious effort of my own. (my emphasis)

very interesting...the lack of a need for conscious effort when dancing on ecstasy is what I was trying to get at in the sections entitled The urge to dance and I can't stop moving. I have experienced this myself and it is quite strange indeed. I love it. =D

from 247 -- the temptation to plagiarise is almost unbearable

HEHE...I will take that as a compliment.

To the others... -- Thank you so much for your kind words. I would really like to keep this post going so if there is anybody else who has any thoughts on the subject, please don't be shy.

-djmonkey
 
tathra said:
^ i agree with you there. i got turned onto electronic music when i heard Massive Attack vs Mad Professor -- No Protection while on lsd.

so have I; loved that CD. Backward Sucking is just nuts.

Orpheus, as far as techno and LSD go...

two words.

Richie Hawtin.

Concept 1 and Consumed, or any decent minimal techno is more conducive to tripping on even 1 hit of acid, than a few pills of MDMA.

djmonkey, that may have been the case Oslo in 1999, but in 1985 (when techno underground parties took place on "The Pier" in Detroit), LSD was prevalent. In fact, raves were originally psychedelic.

I mention "Future Shock" and "Third Wave", because those are the books partly responsible for the dawn of techno music (lots of references to LSD in Future Shock) ; "Modulations" is also inspired by Toffler's ideology.
 
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