Resurgence of The Rave

Picture a tunnel covered in graffiti, packed wall to wall with sticky half-dressed bodies writhing around, the bass thumping the floor so hard that the walls shake enough to mimic an earthquake. Now let’s turn the clock forward 45 years, and instead of a graffiti-covered tunnel, it’s open land designated for 170,000 people anxiously awaiting their turn to see the day’s hottest 30 DJs. Still an experience packed with even stickier and extravagantly adorned bodies, but with an increasingly growing community that can’t be tamped down. Rave culture has blossomed into a living, breathing experience where everyone shares one love: music. 

Techno was created by a group of young Black artists in Detroit during the 1980s as a way to investigate new soundscapes, encourage style experimentation and welcome queerness with open arms. This genre was a way to escape from the heavy political issues weighing down on all of society. Techno grew and blossomed into an evolving community that brought in people of all different cultures, sexualities, ethnicities and experiences.

SWAN | Woodstock Idealism in Coachella

Last semester, I wrote an essay about American consumer culture as it arose from 1960s New Left activism. It began like this:
In the summer of 1999, Mark Puma, 28, a native of upstate New York, would be able to experience the cultural phenomenon that had occurred three decades prior and only a few short years before his birth. “Woodstock ’99,” as it was referred to, was expected to be a close emulation of “Woodstock ’69,” perhaps the only discrepancy being a different location – Rome, New York, as opposed to Bethel, New York. On the surface, Woodstock ’99′ really did appear to match the characteristics of its predecessor. A mix of contemporary rock music was being played for a large body of nude and enthusiastic fans, all synthesizing under the influence of marijuana and psychedelic substances.