🚀 go-pugleaf

Message #: 45
From: Brian Behlendorf (Vitamin B) <bbehlen@soda.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: alt.rave FAQ help
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 02:03:43 -0800

here's my working copy, essentially version 1.0 since 96% of it
is finished
(of course everything is changeable when it seems necessary). 
Share and
enjkoy.

        Brian

                        The Official alt.rave FAQ
                        Written and maintained by
                          Brian Behlendorf, aka
                        bbehlen@soda.berkeley.edu

                               Version 1.0
                         Last Modified - 11/25/92
CONTENTS

0   Introduction to the FAQ
1   What is a "rave"?
1.5 The "House Vibe"
2   What is "techno music"
3   DJing
4   Drugs/Smart drinks
5   The visuals
6   Creating techno music
7   Other rave-related mailing lists
8   Techno music stores
9   Techno music radio shows
10  Rave "Fashion"
11  Appendix I - true Frequently-Asked-Questions

-------------------------------------------------------------- -
------------

0   Introduction to the FAQ

        Raves are, if anything, the ultimate subjective
experience.  Your
perception of how well or how badly a rave "goes off" is based
at least
70% on your state of mind (and depending on the circumstances,
100%).  
Therefore, it's impossible to create an FAQ which is entirely
objective.
I'll do my best.  I am MORE than happy to incorporate other's
suggestions
into the FAQ, to include dissenting opinions and statements,
within reason.
This file is not the be-all and end-all of rave culture; many
of the topics
here will simply be introductions to the subject and point to
the little
rave FTP site I've created at soda.berkeley.edu under
ub/sfraves (named
for and housing the archive of the sfraves mailing list, a
description of
which will follow).  There's simply TONS of stuff there.  And
for the rest
of the document, whenever I refer to "the ftp site", I mean
soda.

        This document should also serve as an introduction to
alt.rave. 
Alt.rave has been alive since early 1992, and has an extremely
wide
distribution.  At last count an est. 12,000 people read it.  As
is usual on 
USENET, people often have strong opinions which clash with
others' strong 
opinions.  If everyone accepted the view that reality is
subjective, and 
that on matters of taste there is no dispute, then flame wars
become a
thing of the past.  Posts like "Orbital sucks, and the Orb can
kiss my
butt" are probably inappropriate flamebait.  Rewording it to
say, "I am
disappointed by the new Orbital because..." is a lot better. 
Many people
also complain about too many posts about a particular subject,
or group,
or country, etc...  to which the standard response is, start
talking about
what you want to hear.  Finally, there was a big debate about
whether to
create alt.music.techno, to "distinguish" the music from the
scene, and
it was voted down, with the view that discussion about
rave/techno music
are completely appropriate on alt.rave.

-------------------------------------------------------------- -
------------

1   What is a "rave"?

        The term "rave" has been overused almost to the point
of losing
its meaning.  The word has always meant (according to webster):

>1. rave 'ra-v vb [ME raven] 1a: to talk irrationally in or
as if in 
>   delirium 1b: to declaim wildly 1c: to talk with extreme
enthusiasm 2: to 
>   move or advance violently : STORM : to utter in madness or
frenzy - rav.er 
>   
>2. rave n often attrib  1: an act or instance or raving 2: an
extravagantly 
>   favorable criticism

        In current practice, a "rave" usually refers to a
party, usually
all night long, open to the general public, where loud "techno"
music is
mostly played and many people partake in a number of different
chemicals,
though the latter is far from necessary.  The number of people
at the
event is unimportant; it can range from 50 people to 25,000
people.  The
cost of attendance is also unimportant - there have been good
raves and bad 
raves at both ends of the cost spectrum (though in practice,
the higher the
price, the more commercial the event, and the lower the
quality).  At a
rave, the DJ is king - he controls the psychic voyages of the
dancers through
his choice in hard-to-find music and his skill in manipulating
that music,
sometimes working with just a set of beats and samples, into a
tapestry of
mindbending music.  A large part of the concept of raves is
built upon 
sensory overload - a barrage of audio and very often visual
stimuli are
brought together to elevate people into an altered state of
physical or
psychological existence.  

-------------------------------------------------------------- -
-------------

1.5 The "House Vibe"

        The actual concept of raves is not new - it is as old
as time itself.
As the base level, raves are very comparable to American Indian
religious
ceremonies, i.e. pow-wows, and also to the concept of the
Shaman in Eskimo
and Siberian society - where music is the key towards pulling
oneself into a
unique emotional and psychological state, a state in which one
experiences
washes of sensations and visions, not delusions, but visions. 
Sounds very
hokey in print, but I'm sure MANY of you out there know what
I'm talking
about.  The hypnotisizng effect of techno music coupled with
the seemless
transitions and themic progressions of rave DJ's as the night
progresses
can be QUITE intoxicating, resulting in what could be closely
compared to a 
religious experience.  Music in general has always been able to
sweep
people off their feet, but what distinguishes raves are the
concept of
the _shared_ experience; a feeling of unity often arises, and
people are
open and friendly to one another.  There is a loss of that
"attitude"
that is omnipresent in normal clubs and even in life in
general.  People
are celebrated for who they are, not what they aren't.  There
are many
better ways to explain the above, and more than a few can be
found at the
FTP site.

For a better, blow-by-blow description of what an actual rave
is like,
please check the FTP site under the media/ directory, and get
"image" - 
it's an article that appeared in the SF Examiner in February
1992, and
is perhaps one of the most comprehensive surveys of the rave
scene ever
to appear in print.

-------------------------------------------------------------- -
---------------

2   What is "techno music"

        Opinions on this vary greatly, but there are a few ways
to
distinguish techno from other types of music.  Overall, techno
is
denoted by its slavish devotion to _the_beat_, the use of
rhythm as
a hypnotic tool.  It is also distinguished by being primarily,
and
in most cases entirely, created by electronic means.  It is
also
noted for its lack of vocals in most cases.  Techno also
usually
falls in the realm of 115-160BPM.  There are of course
exceptions 
to every one of these rules, but these guidelines seem to
survive the
"what about..." test most of the time.

        There has also been a significant use of samples in
techno
songs, samples lifted in huge blocks and contributing a large
share
to a song's popularity.  This can be both bad ("Theme to Seseme
Street"
in Smart E's "Seseme's Treet") or good (Star Trek transporters
sampled
in Eden Transmission's "I'm So High", giving YOU that
transporting
feeling) or great (Tears for Fears sa..........
Much Apologies.  Looks like the buffer on this Cnet BBS does not allow for such
messages to be sent.  My regrets.

I left this fragment to pique your interest.  Someone with better buffers can
write to brian and post this right.
  PS- I am interested in many kinds of (good) music and have

signed Cookie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . UUCP: cstollen.meltdown.chi.il.us
                                                Chicago (708) Illinois  USA