THE POLITICS OF PARTYINGPart of what is at stake
here is the definition
of political. The arguments about the nature of
rave culture come down to
different notions about what can and cannot be
considered political,
oppositional or resistant. If we are to accept
raving and similar
practices as politics, then we need to address
exactly what we consider
politics to be.
In Britain, raving has been aptly described as
"Hedonism in Hard Times"--
the insistence on enjoyment no matter what the
circumstances: no matter
how bad the social situation, these people will
have fun (Redhead 2).
Many ravers would themselves reject the word
politics in favor of the
term spirituality to describe what they do. This
term is an expression of
the link between themselves, everyone else, and
the planet. Nevertheless,
this can still be construed as political. My
profoundest political
revelation (is revelation the same as the
revolution of the mind?) came
not during a strike, or at a committee meeting to
discuss the future of
socialism: it came at a rave...afterwards I knew,
with an understanding
that went deeper than the rational, that the land
was truly mine, all of
the land, all mine and all everyone else's at the
same time; that the
land contained ecstasy, beauty, sensuality, love,
and that the pulsing
heartbeat of the music was rippling through her
body like a shiver and
she was being awakened by it. Take it or leave
it: it is my belief.
(Stone 12).
Foucault's second definition of subjugated
knowledges is "a whole set of
knowledges that have been disqualified as
inadequate to their task or
insufficiently elaborated: naive knowledges,
located low down on the
hierarchy, beneath the required level of
cognition or scientificity"
(Power/Knowledge 82), a definition which well
fits the ravers' knowledge
of the world stated by Stone. For people in
Britain, and around the
world, raving is that exercise of freedom which
is its own guarantee
(Foucault, Reader 245). If we accept that fun can
be political, then
raving can be a political practice which
challenges our very notions
about ourselves. It subverts dominant images of
subjectivity and
discipline, it states that politics does not have
to be negative, nor
does it have to be cooped up in committee rooms,
and that protests don't
have to be angry. Raving shows that a positive
assertion of values and
practices, which change the way a large
proportion of the population live
their lives, can be more constructive and
affirmative than any political
party (in the traditional sense).
Raving also undermines some of the most basic
underpinnings of our
society. In Discipline and Punish, The History of
Sexuality, and other
works, Foucault outlined how the subject is
created in modern western
societies through practices of discipline, and
the power relations
involved in this. The modern subject is produced
as an individual by
various practices through which "the subject is
led to observe, to
analyse, to decipher, and to recognise himself as
a domain of possible
knowledge" (Foucault, "Power, Moral Values" 14).
The practice of raving
undermines, the kinds of notions of subjectivity
which have led to the
creation of the modern subject in the form which
Foucault describes.
This can be illustrated through two of the
central aspects of rave
culture: music and dancing. Rave music, or
techno,(FN13) undermines
traditional notions of the creation, performance
and dissemination of
music. To state this polemically, "techno-rave
puts an end to nearly four
hundred years of the great European bourgeois
individual in music" (Tagg
219). In Thornton's terms, rave is not a live,
but a record culture. Yet
the deconstruction of music goes even beyond the
simple change in live
performance becoming secondary to DJ's spinning
records. Techno is
created on machines, using samplers, computers,
and drum machines. If
live instruments are used, they are generally
processed through a
sampler, with the sounds cut up and transformed
in the process. Techno
artists also make heavy use of samples, often
using sounds not generally
heard in music--trains, planes, animals, running
water and the wind being
but a few examples. In its live format, DJs will
often play two or more
records simultaneously, altering their speed and
pitch and mixing them
together to create something quite different from
the original product.
No longer is pop music produced
and--crucially--owned by musicians
recording "original" tracks based on melodic and
harmonic principles.
Ambient and techno can be made on computers in
bedrooms, and are more
concerned with texture than melody. House music
can be created purely by
mixing together other peoples records, using
sampling technology. Many
records central to E-culture aren't even
available commercially--they're
DJ-only "white labels." Much of what is played at
clubs is created on the
spot by DJs. There is no "original." Dance music
can be imitated, even co-
opted, but it remains, by nature, subversive.
(Manning 41-42).
Techno disorganizes our basic notion of art, and
the meaning of
signs, "by continually reproducing its own means
of production--
sequencing and sampling--it becomes like a
reflexive utterance that is
capable only of mediating upon itself: there is
no ultimate founding
narrative presence" (Stanley 111). Techno
decenters the subject,
refusing the pop star or the cultural icon as the
glorified subject. Tagg
has illustrated how western popular music of the
twentieth century serves
to glorify the individual subject, from the jazz
band leader through to
the guitar hero and pop singer, as the basis for
production. In this way,
pop music works alongside Foucault's disciplinary
practices to create the
modern subject as individual. Techno decenters
this: monocentric types
of socialisation strategy are clearly less
popular with today's ravers
because...they do not go much for cohesive
melodic statements and seem to
eschew, both musically and socially, big figures.
On the other hand, rave
music contains plenty of small figures
constituting plenty of ground,
plenty of "environment." (Tagg 218).
It is not only the music which refuses the
performer/audience/star
structure. On the dance floor "the mastering gaze
has disappeared. For
this reason, dancing to show off ha s gone, even
though a communal
adoration occur s because people pile onto the
stage or anything else
that is raised above the crowd" (Rietveld 63).
The raver does not dance
for any external display. Instead, the aim of the
dance could be
identified in a new interpretation of Foucault's
"Omnes et Singulatum,"
in that one becomes all, or rather the
distinction between one and all
disappears. It is a dance for the self, in that
it is a dance to lose the
self. But it is also a communal loss--a loss of
self that occurs in the
setting of the rave. This is part of a change in
concepts of identity: a
decentering of the subject in which identity, at
least during the rave
(one would be hard pressed to argue that ravers
can successfully carry
this into all aspects of life), is changed from
the Cartesian "I think,
therefore I am," to a communal subjectivity.
Rephrasing the Cartesian formula, the ravers self
could perhaps find
expression in the statement "we dance, therefore,
we are." In dancing to
lose the self, ravers achieve a kind of
liberation in an escape from
identity, and in reaching " a place where nobody
is, but everybody
belongs" (Melechi 37). This is not a clear cut
issue. In the analytic
terms available to us, the loss of individual
self in the communal dance
becomes a somewhat ambiguous event. Is this
simply escape from the every
day, an avoidance of the "real world?" What does
it mean to lose oneself?
The combination of music, the communal dance, and
(for some) the use of
Ecstasy, results in something which is, for most,
undefinable. Ravers
talk about a "vibe," but when asked about exactly
what happens on the
dance floor, they are faced with a failure of
language, an attempt to
describe the indescribable. Rather, they give
descriptions such as "it
was wild," "absolutely unbelievable, there wasn't
anything like it,"
or "this is not dancing, this is a religion"
(Rietveld 63). Perhaps the
effect would best be compared to the religious
ecstasy some groups claim
to reach when communing with god. The loss of
self, and the inability to
describe the experience (how can I properly
describe an event at which I
was not strictly present?) suggest a complete
refusal of discourse and of
knowledge that is constituted in and by language
(Rietveld 65).
One effect of Ecstasy is to decenter sexuality
and libidinal pleasure,
disrupting Freudian concepts of the self and the
centering of sexuality
in the genitals. "E cstacy made the user return
to a pre-Oedipal
stage ...where sexuality is polymorphous and
where sensuality engages the
entire body" (Rietveld 54). There also occurs in
the dance a unification
of the self, a coming together of mind and body,
a state of delirium
which is "non-subjective and smooth, as
all...connections and
functions...give way to simple intensities of
feeling" (Jordan 130).. In
Freudian terms, what occurs is a unity between
the Id and the Ego, and a
unification of these with the sensuality of the
body and the intensity of
the moment of dance (Maxwell).
Through rejection of the individual/subjective
self, the practice of
raving puts itself outside of the official
discourses. It becomes a
practice which is impossible to know, and
impossible to even properly
designate as "other." It refuses categorization
because it is an
experience which cannot be described by anything
other than the act
itself. The raver "surrenders to the void in a
Dionysian hedonism of an
entirely internal satisfaction of desire through
the sacrifice of the
self to the dance" (Stanley 107). It refuses a
label of simple deviancy
because "it is not a desire to demonstrate
deviancy but merely to attain
a knowledge at the limit of experience" (Stanley
108). Excitement, not
deviance, is sought, and excitement comes through
the dance, the loss of
self, and the refusal of the knowing gaze.
So how can this be considered a political
statement, or even a statement
of resistance? It is at this point that we can
return to the earlier
discussion of space, boundaries, and power. The
rejection of a certain
notion of subjectivity, the negotiation of
alternative spaces (I would
not really say they are "won," as the warehouse
or field is never a
permanent hold--rather the space is used and then
the parties move on)
are powerful forms of resistance in that they
reject the very possibility
of being incorporated into the realm of
governmentality as we know it. In
this sense, raving meets Foucault's criteria for
a meaningful political
action: it refuses the basis upon which the
system is built, rather than
working within it. "Those who resist or rebel
against a form of power
cannot merely be content to denounce violence or
criticise an
institution. Nor is it enough to cast the blame
on reason in general.
What has to be questioned is the form of
rationality at stake"
(Foucault, "Omnes" 254).
The event/space of raving facilitates the
emergence of alternative
values, such as those escribed above. The
narratives of dissensus as a
narrative of opposition and the spatial form
which contains and enables
these narratives to become significant texts of
the everyday attaching to
alternative configurations of meaning and reality
become a significant
realization in the formulation of nonrepressive,
antirhetorical,
antihegemonic formulations of power and identity
in the form of an ethics
of viral communication. (Stanley 99).
These narratives are powerful because they reject
determinacy and/or
stability. The spaces in which raving takes place
cannot be entirely
known or controlled in any way except the
general--as warehouses, or
fields. The nomadic nature of the event, caused
in part by the law itself
in its attempt to control raving through making
it illegal, means that
the kind of power which needs to know and control
in detail may never be
exerted over the rave. This evasion is made
possible by constant speed
and movement, which are made evident in three
ways. Firstly, they are
manifested in the organization and communication
networks of the culture.
Events drawing together thousands of people can
be organized, and
advertised solely by word of mouth in a matter of
days (Maylon, "Raving"
12). Secondly, people often travel to raves in
convoys, sometimes with
several hundred cars, causing confusion and
making it impossible for the
police to stop them. Lastly, the dance itself is
caught up in movement
and desire. Control is rejected, as " s peed and
movement ensure that the
self is no longer (nor can be) subject to an
external gaze and that there
is only the giddy neutralisation of self-space in
a dissolution of
boundaries" (Stanley 114).
It is within the space opened up by this movement
that dissent and
resistance can be expressed. However, it is the
difficulty of
characterizing raving as an event of solely
dissent or resistance?the
ambiguities involved in the practice--that lead
to the real undermining
of control. If it was a practice that were more
easily known, more
obviously and straightforwardly resistant, its
challenge could be met
and known. The denial of such knowledge, or of
the ability to place
raving solidly into an us/them dichotomy, poses a
far greater challenge
to modern systems of power. This is not to deny
the necessity of
political activism, but rather to call for the
category of the political
to be broadened, to assert that politics and fun
can go hand in hand, and
that the scope of meaningful action can be far
more inclusive than simply
challenging capital, because, in the end, capital
is not the only problem
in our society.
The politics and actions of youth culture may not
be perfect, but this
should not lead to its their dismissal as
inadequate forms of protest. If
anything, rave culture may prove to be one of the
most dynamic political
movements of recent years.
Added material.
FOOTNOTES1 Despite going global since its
beginnings in Ibiza and
Manchester, the majority of the somewhat limited
literature on rave
refers specifically to the British rave scene.
This article, then,
concentrates on the rave scene in its British
context. However, while the
discussion of the political/social climate is
entirely British in
context, I would tentatively propose that the
wider implications of rave
culture discussed in this essay may very well be
relevant for the rave
culture as a global phenomena.
2 The central texts from this body of work are
Cohen's Folk Devils and
Moral Panics (1972), Hebdige's Subculture: the
Meaning of Style (1979),
and the collection Resistance Through Rituals
(1976), edited by Stuart
Hall and Tony Jefferson.
3 The terms "postmodern" and "postmodernist" are
blankets which attempt
to cover a vast number of widely varied and often
unrelated or directly
opposed theories. Nevertheless, the word will
continue to be used, as
will this acknowledgment of the complexities
involved in its use which,
paradoxically, allows me to use it.
4 House music is a particular style of techno,
employing 4-4 beats, and
often utilizing vocal samples and keyboard
effects for a more organic
feel than techno, which relies more on computer
generated sounds.
5 I have been involved in rave culture for nearly
two years, during which
time I have met many people who partake fully in
the culture while
avoiding the drugs. However, see also Merchant
and Macdonald 20-21.
6 Found in, respectively, the Manchester Evening
News, on May 13, 1991,
on the front page, and The Sun, on November 24,
1988.
7 See in particular Cohen's Folk Devils and Moral
Panics.
8 The academic is, of course, also implicated in
the interplay of power
and knowledge, perhaps in an even more "pure"
form than any of the other
discourses involved. This is not necessarily a
bad thing, however. For
Foucault, all claims to knowledge involve power,
and vice-versa
(Foucault, Power/Knowledge 85). This does not
mean that we should not
strive for knowledge, but rather that we should
incorporate awareness of
what it is we are doing into the project.
9 See Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism.
10 Again, as with postmodernism, the term
"society" in this context
oversimplifies a complex notion, and a complex
relationship between rave
and other discourses, and results in the kind of
self/other dichotomy I
would rather avoid. However, within this context,
"society" or "the
social" seems to be the most appropriate term
when rave is constructed
as "anti-social" and thus "anti-society.".
11 Rave values could also be seen as critical of
wider social values.
However, my evidence is almost exclusively
British, and I will thus
restrict my argument to Britain.
12 " P ower relations are rooted deep in the
social nexus, not
reconstituted 'above society as a supplementary
structure whose radical
effacement one could perhaps dream of. In any
case, to live in a society
is to live in such a way that action upon other
actions is possible--and
in fact ongoing. A society without power
relations can only be an
abstraction.... T o say that there cannot be a
society without power
relations is not to say either that those which
are established are
necessary, or, in any case, that power
constitutes a fatality at the
heart of societies, such that is cannot be
undermined. Instead I would
say that the analysis, elaboration, and bringing
into question of power
relations and the 'agonism between power
relations and the intransitivity
of freedom is a permanent political task inherent
in all social
existence" (Foucault "Subject and Power" 222-23).
13 Referring to all music played at raves as
techno is highly simplistic,
the equivalent of calling all pre-20th century
music "classical."
However, techno is the term which has made its
way into the mainstream as
a blanket for the kind of music played at raves,
and as such is the most
apt single term under which to refer to this kind
of dance music.
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