EDM and Rave Culture
For readers less familiar with electronic dance music (EDM), it is a broad and varied genre of music with hundreds of sub-genres, much like ‘rock’ or ‘classical’ music. From the mellow, jazzy, and atmospheric Deep House, to the repetitive, euphoric, and melodic Trance, EDM encompasses an array of varying electronically produced musical styles. A distinguishing feature of EDM is the presence of repetitive beats that drive a consistent pulse in the music, usually sitting between 120 to 180 beats per minute. EDM producers select and organize such sounds and structure them based on the perceived effect it will have on a live audience. In that sense, EDM thrives in an event culture—in the club, the rave, the party.
Personally, trance is my favourite genre within the world of techno. Popping up in the late 1980s, its key components feature fast-paced, repetitive beats, uplifting synthesizers, and emotional melodies. The goal is to create a euphoric, almost meditative state for listeners. Hence the name, “a state of trance.” The entire rave culture is much surrounded by this idea of creating a euphoric space for people to disconnect from reality and connect with each other in such space.
As a big lover of trance music, I’ve been to countless electronic dance music (EDM) events in my life. Mostly in Canada and the US, and some here and there in Asia and Europe. I’ve met people who are truly passionate about the music itself, able to identify every track the artists play. I’ve also encountered people who attend primarily to use substances and lose themselves in the crowd. It’s quite common to find a mixture of crowd where half people are frequent substance users and half are music lovers who have never used any substance. I found this phenomenon both fascinating and somewhat concerning, which is the main motivation behind my writing on this topic.
Drugs as part of subcultural norms
Research around this topic is usually conducted in Europe and North America, in the form of semi-formal interviews and questionnaires among ravers. Interview research with ravers in the UK revealed common themes of community acceptance, self-expression, tolerance, and the promotion of self-development associated with EDM events that formed the basis of a set of so-called rave values. This value system is often referred to as PLUR (peace, love, unity, and respect), a cornerstone of EDM event culture. In line with this value system, research also found that EDM event attendance also helped individuals develop autonomy, tolerance, and expression as well as developing greater intimacy with friends (Cannon & Greasley, 2021). A cognitive anthropologist Dr.Martha Newson even created a novel model of ritual engagement, investigating the psychology behind group bonding and prosocial behaviours at raves; this model assesses the altered states of consciousness common in group rituals, which Dr Newson identified as the ‘4Ds’ – dance, drums, sleep deprivation, and drugs (Miller, 2021). Such psychology benefits always coming hand in hand with the 4Ds seems quite concerning.
Existing research also points out that many ravers describe drug use at dance parties, particularly MDMA, LSD, and ketamine, often as escapism, and sometimes also as emotional processing. They speak of feeling “reset” after nights out, as if the experience shakes loose emotional debris that they weren’t able to under ordinary scenarios. Drug attitudes, which may have been negative in the past, therefore changed in this context. Such subculture movements and encounters with drugs can change the concept of drug use. If drug use is perceived to be the norm by the subculture, then newcomers might come to see it as normal.
However, the unregulated use of these substances at raves is far riskier than it seems. Repeated drug use can lead to serious consequences like serotonin depletion, harsh comedowns, substance dependency, and long-term mental health problems. The line between emotional healing and self-harm is dangerously blurred in the rave culture.
The question is, what do young people want?
One recurring theme I’ve observed is the inadequacy of mainstream mental health systems to meet the needs of young people seeking meaning, connection, and emotional release. Research has pointed out that there’s an urgent need to bridge academic understanding with subcultural practices. I personally also feel a lack of public discussion around the topics of rave culture and substance use among young people.
While institutional, cultural and social forces shape urban spaces, subcultural practices slowly and gradually construct spaces to fill the needs that planning fails to meet or even recognize. Rave thrives in such context and steps in to fill the void. Rave events not only offer space for connection and unity, it also facilitates meaning making and power making among ravers. Meaning making happens when ravers view these physical spaces as symbols for escaping daily mundanes and attach new meanings to music and festivals. Power making happens when different societal agents come into the space and influence one another. For example, one subgenre of EDM can gain popularity in a short period of time due to a trending Tiktok, and as a result, event organizers will start planning new raves and hiring more DJs in that genre. Because each genre is often associated with different themes and ideas, power relations are strengthened when one theme is particularly dominating and vice versa. For example, futuristic visuals and AI-based storylines were particularly popular last year with the rise of artists like Anyma and labels like AfterLife. Their music and visual projects tell stories about human-robot integration and can have very powerful impacts on the pop culture and minds of the younger generation.
I might have strayed away from the main topic but my point is, raves are important social spaces for the younger generation due to its combined setup of music, visuals, crowd energy, and possibility for connection. It exists and thrives due to this specific reason but also promotes recreational substance use and can be dangerous to the young. To better understand why young people choose this form of social activities and why drugs are more and more accepted in these settings, we need to listen more carefully to what young people are expressing through their choices, their bodies, and their altered minds. The dance floor might not be a therapist’s office, but perhaps it’s telling us something urgent that shouldn’t be ignored.
References:
Cannon, J. W., & Greasley, A. E. (2021). Exploring Relationships Between Electronic Dance Music Event Participation and Well-being. Music & Science, 4. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204321997102
Newson, M., Khurana, R., Cazorla, F., & van Mulukom, V. (2021). ‘I get high with a little help from my friends’—How raves can invoke identity fusion and lasting co-operation via transformative experiences. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 719596. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.719596 Miller, O. (2021, September 27). Study with ravers suggests psychedelics linked to social bonding and prosocial behaviours. University of Kent News Centre. https://www.kent.ac.uk/news/society/29791/study-with-ravers-suggests-psychedelics-linked-to-social-bonding-and-prosocial-behaviours