In its ideal form, (notably achieved a number of times), the “rave” came into being from Western Culture’s pressing needs, i.e. community in a multi-ethnic and cultural society, spirituality that related more directly to the world currently lived in, creative productions that communicated the creative person’s feelings and inspirations unhindered by mainstream society’s outdated prejudices and media. The raves’ relation to society was a much needed social cohesion combined with a creative and spiritual outburst (humans’ common method of initially contemplating existence).

The original ravers applied the adjective “Hardcore” to describe the raves’ social, spiritual, and creative elements. The term was consciously assimilated (of course) from the punk movement’s do-it-yourself ideals. In fact, the hijacking of technology, the repetitive shamanic dance rhythms, the Internet, the DJ mixing, etc., were all considered “core” elements in their respective genres. This further ingrained the adjective “Hardcore” in the early rave movement, as it conspired to combine what it considered the strongest elements into a new form.

So “Hardcore” in relation to raves, refers to the creative arts’ exploration of spirituality, achieving a social cohesion within the larger society.

In order to achieve this, “Hardcore” must constantly explore new

avenues of creativity, pushing limits, analyzing barriers, and questioning existence, and existing structures, eventually refining the conclusions and manifestations into something to be experienced, learned from, and acted on.

So...What Happened?

Though Hardcore was the original formation and ideal of the rave scene, you rarely hear it mentioned—as if it never existed! The “rave scene” touted and promoted by emphysema pushing rags like Sweater, your local newspaper’s fourth “rave expose” this year, local “rave” promoters and every ad agency in the free (?) world don’t have anything to do with any kind of creativity, vision, or innovation, THOUGH THEY CLAIM . Every weekend, there are hundreds of parties that claim to be part of the “tribal united future of technology, love, peace, creativity,” etc. The parties are, in fact, sponsored, pushed, or influenced by the entire corporate-consumer structure that the original rave scene was trying to change or escape. From this point on, I must say that what follows are my opinions based on my personal experience and observations in the rave scene over the last decade. As one of the rave scene’s pioneers and original promoters, DJs, record store owners, artists, musicians, zine and article writers, I have witnessed first-hand that which I relay.

What was to become the rave scene was at its very initial stages

organized and put together by motley crews of artists, musicians, punks, criminals, drug addicts and dealers. Of course, the artists and musicians had the resources to make a cool space and event, the drug dealers had the friends, no one cared for the status quo, and there was a large group of people throughout society that didn’ t really want to be a part of the general society (or at least it seemed). Suddenly, with the aforementioned technology, it seemed entirely feasible to throw parties for a living, being creative and making music, and hanging out high with your friends. Well, this lasted for about 2 seconds. It is as if the rave scene was a victim of its own success.

Greed and jealousy instantly surfaced as soon as the money appeared. From the moment the money was collected at the door, everyone involved thought that someone else was pocketing it somewhere down the line. In almost every city everywhere in Europe and America that I have been to, it’s the same story. Friends were now enemies and competitors in many situations, all the more ironic because a lot of these parties were called “Unity”! That was bad enough, but soon, every club and bar was propping up a “rave night” playing music that was pretty much just playing American club music. Furthermore, the clubs in most cities were trying to actively crush the rave scene and assimilate it for itself. In most cases people were actively physically beat-down for passing out flyers, or in some cases followed and beat up at their own homes! Many of these clubs were essentially big money laundering machines for organized crime, and the rave promoters were seen as stepping on their turf. And of course, in all cities, there was generally an antagonism with the police.

All of these problems played a role in transforming the rave scene into that which it rebelled against, but in my opinion, the majority of the problems stemmed from the internal fighting, back-stabbing and betrayals within the scene itself. This is not a problem that is unique to the rave scene, it happened with disco, with the hippies, and punk rock; eventually everyone seems to sell out. Idealism is replaced with opportunism, which then leads to consumerism, and then ends up disillusion-ism.

Looking back, a poignant memory was when I was having a meeting with a bunch of people about a party that we were planning. There was a disagreement about how some matter should proceed. Soon enough the phrase, “you gotta understand—this is a business!” was repeated on several lips. It even made sense to a certain extent, I mean, yeah, we were taking in money on some level, but it seemed to me the emphasis should be on making a cool event. I believe the fundamental split was that some people really saw the potential that the scene had in a spiritual, artistic and socially progressive light, and others saw it as “a business”.