Rave Culture Music

Since its emergence in the late 1980s, the subculture referred to as “rave” has become a significant global youth phenomenon. Postmodern scholars tend to treat the rave subculture as one of disappearance and pleasure. The “armchair” approach of postmodernists is inherently flawed because it fails to acknowledge the meaningful spiritual experiences of those attending raves. Scott R. Hutson’s “The Rave: Spiritual Healing in Modern Western Subcultures”introduces an opposing theory that raving is a spiritual practice wherein the symbolic processes embedded in culture create appropriate frameworks for healing. Gilbert Rouget’s conceptualization of trance and how it is managed in the ritual context provide the analytical foundations for this spiritual practice. This paper will analyze the role of the DJ as a leader of a possession trance ritual who “aided by key symbols, guides the ravers on an ecstatic journey to paradise- a pre-social state of non-differentiation and communitas” (Hutson 1999:54).

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