I realize the phenomenon of "silent raves" has been around for quite a while now, but apparently the idea is just catching on in Canada, which led to a recent syndicated article that included some fairly humorous analysis of this "movement."
You might imagine that the idea behind a "silent rave" is that those big booming sound systems are tipping people off that something unsavory is going on, so if everyone shows up and dances to their own MP3 players, there doesn't go the neighborhood. Or something. But these "silent raves" are actually utilizing the "flash mob" construct, congregating in public as it turns out, and giving the media the opportunity to point out:
Rave culture has long been criticized for creating public disturbances with loud music and for its alleged ties to club drugs such as ecstasy and ketamine.
Because, uh, congregating in public and dancing to your private MP3 players is somehow less disruptive than throwing a real rave in the outskirts of town where someone might hear your sound system. Or something. No seriously, it's kind of harmless; it's basically taking everything edgy and truly countercultural about a rave and saying, "Ha ha, we can make it into a cartoon that we can force you to watch at any time of day, ha ha!" The dancing yahoos are listening to
whatever they want on their private MP3 players because
DJs are dangerous revolutionaries who can't be trusted! Or something. Actually, I'm not sure I get it.
The worst part:
Filming your participation in a silent rave is paramount, according to organizers. After all, if a tree falls in the forest and nobody puts the footage on YouTube, the media isn't going to make a sound.
"People aren't living for the moment, they're living for the recording of the moment," says Sullivan.
Blech! Oh, but before I get too cynical (which I guess would require a time machine that takes us back to 1971 or so, but let's just pretend), we shouldn't overlook:
"It's about doing something out of the ordinary that will remind people there's more to life than getting up, going to work, watching TV and going to sleep," says Caitlyn Spencer, the Mount Royal College student behind the event.
Fair enough. Stunts like these are harmless and artsy; who cares if a thousand idiots show up in a mall or a park or a train station somewhere and dance their heads off? Also, what makes them different from the people who freeze themselves in Grand Central Station, or do pillow fights in malls, or stage zombie hordes that roam city streets? Oh wait - nothing. This is just one more example of the entire gestalt of rave culture being condensed down into a very tiny and increasingly irrelevant memeplex that no one cares to defend any longer since the music went commercial and the MDMA long since ceased to be pure.
But hey - at least its wacky!
I think its great that people are being silly and having fun and gettin down gettin artsy, gettin together , subverting the day to day, and getting active... all important and worthwhile for sure! BUT in comparison with idea of 'rave' it's also totally spineless and inverts the purpose of music, the mdma experience into a shallow masturbatory media echo orgasm. Devoid of confrontation, milked of communion, and filled with that 'just safe enough' hipsterish rebellion that is so prevalent- at least in nyc these days. I think this is what happens when people take a strong subcultural value meme and narrow it down to its signifiers. It may be presumptuous to say - but i don't think that most of these people ever participated in the rave culture-have had a classic mdma (etc) experience - or maybe if they did they just missed the core download of that experience -and focused on the fashion when they were there. Perhaps dropping some cynicism would do people some good. In this case maybe it doesn't matter that much - maybe this is something entirely different and relevant on its own terms. And maybe it needs a little push to become something that blooms nicely. And one can only hope this leads to a resurgence in real rave - or a new variation there of (maybe thats just me). Sparks can lead to flames i believe.
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