Rave and 'Storm' Culture Different people have ideas as to where Rave culture came from. Some make an obvious connection to Chicago House from '86 while others claim to have been part of the electronic-trance scene in Goa way back in the early Eighties. Whatever view we take, most of us know that a change in the current happened around 1987.
Groups like Jellybean spearheaded a growth of interest in disco music of a trance-like quality. By 1988 Acid House took off heralding in an era of joy, love, peace and a return to mind expansion. Lava lamps appeared again in the shops and LSD made a come back along with the new empathegen, Ecstasy. Sure, some people had been quietly enjoying this subculture for years in the underground, but it wasn't until 1988 that the movement exploded above ground and made itself felt in mainstream society. When the government found out that young people were doing their own thing and enjoying themselves, they tried to clamp down on the new mood by the usual scare tactics of police raids and general harassment. This of course had the opposite effect to what the government hoped for. By 1989 Rave culture had become massive and was already spreading across the world like a virulent virus. By the early 1990s it had even reached the south China coast and was spreading through the local affluent Chinese youth.
By the middle of the 1990s Rave culture had splintered into a multitude of different styles ranging from gentle ambient to the bouncing sound of happy hardcore. Within the main Rave current appeared the archetype of the alert, friendly strength. Losing oneself in the middle of a Rave felt like being swallowed up by a massive organic beast. Watching the hand descriptions and windmill-like movements of the arms was like seeing nobility and pride being worked through on mass. It reminded you of Aslan the lion, from the Narnia tales.
Some of the music of the time had a sexual ecstatic quality found mainly within the trancey side of the scene. Instead of the climax searched for and reached within the typical structure of a rock music track, trance would take you up high and keep you there. Providing you were fit enough you could dance towards each seeming new climax only to find you were being leveled off into a new plateau of ongoing pleasure. The climax of rock music was pushed aside in favour of an ongoing rush of sensations of a neurosomatic nature. Within this broad space of an elevated position, alcohol became redundant and frowned upon as dull and outdated.
Nobody was allowed to feel miserable. Anyone showing any signs of personal trouble was given friendly strength support. To give a few musical quotes from the time, 'Take my hand and be my friend', 'Happy Massive', 'Who loves you and who do you love ? - Everybody !'. Fierce but friendly.
By the end of the decade Gryffindor had become the cultural imprint of the Nineties.
The fourth major atavistic mood is still to take off within Western youth culture (2006). Some people have claimed that when it comes, neo-nazis are likely to jump on the aggressive band-wagon. The same thing happened of course in the very late 1970's, in the wake of Punk culture. Punk however never created any neo-nazis. It simply made such thuggery more visible. And likewise any forthcoming 'Storm' culture would act in the same way.
If it comes, the pull of 'Storm' culture could attract neo-nazis without warning and probably alarmingly quickly. Early cultural instigation of the current by gays and early musical black elements will cause no embarrassment to their rascist and homophobic mindset. Such is the nature of moronism. They'll especially be turned on by the tabloid's sensational take on the phenomena, which will of course, milk any paranoia they can find.Peter Ustinov once said -
'Generals are fascinating cases of arrested development. After all, at five we all wanted to be generals.'
'Storm' culture may be viewed as an example of recapitulated development. The general's arrested infantile behaviour is maintained by hierarchy, whereas the replay of infancy by tribal, urban culture is evolved dynamically by a holistic process. This is chaotic and playful in its nature. It's not prone to being hijacked to any severe extent by hiearchy.
In time, cosmopolitan values will overcome nationalism and xenophilia will prevail. Punk culture shrugged off its parasitic thug; 'Storm' culture will do the same.
The next atavistic youth trend failed to develop from gabber, aggressive drum and bass or early hard house in the late 1990's. Lately, the same yearning for hostile strength has appeared briefly in the more gutter side of vacant hard trance. Perhaps the best hope yet for its arrival can be found in the general resentment for over-blown, stadium rave culture among the youth of Britain and beyond.
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