Rave_Music_and_the_Death_of_Rock

Music is a form of art whose medium is sound. Many different forms of art exist, but music in particular has the ability to invoke intense messages and feelings, and can change anyone’s particular mood through their ears. Music also has the ability to represent societies’ values as a whole at any given time. Historically, contemporary music uses drums, guitar, and vocals to produce a track, but since the 80’s after the disco era, electronic music has swiftly come on the scene. Rock music and concerts give listeners a denotative message, where as electronic techno music conveys an overall emotional connotative feeling. While mainstream rock has always been in the general public’s eye, electronic music has been seemingly forced into the underground. It was in the 1980’s when electronic music appeared in continental Europe sparking an enormous underground youth rave movement. When the Berlin Wall fell on the 9th of November 1989, free underground techno parties bloomed in East Berlin, and a rave scene comparable to that in the UK was made. (D, 134) East German DJ Paul van Dyk has remarked that the techno based rave scene was a major force in re-establishing social connections between East and West Germany during the unification period. (Messemer, 34) Rave music deals primarily with space rather than (as in traditional rock) with time. Traditional and contemporary rock is most often talked about as developing and progressing in linear terms. Its structure is usually defined by its narrative and it takes the listener on a journey starting at the intro, followed by two verses, a chorus, the instrumental interlude, the final verse and the climax at the end. It could be argued that the structure of traditional rock/pop is inextricably bound up with its narrative content, which is most often concerned with heterosexual relationships and the attainment of climax. This obsession with heterosexual seduction within pop music reproduces conventional social obligations within the spaces that rock (or pop) music is played (a traditional night club for example). Rave music on the other hand, cuts across linear time, by sampling from many different periods and geographic locations in music history and putting it all together. By divorcing sounds from their physical and cultural contexts, rave music creates a de-centred chaotic reality which suggests a different set of sexual goals. The music is structured around the layering of these diverse sounds, and plays on their spacial relationship. This is possible because of the non-verbal nature of the music and also the accessibility of computers and the global network that they have created. The conventions/tensions of rave music lie at the balance between fusion and fission, organic and mechanic, seduction and alienation, discontinuity and juxtaposition. (Reynolds, 56) Reynolds describes rave culture and music as a non-signifying system. Perhaps Reynolds means that the emphasis is on sounds for their own sake, and it is up to the listener to actively interpret them rather than accepting given meanings. The signs in rave music are vague; they refuse to be pinned down and defined. Music at raves is a way of blending desires with memories, with acts, visions and fears, as they all roll into each other. Rave music disrupts the usual channels of communication and evokes a sublime, intercommunicative 'mood'. “"Male ravers' relationship to the hyperorgasmic soul-diva vocals on jungle tracks is one not of lust but of identification and aspiration. Rave is a culture of clitoris envy, a lowbrow version of Lacan's green eyed feelings about the mystic St Teresa. In his book on Lacan, Malcolm Bowie, paraphrasing the psychoanalyst, describes women as 'perpetual motion machines programmed to produce their own rapture'. Pure rave! Rave's epileptic bombardment of stimuli (staccato beats and strobes) reflects the subcultures's essence: 'nympholepsy' an ecstasy or frenzy caused by the desire of the unattainable'." (Reynolds, 75) Reynolds' analysis of sexuality of rave which he looks at through the eyes of psychoanalysis is very intriguing. Reynolds writes that the effect of Ecstasy is to make sexual climax near impossible and returns the sexuality of the body into a pre-oedipal polymorphous state of desire. The music itself is structured around the delay of climax with its lack of closure and narrative structure. It is an ongoing 'pleasure plateau' which never reaches its potential to be released. The music's structure is like a continual state of foreplay. Reynolds's analysis is colourful, but littered in somewhat pretentious terms. Rock or pop music on the other hand is entirely denotative. While following the linear progression described earlier, the message heard by the listener typically only has one meaning, with the exception of various metaphors used in lyrics that give the appearance of depth. These direct messages leave little to no connotative interpretation and instead tend to reflect upon current society’s values or any cliques’ values that the music is intended to appeal to. There is no problem with enjoying this kind of music, however, the endless preference battle between rock/pop and techno is riddled with arguments against conformity and repetitiveness, respectively. There are many different speculations as to why people prefer one over the other, but, it can be assumed that the effects on the brain after consuming psychedelic drugs is vastly different while comparing rock and pop to techno. Both genres of music have their merits, as well as their deficits, and choosing between the two is a rough decision. Personally, I prefer both rock and techno, however I listen to no major mainstream artists and instead prefer small independent artists that each have their own unique sound apart from the mainstream. D, Robb. "Techno in Germany: Its Musical Origins and Cultural Relevance." German as a Foreign Language Journal 2.2 (2002): 134. Print. Messemer, S. Eierkuchensozialismus. Berlin: TAZ, 1998. Print. Reynolds, Simon. Blissed Out. New York: Serpent's Tail, 1990. Print.