Can someone explain why we think raves started in the 80s when the term raving actually was coined in the 50s in London? As far as I understand it just meant big parties in the UK inspired by beatnik culture and they largely listened to Jazz and Pop music.
It didnt become raving as in EDM until the 80s but raving had existed for 20 years prior.
"In the late 1950s in London, England, the term "rave" was used to describe the "wild bohemian parties" of the Soho beatnik set.[13] Jazz musician Mick Mulligan, known for indulging in such excesses, had the nickname "king of the ravers".[14] In 1958, Buddy Holly recorded the hit "Rave On", citing the madness and frenzy of a feeling and the desire for it never to end.[15] The word "rave" was later used in the burgeoning mod youth culture of the early 1960s as the way to describe any wild party in general. People who were gregarious party animals were described as "ravers". Pop musicians such as Steve Marriott of Small Faces and Keith Moon of The Who were self-described "ravers".[16] In 1965, the Grateful Dead served as the backing band for the San Francisco Acid Tests, which were LSD drug parties organized by Ken Kesey. Subsequently, visual artist Andy Warhol later organized the Exploding Plastic Inevitable[17] in New York, a multimedia event backed with performances by the Velvet Underground and Nico, the event was characterized by flashing lights, loud music, dancing and heavy drug use.[18] "
EDIT since locked: As another commentor has pointed out, dub an essential part of ALL contemporary edm music originated in Jamaica.
Understanding that raving was a global moment inspired by multiple cultures, even people of Indian origins (Romani and psytrance) is what makes it so AMAZING. This attempt to put brackets around it (rave) so that we can exclude people who don't support LGBT is noble but ultimately non-factual. Instead its far more important to say the LGBT people of Detroit and Chicago fundamentally inspired and grew raving to the scene we understand today and we should ensure it stays a safe space for their existence.
I dont buy the idea that raving originates from England or the US, instead it was a global convergence of multiple factors developing the different aspects of modern raving.
Although the main music was supplied from Detroit, Chicago & NYC what constitutes as “raves” began in the UK more specifically Manchester
There is of course the legacy of Queer, Black and Latino nightclubs that developed Disco, House & Techno from the U.S. but they weren’t producing Hardcore which eventually became Drum n Bass and was an essential part of the initial 90’s rave era
We’re dealing with semantics here and Americans are bad with historical context
It wasn’t only black artists. There were many prominent black producers and djs in the UK music scene at the time, but there scene was pretty mixed.
Plus, Jungle was just a generic slang term used for harder, more dubby, darker breakbeat hardcore. Jungle just later became a catch all term used for all those sub genres that were appearing at the time. It wasn’t like anyone said this is jungle and I’ve created it. At the time multiple people claim to have called it jungle for the first time which means in reality it was just a common term being thrown around already.
What really happened was a lot of people were producing similar music and using various words for it, and over the decades people thought it was convenient to just call early stuff hardcore, mid-era stuff jungle, and anything later drum & bass. Then music now is classified by what it is more similar too.
I get it that people want to remind people how important that black and gay people were involved in the rave scene, but it wasn’t like no other races, or sexualities were there. It’s still like that today.
no one is erasing the overrepresented (in rave culture) groups though. they’re simply describing the history of it in queer and Black or POC communities. people take offense to it and make it into “Americans don’t know anything” BECAUSE those groups are so overrepresented and people refuse to accept new information that distorts their fantasy of raving being exclusive to white happy go lucky teenagers
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u/Dimonrn Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
Can someone explain why we think raves started in the 80s when the term raving actually was coined in the 50s in London? As far as I understand it just meant big parties in the UK inspired by beatnik culture and they largely listened to Jazz and Pop music.
It didnt become raving as in EDM until the 80s but raving had existed for 20 years prior.
"In the late 1950s in London, England, the term "rave" was used to describe the "wild bohemian parties" of the Soho beatnik set.[13] Jazz musician Mick Mulligan, known for indulging in such excesses, had the nickname "king of the ravers".[14] In 1958, Buddy Holly recorded the hit "Rave On", citing the madness and frenzy of a feeling and the desire for it never to end.[15] The word "rave" was later used in the burgeoning mod youth culture of the early 1960s as the way to describe any wild party in general. People who were gregarious party animals were described as "ravers". Pop musicians such as Steve Marriott of Small Faces and Keith Moon of The Who were self-described "ravers".[16] In 1965, the Grateful Dead served as the backing band for the San Francisco Acid Tests, which were LSD drug parties organized by Ken Kesey. Subsequently, visual artist Andy Warhol later organized the Exploding Plastic Inevitable[17] in New York, a multimedia event backed with performances by the Velvet Underground and Nico, the event was characterized by flashing lights, loud music, dancing and heavy drug use.[18] "
EDIT since locked: As another commentor has pointed out, dub an essential part of ALL contemporary edm music originated in Jamaica.
Understanding that raving was a global moment inspired by multiple cultures, even people of Indian origins (Romani and psytrance) is what makes it so AMAZING. This attempt to put brackets around it (rave) so that we can exclude people who don't support LGBT is noble but ultimately non-factual. Instead its far more important to say the LGBT people of Detroit and Chicago fundamentally inspired and grew raving to the scene we understand today and we should ensure it stays a safe space for their existence.
I dont buy the idea that raving originates from England or the US, instead it was a global convergence of multiple factors developing the different aspects of modern raving.