The History Of Rave

The early years

The Early Years and Acid House and Techno

Acid House Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed by mid-1980s DJs from Chicago who experimented with the Roland TB-303 electronic synthesizer-sequencer

Synthesizer’s, the launch of electronic music

Acid House The start of the ‘rave scene’ and what came to be ‘underground music’ The first acid house records were produced in Chicago, Illinois.

The movement to The UK 1987- Club Shoom were the first to introduce acid house to The UK, and in return a new era of music began…

But why did we accept this random ‘beeping’ music? Music at this time was very commercial based, you could predict Who the next track was going to be by, and what it was going to sound Like, there was that 80’s sound that people seemed to be getting enough of… Acid house Came at the perfect time, and in my Option this was a big reason for the popularity

But don’t forget the drugs You can never rule out the fact that Drugs had a HUGH impact on the early Rave scene Quote: …’as people take ecstasy, dance, smile & hug each other. Concepts unheard of in such a stiff British culture.’ People wanted to pull away from what we Call ‘reality’ At £25 a pill, you were getting what you paid for

1988, the numbers rise ‘Shoom moves to the YMCA on Tottenham Court Road, but there are still more people dancing and partying outside than inside!’

The illegal rave This was a hugh turning point for the rave scene. A warehouse, a farm, no one cared as long as there was a big system with a crowd full of like minded people.

The buzz of a illegal rave Quote…’ One thing that I remember that does stick in my mind is the convoy of cars we used to follow just to get to a rave, it was crazy back then but was also fun and exciting…’ Quote ‘When the weekend came we would all get together and go on a mission of making a hundred phone calls to get secret directions to an illegal party being held, and quite a lot of the time you would end up driving around all night and not even finding the event because the police were stopping you all the time and turning you back (bloody spoilsports).’

The clamp down Before long the police got in on the action and the government brought in a new law that illegal raves were officially illegal. The warehouse rave scene died down, part from the odd few promoters that went ahead with it any way

Then came 1990 Acid house was calming down and in return venues such as the Hacienda that were packed out week in, week out playing all sorts of house and acid house music which eventually progressed to a harder sound, and with the arrival of venues such as Bowlers (Manchester) a whole new era in dance was born.

The splitting of rave Before this point rave was rave Rave in the 90’s saw the split into Hardcore, Drum and Bass, piano house, jungle All creating there own unique vibe

Faster the Better? The early 90’s saw the era of Hardcore It was faster, harder and in some cases darker, and so much more variation than your typical 4/4 acid house and techno from earlier the years Drum and bass, was similar but was darker still

From this point on things were going to get interesting The Underground was born

You had the likes of events like dreamscape

Moving on While a lot of sub rave genres were sticking around the same style, In 1994 to 1995 Hardcore Brakes made a hugh turn Hardcore lost the brakes and Happy hardcore was Born Views were varied Some people liked, some people saw it to be the start of the end The next few years were to decide

1995 By the time 1995 was upon us Hardcore was almost at its best, the events all over the UK were rammed out week after week, love peace & unity was at its peak. With the arrival of tunes such as toy town, cold as ice and more, hardcore looked like it was here to stay forever.

The DJ’s At this point DJ’s such as Hixxy

SY

Sharkey

Happy Hardcore Happy Hardcore was fast, bouncy, and very happy, although a lot of people liked it, the original dj’s and producers didn’t like where it was going…

The explosion 1996 soon came about and we were witnessing the explosion of hardcore just about everywhere, TV ads for things like Bonkers

the events were getting even bigger and busier, even places like HMV was selling Hardcore vinyl, and the music was progressing at such a rate it was starting to get pigeon holed into various forms of hardcore This was the start Of the commercial brake down

The Dark ages… 1998 saw the predicted fall of one of the biggest forms of underground music But why…

One Word….

Commercialism

Hardcore Crash In the space of a year Happy Hardcore went from been hugh to Nothing Although some people stayed true and never left but nothing much was happening, the music was going round in a loop, falling into The trap of making Trance hardcore remixes Ideas had vanished

Quotes From You Tube ‘This was the slowest BPM bonkers mix I ever heard so far’ ‘Cos' they were trying to compete with Trance at the time’ ‘I guess trance won at the time :( Because it took 3 years for the next Bonkers to come out’ ‘Me too, am honestly shocked that it has tbh, cos when this was released things didn't look good, what with UK garage, trance & hardhouse ruling the roost!’

2002/2003 The return......

Where did it come back from? A New sound UK HARDCORE, The energy that had been lost was found again

Another Split Along with UK Hardcore came NU Skool Gabba, speedcore and Freeform another extension to the world of rave, it made it interesting and diverse

The Underground of the Underground The DARK DARK Side, Speedcore, Brakecore, Hardcore Techno

2008 Where to next? Is it going to go down the same path as it did in 1998? Will the Music Progress? Is it time for the big names to pass down? What are your views on Today's Rave scene? Music Or Noise?