The Rave Discourse
Have you ever been to a concert that you’ve felt completely out of place at? Whether you don’t like the music being played, the people, the venue or you just aren’t that into music. When you think of a concert, what comes to mind? A large crowd, everyones eyes on a band or rap artist, alcohol, crazy outfits. Everything you may have known about a concert will most likely change if you ever get the chance to attend an EDM show or a “Rave”. At most concerts you will find a band with different members of the group playing their respective instrument, a singer and possibly some back up vocalists. At an EDM show, you will find a setting far, far from your ordinary concert. On stage will be a single or possibly two artists with a computer, a couple of DJ’ing decks, a fan, some water and thats about it. The biggest difference though is what you’re looking at behind the DJ. Between the LED walls, fog and confetti cannons, lazers and even in some cases, people in robot suits EDM shows provide a completely different experience than any other concert.
When attending one of these shows, you can easily pick out the people that are their for the first time and those who truly are a part of this “discourse” as James Paul Gee would say. Proper attire for any EDM show will include bright colored clothing, glow sticks, sunglasses, a backpack, some comfortable sneakers to dance in and a group of your closest friends. The atmosphere inside the “discourse” of an EDM show is unlike anything you will ever attend. When you’re in a crowd of hundreds and thousands of people all there for the love of genre just as you are, its easy to get lost in the moment and in the music. The lights, music and people screaming around makes for one wild and crazy time.
The leaders of this crazy crowd are the guys standing up on stage, conducting their massive sea of fans. They set the pace and have complete control over whats going on at their stage. They design their own effects to be shown on the stage screens and put songs of their own and some from other DJ’s together to create their sets. Each stage will see anywhere from ten to twelve artists a day each playing for an hour to an hour an a half creating a constantant change in style and sound. This also creates smaller subdiscourses within the big discourse of music festivals. Each stage will host dj’s that play different styles of EDM music. For example, Dutch superstar DJ Armin Van Buuren is strictly a trance DJ and Greek duo Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike play big room and progressive house. Each DJ attracts a different crowd and provides a completely different show from the artist that was on the decks before them. With this kind of diversity and music, crowds and people overall, the discourse of these events is unlike anything else.
