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Article: For many ravers, all-night dances are spiritual events: Underground culture goes mainstream.(Culture, Et Cetera)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- August 13, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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To rave, Webster's dictionary says, is "to talk wildly in a delirious or demented state."
But to thousands of young revelers, raving is seeking out such party spaces as warehouses, listening to techno music, getting high on the drug Ecstasy and dancing until dawn.
A new book, "Generation Ecstasy," by British rock critic Simon Reynolds, chronicles the rise of raving as an underground phenomenon that's gone mainstream.
"Rave is more than music plus drugs," he writes, "it's a matrix of lifestyle, ritualized behavior and beliefs."
This "spiritual phenomenon," as he terms it, is repeated across the country on any good party night. ...