Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Cultural diversity festival alternatives
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Every year, young individuals from a diverse background of ages, races, nationalities, sexual orientations and economic situations come together to enjoy music and culture festivals that raves have to offer. Ravers lose themselves in crowds by dancing and having fun. While raves used to be small and secretive, it has now become more mainstream leading to larger venues, making it the norm it is today. The rave culture is generally filled with love. The only value system that is followed in rave culture is the idea of P.L.U.R. Peace, love, unity, and respect are the ideologies that rave culture promotes that contradicts that of the dominant society. Ravers value PLUR. The primary activity at a rave is to dance to EDM all night long and well into the early morning hours. Ravers dance individually, but in unison with others around them. Dancing simultaneously demonstrated a sense of independence and connection, running consistent with PLUR. It helps one get along with others ravers more easily. According to Chris Hernandez, a dedicated raver, “PLUR bonds everyone together and makes everyone family. Every festival is different but they all have that sense …show more content…
One of the most important parts of the “Kandi” culture is the process of giving and the term PLUR. It’s a handshake that signifies attention. The steps go as followed: 1. Two people make peace sighs (Peace) 2. They form their hands into hearts (Love) 3. They join their hearts (Unity) 4. They slide their bracelets from hand to hand (Respect) and finally hug someone, (Clubglow). These bracelets pay tribute to each ravers individuality as well as demonstrate the connection and unity between fellow
Ten minutes after lining up, I went inside the nightclub. From the door, I could hear the song and the beat of the bass so loud that my heart could feel it. Inside the nightclub, I saw people were dancing everywhere, on dancing floor, on their own seats, everywhere. They would dance and take a big gulp of their beer. Even the bartenders were dancing too, following the rhythm of the loud funky music. The rainbow rays of light moved through the club to make the mood even more exciting and funky.
In Justin Pearson's memoir, From the Graveyard of the arousal Industry, he recounts the events that occured from his early years of adolesence to the latter years of his adulthood telling the story of his unforgiving and candid life. Set in the late 1970s "Punk" rock era, From the Graveyard of the Arousal Industry offers a valuable perspective about the role culture takes in our lives, how we interact with it and how it differs from ideology.
After reading Richard Dyer’s “In Defense of Disco” I began to think about disco as a product of capitalism. This is something that I had never really thought of before. When I think about the hip-hop industry I think capitalism, but not necessarily disco. In this article Dyer goes on to defend disco by identifying its key characteristics, and relating them to ways in which these characteristics allow gay men to escape the pressures of the dominant heterosexual society. Characteristics such as eroticism, romanticism, and materialism are outlined within Dyer’s article. Even though Disco may have been driven in capitalistic ways, I think that it has created an environment that helps to redefine gender and sexuality. Disco, like many other genres of music, has allowed for the creation of many dynamic cultures. These various sub cultures continue to evolve and flourish over time.
The documentary “Rize” by David LaChapelle, focuses on the lives of Black Americans who live in South Central Los Angeles and the struggles they go through in their daily lives. Moreover the film also introduces two types of dancing groups that they have in the community. These dance groups are meant to keep the youths and children occupied and distracted from all the problems that have been going on in their community, such as the LA riot. The two styles of dancing are Clowning and Krumping. Clowning was created by Tommy the Clown in 1992. Tommy used to be a formal drug dealer, he went from having his life together to losing all his money and house. However, instead of doing nothing productive with his life, he decided to help his community by changing the lives of others through entertainment. In addition, not only did this dancing group help him get to a better place in life but also the group members are like his family. His main goal was to help put similes on people’s faces and help get some of these children and youths away from gangs. On the other hand, Krumping was also generated from Clowning, however Krumpers believe that their form of entertainment is different from clowning. Moreover, these dancing groups main focus is to distract the youths and children in the community by giving them the opportunity to do something they love, which is dancing. Furthermore, passion, spiritual connections and connection to the African culture are conveyed through the film by Clowning and Krumping.
The sound of music can fulfil someone's ears with the rhythm of the beat or the sweet tone of the melody. Some people enjoy music with a little more “experience.” Rock, rap, and heavy metal are examples of music genres that has a reputation of using drugs to enhance the experience of the music. One other common music genre that has a reputation of drugs is EDM. Electronic Dance Music. It is a type of music typically created by using electronic devices, like a laptop, generated by a person with some talent. This music genre is known for it’s “club drugs” like ecstasy, methanamine, or magic mushrooms. (“CRC Health”) Some people use drugs at raves to “enhance” the experience and also people have tried or are trying to push the usage of drugs at rave to a certain that you can take. Many people want more security checks at raves so they can reduce the injuries and deaths at raves.
Since the early to mid 90’s, hip-hop has undergone changes that purists would consider degenerating to its culture. At the root of these changes is what has been called “commercial hip-hop". Commercial hip-hop has deteriorated what so many emcees in the 80’s tried to build- a culture of music, dance, creativity, and artistry that would give people not only something to bob their head to, but also an avenue to express themselves and deliver a positive message to their surroundings.
During the “Beat Generation” there were three types of members: the wild boys, the hipsters, and the young politicians. They all have their different personalities and actions they use. The wild boys “drink to `come down’ or to `get high,’ not to illustrate anything.”(2) This shows a change in how they drank. They drank for themselves and to calm their feelings and feel better about them, not to show off to anyone. The wild boys’ characteristics make them `beat’ because are living life to the fullest, without any regret of tomorrow. They drink till they can’t drink no more or party till they can’t stand. This causes them to not worry about what will happen or how they are going to live tomorrow; they only care about the present. The hipsters they want to make “a mystique of bop, drugs and the night life, there is no desire to shatter the `square’ society in which he lives, only to elude it.”(3) The hipsters don’t care for society or care what it tells them to do. They go about their ways and do what they want. They don’t want to change the rules or the laws but only to make sure they don’t get swept up in ideas or thoughts that society gives them. The hipsters’ characteristics are `beat’ because they go against what is told to be the proper or correct way. They may get beat down in the beginning and face hard times, but later on they will find new ways of doing things and those will be the new way society sees things. The young politician looks up to “Badditt as a cultural hero.”(3) He goes along with what society has showed him to do. The characteristics of the politician make him beat because he doesn’t do anything for his own; he does what is right to do, and what will get him far in life. When society catches up to him he wil...
Sisario, Ben and James C. McKinley. “Drugs Deaths Threaten Rising Business of Electronic Music Fests”. New York Times. 9 Sept 2013. Web. 1 Apr 2014.
Beginning with the late 1960’s counterculture in San Francisco, music and drugs will forever be inter-linked. Hippie bands such as the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and Phish are associated with marijuana, mushrooms, and LSD. Modern electronic “rave” , or club music is associated with MDMA or Ecstasy. When one thinks of rock and roll, sex and drugs immediately come to mind. While the use of drugs is not essential for the creation or performance of all new music, it was certainly in important factor for the counterculture music of the late 1960’s. While some of the most important and influential music was made with the help of psychoactive drugs, it was often to the detriment of the artist. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and countless other tremendously talented artists had their lives cut short due to drug use. Drugs were most often good for the music, but deadly for the music makers.
During the sixties Americans saw the rise of the counterculture. The counterculture, which was a group of movements focused on achieving personal and cultural liberation, was embraced by the decade’s young Americans. Because many Americans were members of the different movements in the counterculture, the counterculture influenced American society. As a result of the achievements the counterculture movements made, the United States in the 1960s became a more open, more tolerant, and freer country.
During the 1940’s, the world found itself dealing with World War II and in the United States ,a huge African culture movement swept throughout the north-eastern states. One specific artist that captivated the “Nightlife” of African Americans during that era was Archibald Motley Jr. He painted a series of paintings that involved African Americans and their culture. In the painting, “Nightlife” we see a group of African Americans dancing at a club/bar, enjoying life, and swaying their hips to the music. Perhaps, in this painting, Motley wanted his public to notice the breakthrough, blacks had during the 1940’s and wanted to show how music took their mind on a different stroll apart from the troubling issues the world was dealing with. Archibald wanted the world to notice the dynamic and exciting Negro culture.
Remix Culture One of the biggest issues that arises with remix art is the issue of ‘Remix vs. Plagiarism.” When does a remixed work become an original work of art? Is the work considered original as soon as it is tweaked or when it is unrecognizable? Neither, a work is unique when its purpose and meaning transcends that of the original. Works like Montgomery Lee’s “Copyright Symphony” take a variety of images and use them to create music out of the embedded data in the photographs.
Imagine you are in your room and it’s about 1:00 in the morning. It’s pitch black outside and you’ve been lost for hours. There’s nothing good on the radio. You’re dying of thirst and you’re drenched with sweat. You’re just about to turn around and open your window for some fresh air and you hear it. The bass is in sync with your heartbeat and the lights are flashing everywhere. So you follow this music and you arrive at your destination: A rave. It is the vibe that is so commonly talked about within this culture.
"THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RAP & HIP-HOP CULTURE." THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RAP & HIP-HOP CULTURE. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
These large festivals attract crowds of well over 100,000 attendees, many of whom are from all different types of backgrounds. For example, the Electronic Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is held annually every June, attracts hundreds of thousands of individuals all coming together to celebrate their love of dance music. At Electronic Daisy Carnival or EDC as it is known, no judgments are passed on people for any reason such as race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, or age. Everyone that attends is treated with love and respect. Many people who attend these festivals have a motto that they base their actions on known as P.L.U.R. which stands for peace, love, unity, and respect.