Today's clubbing a legalized rave party experience of the 80s

Washington, Oct 15 : Modern clubbers- people who dance the night away in clubs- are enjoying a more controlled and legalized version of the raves parties of the late 1980s and early 1990s, say researchers.

Raves were secret, underground, spontaneous parties, whereas modern clubs are controlled by security staff and fashion police, who decide who gets in and who doesn't.

But the emphasis on the pleasure of dancing and the use of the illegal drug Ecstasy survive into the new era of clubbers.

For the study, researchers Christina Goulding, from University of Wolverhampton, Avi Shankar, Richard Elliott, from University of Bath and Robin Canniford from University of Exeter immersed themselves in club culture for five years, interviewing clubbers and researching the history of raves and clubs.

"We find that the effects of the deafening music, the ingestion of Ecstasy, the energetic dancing, and the management and organization of space combine to produce a calculated, highly sought-after, shared experience and a temporary suspension of the rules and norms of everyday life," said the authors.

"Further, we suggest that the club, and the pleasurable practices and experiences that it supports, has become a site of contained illegality."

They also noticed that although the drug use and pursuit of pleasure survive, increased regulation has made clubbing a more publicly acceptable form of partying.

"Raves constituted untaxable, unstable, and unpredictable pleasures that provoked moral panic in the media and amongst State authorities that ultimately led to the imposition of repressive, judicial forms of power," they explain.

"Clubbing subsequently emerged as a more legitimate environment in which to experience the euphoric consumption experience of rave," they added.

ANI