Introduction; The Rave-olution? 1. Sound System Exodus: Tekno-Anarchy in the UK and Beyond 2. Secret Sonic Societies and Other Renegades of Sound 3. New Tribal Gathering: Vibe-Tribes and Mega-Raves 4. The Technooccult, Psytrance and the Millennium 5. Rebel Sounds and Dance Activism: Rave and the Carnival of Protest 6. Outback Vibes: Dancing Up Country Conclusion: Hardcore, You Know the Score
Graham St John is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Media Production and Studies at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, a Research Associate at the University of Queensland's Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, and was recently an SAR/SSRC Residential Fellow at the School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico. His books include the edited collections Victor Turner and Contemporary Cultural Performance (Berghahn 2008), and Rave Culture and Religion (Routledge, 2004). His book Global Trance Culture: Religion, Technology and Psytrance is forthcoming with Blackwell.
his book is an enjoyable and useful read.
Popular MusicAn enjoyable, stimulating and informative book, and it
represents a valuable addition to the written histories of dance
music. While it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in
EDMC, its broader cultural scope should lend it an appeal for
anyone keen on exploring the continued significance of music in a
countercultural context, and for those who take an interest in
cultural politics, popular music and protest, and resistance
movements. Its broad geographical framework provides a template not
only for further studies of EDMC, but also for future
investigations into the intersections between music and
counterculture.
Perfect BeatTechnomad: Global Raving Countercultures is the most
wide-ranging and detailed of all the books on rave. More than the
study of a musical movement or genre, Technomad offers an alternate
history of cultural politics since the 1960s, from hippies and Acid
Tests through the sound systems and 'vibe-tribes' of the 1990s and
beyond. St John maps the long cultural front of 'hedonists,
anarchists, artists, travellers, exiles, queers, pirates, hackers,
[and] visionaries' who transformed the relationship between
transgressive and progressive politics in the cultural field. Like
Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces, Technomad makes unexpected but
entirely convincing connections between people, movements and
events. Like Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, St John's
book introduces us to unknown heroes, committed geniuses and
genuine revolutionaries. Beautifully written, with a genuinely
international perspective on electronic dance music culture,
Technomad is one of the best books on music I've read in some
time.
Professor Will Straw, Department of Art History and Communication
Studies, McGill UniversityTechnomad offers important insights into
the meeting points between countercultural discourses and post-rave
techno cultures. Optimistic regarding the progressive potential of
outdoor techno-trance gatherings, this well-documented study traces
the complex genealogy of a global nomadic 'technoccult', with
emphasis on Europe, North-America and Australia. Not to be missed
by anyone interested in the study of rave cultures, countercultures
and festivals.
Dr Hillegonda Rietveld, Reader in Cultural Studies, London South
Bank UniversityA critical utopianism is articulated and celebrated
with a textual energy too rare in today's cultural studies. Graham
St John is wide-eyed in order to look more closely. I recommend his
shining and grubby doofscape to all interested in the radical
possibilities and limitations of contemporary culture.
Professor George McKay, University of SalfordSt John's Technomad is
an outstanding theoretical and empirical contribution to the
emerging field of Electronic Dance Music studies. St John offers
ground breaking and complex theoretical discussions on resistance,
counterculture, music/media studies and globalization. Written in
an absolutely mesmerizing style, Technomad offers invaluable
insider accounts and documents crucial events in EDM history. This
book is already an all time classic, and indispensable to anyone
interested in the diversity of EDM practices and intentions, and
its multiple impacts on contemporary global cultural politics.
Anna Gavanas, University of Leeds
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