Cutting edge underground 1980's parties in California?
January 13, 2022 4:25 AM Subscribe
I'd like to know everything about early 1980's raves, please. (Or proto-raves, I guess? Electronic music dance parties? Whatever the cutting edge underground parties were?)
Specifically in California, but all information and resources are useful.
Project time! I'd like to know as much as possible about the underground party/music scene in the early 1980's. Anecdotes, stories and online information preferred, but books work too.
It's looking like the term rave might be wrong, more late 80', early 90's. But what were the underground parties like? What were they called? Who was attending? What venues were there? How much drugs were around, and how much of it was ecstasy?
Who was playing what kind of music? How likely was it to cross into the mainstream?
How did people find out about the events? How illegal were they? What did people generally wear?
Thank you!
Project time! I'd like to know as much as possible about the underground party/music scene in the early 1980's. Anecdotes, stories and online information preferred, but books work too.
It's looking like the term rave might be wrong, more late 80', early 90's. But what were the underground parties like? What were they called? Who was attending? What venues were there? How much drugs were around, and how much of it was ecstasy?
Who was playing what kind of music? How likely was it to cross into the mainstream?
How did people find out about the events? How illegal were they? What did people generally wear?
Thank you!
Check out the Desolation Center documentary.
posted by spudsilo at 8:01 AM on January 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by spudsilo at 8:01 AM on January 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Eastside Party Crews in LA
Also check out the work of Guadalupe Rosales.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 8:42 AM on January 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also check out the work of Guadalupe Rosales.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 8:42 AM on January 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
There might be useful information here or in the rest of the RBMA archives.
posted by gingerbeer at 1:56 PM on January 13, 2022
posted by gingerbeer at 1:56 PM on January 13, 2022
Slightly late on your timeline but early 90s SF had the Wicked Crew. A few years later, BuzzLine was a way to find out about events. 1992 had the first sound camp at Burning Man which continued to grow. There were parties at Mr. Floppy's Flophouse. And, of course, SRL events.
Rave scene adjacent, you might be interested in the Generator Parties that would birth Queens of the Stone Age. That's tied to the Desolation Center mentioned by spudsilo. There's also the Lo Sound Desert movie.
Some L.A. artifacts.
It's the wrong continent, but here's an example of late 80s era rave culture that I always love.
posted by Candleman at 11:20 PM on January 13, 2022
Rave scene adjacent, you might be interested in the Generator Parties that would birth Queens of the Stone Age. That's tied to the Desolation Center mentioned by spudsilo. There's also the Lo Sound Desert movie.
Some L.A. artifacts.
It's the wrong continent, but here's an example of late 80s era rave culture that I always love.
posted by Candleman at 11:20 PM on January 13, 2022
The most recent issue of Faith Fanzine has a bunch of pieces on West Coast dance history, but early 80s underground is absent. My guess is that Cali followed the trajectory of a lot of dance music through the 70s and 80s: club-focused through the 70s and early 80s transitioning to underground/raves later in the 80s (as the clubs closed, the dominant culture moved on and house music became ascendent).
My gut says that most underground dance parties through the early 80s were more like the Eastside Party Crews that mandymanwasregistered posted about — community-scale parties thrown by young Black and brown kids tearing it up. Aka less likely to be written about or considered part of the official histories.
posted by wemayfreeze at 9:29 AM on January 19, 2022
My gut says that most underground dance parties through the early 80s were more like the Eastside Party Crews that mandymanwasregistered posted about — community-scale parties thrown by young Black and brown kids tearing it up. Aka less likely to be written about or considered part of the official histories.
posted by wemayfreeze at 9:29 AM on January 19, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
I do agree that rave would probably be the wrong word for the early 80s in the US. But surely there were parties that were underground with industrial, post-punk, and techno-precursor music.
posted by Snowishberlin at 7:56 AM on January 13, 2022