What is a Rave Party?

Raves started at as a bit of a underground movement stemming from the credo of PLUR (peace, love, unity, respect), sort of like neo-hippies for lack of a better term. Originally it was a bunch of like minded individuals getting together at "raves" most of which showcased electronic music performances of all flavors. The idea was originally just to get together and have a good time despite people's differences.

As time passed raves began to get demonized as dark and scary ecstasy parties due to the sometimes frequent use of the drug and a lack of primo venues willing to house raves. Eventually the movement lost site of its roots, people simply looking to get messed up diluted the scene, every party became a neon Halloween, and trance ultimately took over as the dominant music.

What are called raves today are a far cry from what a rave was in the early 90s. If you went to a rave today you'd most likely find yourself listening to a lot of generic trance or house music in a club. I could probably go on at length about this but that's nuts and bolts of it.



1) n. any gathering of people centered around listening to and dancing to electronic music, as played by a set of live djs. Originated in 1989 in the UK as underground, often illegal gatherings in abandoned warehouses. Often characterized by the positive, psychedelic atmosphere, influnced often (but not always) by drugs and casual sex.

2) v. to dance in a style characteristic of dancers at raves, synonymous with fluid, liquid
1) There is this awesome rave tomorrow night in a warehouse downtown; all these famous djs will be playing

2) Some clubbers don't like it when I rave to hip-hop music ;-)


n. An organized underground party involving music and dancing. Raves typically involve one or more DJs playing electronic dance music such as techno, trance, breakbeat, jungle, and ambient. Usually starting after dusk and lasting through 'til dawn, drug use at raves often runs rampant; particularly the use of Ecstasy and LSD. Raves can vary greatly in size and scope, hosting from dozens to thousands of guests, and lasting from one night to a few days. Classically, ravers have maintained a strong community spirit and have promoted an ideal called PLUR, an acronym for Peace, Love, Unity and Respect. These values have unfortunately faded somewhat since the onset of a newer generation of ravers unfamiliar with these concepts so elemental to the original scene.
Guys, we went to a rave last night, right? Cause, I'm not sure WHAT we did there, but I don't remember a thing.


An underground party in which electronic music is played, dancing occurs in a very free-form fashion. The dress of the partygoers is quite unrestrained. It is rumoured that there is ALWAYS drug use involved, but this is not ALWAYS correct. There are straight-edge ravers who don't take part in drug use. Like me.
I went to a rave yesterday. It was mad phat, illin' like a villian.