Global Raver is expanding. While this blog has always discussed broader cultural, social and media issues, it has been within the purview of electronic dance music. In fact, Global Raver has ranked among the top 10 most relevant EDMC blogs globally. But given this drive for variety, I decided to expand this conversation. In this new orientation, I want to be free to discuss other expressions of cultural innovation in contemporary society.
When I set out to research rave, club and spiritual cultures years ago, my main concern wasn't the music per se. I'm not a musicologist, but a social scientist and a sort of nomadologist. I wanted to understand cultural resistance via disruptive creativity. In international hotspots, such as Ibiza, Goa and Rio, I examined the interactions between media, counterculture and spirituality. My hypothesis was that electronica (aka EDMC) was a space for authentic emancipation. From the outset I confronted the vexing complexity of EDMC, its encroachment by capital, and its docilization by the mainstream.
Yet, such complexities and innovations happen all around us, in various spheres of life. It thus makes sense to move beyond the specific focus on EDMC, to also include the world of contemporary lifestyles, global hybridizations, and digital parodies.
The new Global Raver will be open to a mix of cool hunting, anthropology and social critique. I'd like to follow Deleuze's pragmatic advice for an additive approach to reality. The blog will potentially address any interesting innovations in contemporary global culture: gradual or disruptive, artistic or not, pertaining creative industries and emerging subcultures. Global Raver thus expands while remaining on the cultural cutting edge.
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