Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures
by Graham St John (Equinox, 2009)
http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=392
"Technomad: 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.
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 University
Book description:
A cultural history of global electronic dance music countercultures,
Technomad explores the pleasurable and activist trajectories of
post-rave culture. The book documents an emerging network of
techno-tribes, exploring their pleasure principles and cultural
politics. Attending to sound system culture,
electro-humanitarianism, secret sonic societies, teknivals and other
gatherings, intentional parties, revitalisation movements and
counter-colonial interventions, Technomad investigates how the dance
party has been harnessed for transgressive and progressive ends -
for manifold freedoms. Seeking freedom from moral prohibitions and
standards, pleasure in rebellion, refuge from sexual and gender
prejudice, exile from oppression, rupturing aesthetic boundaries,
re-enchanting the world, reclaiming space, fighting for "the right
to party," and responding to a host of critical concerns, electronic
dance music cultures are multivalent sites of resistance.
Drawing on extensive ethnographic, netographic and documentary
research, Technomad details the post-rave trajectory through various
local sites and global scenes, with each chapter attending to unique
developments in the techno counterculture: e.g. Spiral Tribe,
teknivals, psytrance, Burning Man, Reclaim the Streets, Earthdream.
The book offers an original, nuanced theory of resistance to assist
understanding of these developments. This cultural history of
hitherto uncharted territory will be of interest to students of
cultural, performance, music, media, and new social movement
studies, along with enthusiasts of dance culture and popular politics.
Contents
1. Introduction: The Rave-olution?
2. Sound System Exodus: Tekno-Anarchy in the UK and Beyond
3. Secret Sonic Societies and Other Renegades of Sound
4. New Tribal Gathering: Vibe-Tribes and Mega-Raves
5. The Technoccult, Psytrance and the Millennium
6. Rebel Sounds and Dance Activism: Rave and the Carnival of Protest
7. Outback Vibes: Dancing Up Country
8. Hardcore, You Know the Score
Available in paperback and hardback from Equinox:
http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=392
Or preorder at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Technomad-Global-Countercultures-Popular-History/dp/1845536266
Graham St John
http://www.edgecentral.net/
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