Understanding the Alteration and Decline of a Music Scene: Observations from Rave Culture¹

Abstract

The sociological study of scenes-music and otherwise-has flourished in the latter twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Most research has documented a scene's origins or its ''evolution'' into mainstream culture. Fewer studies have systematically addressed what leads to a scene's alteration and decline, although many scholars have partially addressed it in authenticity studies anchored in the Frankfurt School's claims about culture and economics. Are culture industries sufficient in explaining music scene transformation? The present article attempts to explain the cultural transformation of the Philadelphia rave scene and to articulate its relevance for other kinds of social worlds. Using a multimethod ethnographic approach, I show that five forces (generational schism, commercialization, cultural otherness ⁄ deviance and self destruction, social control, and genre-based scene fragmentation) help explain the alteration and decline of the rave scene from its high point in the mid to late 1990s to its diminished and fragmented state presently. In describing these forces, I hope to move beyond culture industry narratives toward a broader explanation of cultural change, one that is lacking not only in music scene studies, but also in literatures on many other kinds of social worlds.

When Differences Unite: Resource Dependence in Heterogeneous Consumption Communities

“…As a result, core community members abandoned the music and the subculture quickly disintegrated and lost popularity (Garofalo 2002). This evolutionary pattern is documented across a range of communities, including music (Anderson 2009;Fox 1987), sports (Humphreys 2003;Irwin 1973), and ideologically based consumption communities (Thompson and Coskuner-Balli 2007). Across these communities, growth resulting in heterogeneity and unwanted producer involvement is blamed for reducing members' sense of belonging, since personal fulfillment is diminished with the disruption of exclusivity and distinction associated with membership.…”

Advancing the 5E's in festival experience for the Gen Y framework in the context of eWOM

“…This means that consumers are more likely to provide eWOM when the consumption experience is perceived as personally significant and memorable (Kim et al, 2015). In the context of Gen Y attendees who travel to a Caribbean island to attend a music festival, the consumption of the festival is personal due to the genre of music being representative of the generation's music tastes and preferences (Anderson, 2009). Therefore, if the 5Es (entertainment, education, esthetics, escapism, and economic value) are adequate for creating a memorable music festival for Gen Y, then the likelihood of Gen Y attendees promoting the consumption experience on social networking sites seems significant.…”

Social Movement Scenes: Place‐Based Politics and Everyday Resistance

“…These questions are not just pertinent to the study of social movement scenes, but to scenes in other contexts as well. First, a couple of recent studies have begun to theorize the growth, disruption, and decline (Anderson 2009; Culton and Holtzman 2010) of music scenes, but little is known about the lifecycle of scenes. Where do scenes originate?…”