Fight, Flight, or Chill: Subcultures, Youth, and Rave into the Twenty-First Century

Henry G. MacLeod teaches sociology at Trent University and the
University of Waterloo.

The strength of this study of rave youth culture lies in its recognition
of the complexity of youth subcultures and the extent to which raves are
part of middle-class youth culture. The author is critical of media and
popular labels of ravers—and hence all youth—as self-destructive,
criminal, and apathetic. He dismisses the notion that youth are simply
troubled delinquents who can be dealt with by amending the Young
Offenders Act. He addresses the current theories and methods related to
the study of youth, including postmodernism, feminism, and neo-Marxist
approaches.

The weakness of Wilson’s work for the general reader is illustrated
by his heavily academic definition of a rave as “a middle-class
culture of youth that is renowned for drug use, an interest in
computer-generated music know as ‘techno,’ and attendance at
all-night ‘rave’ dance parties.” The rave scene is about music and
emerged out of warehouse parties, discos, and other forms of underground
music. It does have a negative side, deaths from drug abuse being a
prime example.

Caveats aside, Fight, Flight, or Chill is a highly readable empirical
study that will appeal to anyone with an interest in rave culture.