I recently heard an instrumental musak version of John Lennon’s ‘Revolution’ being played in an ‘everything for a pound’ shop. Thirty years after Janis Joplin satiricaly prayed for God to buy her a Merc, the company are using the same song to sell their luxury cars to her former fans. These are two examples of how revolutionary music and ideas can dissolve into a world of mass markets and advertising. I’ve seen rave culture in the UK succumb to a similar fate over the last ten years, and want to find out what is being done to retain the scene’s socially innovative nature. How has rave affected England and the rest of the world? Has the scene died along with its principals, or has it become such a common part of our lives we can no longer feel its reason? What was the point of it all?
