Dissolution of Hierarchy in DIY Music Spaces; A(n)(whole ass)Essay(at this point lol)

Preface/Disclaimers: I've been involved in organizing "underground" raves for about a year now, and attending raves, both legal and illegal, for roughly 3. I put underground in quotations because it feels like it's become a bit of a buzzword in recent times; I define an underground rave or show as a show organized by artists and community members without legal authorization and documentation (like a sound permit, etc.), and occurring outdoors, rented under the table, or in a DIY community space. So nightclubs and most festivals are excluded. I also want to disclaim that when I talk about young people, I mean generally people aged 16-25, the earlier teenage years through the early 20s. Not to say that people above that are "old" by any means, but in the context of music scenes, generally people above that age bracket have a decent amount of experience and often serve as figureheads or leaders of good practice within such spaces. Obviously there are exceptions, and I'm writing this from personal experience. One last disclaimer: I don't mean to shit on nightclubs excessively, as they absolutely serve an important purpose in the nightlife ecosystem. I simply believe that in the current circumstances, DIY spaces are more important than ever, and I wanted to give some experience based context and reasoning for why I think clubs are failing our youth right now. Now that I have all that out of the way, let's begin.

I believe underground spaces are extremely important in this day and age, as the COVID pandemic killed a lot of DIY music scenes in a variety of ways, and most social spaces that host live music are unaffordable to the general populace and bar entry for those under 21. These spaces, primarily bars and nightclubs, are extremely profit oriented due to a variety of socioeconomic conditions. You can't really blame them, rent is rising and less people are going out and partying than ever before. For many nightclubs, 18+ or all ages nights are simply not worth the liability, as selling drinks is a huge source of profit and, to be quite frank, many 18-20 year olds can't hold their substances. Nightclubs and bars are by nature, businesses, and are therefore run with a hierarchical system akin to that of many other businesses. Admittedly, I don't know the exact structure, but as someone who's been to a decent few nightclubs, this is what I've observed. 

On any given night, there's a manager figure, someone who serves as the overseer, the lighting and sound crew, the security guards, bartenders, and a few auxillary people who kind of just do whatever's needed at any given moment. Oftentimes, these people assert their status clearly to the attendees, who are essentially customers (although none of the employees seem to think that they're always right, quite the opposite in fact). Security is often pushy or confrontational simply because they know that they can be. The people who work at and run these clubs or bars see the space as their responsibility, if not their property, and the people both organizing and attending events as guests which must be managed to minimize any behavior that could effect the reputation or legal standing of the club. Legal liability is a nightclub's worst nightmare. This attitude and thought process leads to a rift between the space itself and those who run it, and the people that attend the events they host; quite ironic since, for so long, they've been in a state of symbiosis. 

A music scene, or any sort of "scene" at all, needs 2 things to exist: a space to gather (often multiple, and in the case of broader scenes, an area in which to coexist), and people to gather or coexist within those spaces. Many of the more influential and/or powerful scenes are also united by a shared ideology, however this unfortunately does not always seem to last due to an influx of people who join for varieties of reasons [I'll be writing another blog post about my observations and thoughts on this phenomenon soon, but the tl;dr is that gatekeeping can actually be important and a good thing sometimes]. Nightclubs provide these spaces conditionally, and while many understand that without the people who come to their events they'd lose their livelihood, they still mistreat attendees, over-police their spaces, and make it clear to those attending events: you are a guest here, you are only here because you paid me to be here, and I can kick you out at any time. This isn't even to mention that the youth are the core and the lifeblood of the scene, yet nightclubs often offer adults preferential treatment, which allows creeps (usually older men) to come and stare at or outright hit on significantly younger people, making them feel uncomfortable and unsafe. This is, naturally, not a very welcoming environment, and not one that encourages people who want to start participating in a music scene to come back, and in a post-COVID world, this is a serious issue.

Many young people were socially stunted by the COVID pandemic, myself included, and found community and connection online, from the comfort of their homes and devices. This is why I believe it is so important to offer spaces where you don't feel like a guest, or a spectator, but a member of a community, a broader whole. People have found ways to satiate their desire for connection and interaction without going out regularly, and many people hold reservations about doing so rooted in social anxiety, which is more visibly prevalent in our generation than any before us. And here, we finally get to my point, the subject line, why you probably clicked on this shit in the first place. DIY spaces are critical right now. A nightclub is an anxious brain's worst nightmare for many of the reasons I described earlier in my criticism of them. We need to create more spaces in which everyone present feels valued and feels like an integral part of the experience to help encourage more young people to get out of the house and explore these avenues of broader community and social collaboration. 

I'm going to use raves as my primary example. In my time raving, the events and parties that have stuck with me the most have not felt even close to a nightclub. They have felt like a gathering of friends that just so happen to have a big soundsystem set up. The people who set up the speakers and run sound also DJ, but also take stock of the crowd and make sure everyone is doing ok, and also roll spliffs or do whatever substances they're partial to. My first time attending a party like this, I was coming fresh from having mostly gone to nightclubs, and I wanted to know who was responsible for such a lovely event. I asked the guy who I figured to be that person, and he said "Pretty much everyone here", told me the name of the soundsystem, and proceeded to point out all the members of the crew. It was 80% of the crowd. And while it was not a particularly large crowd, (maybe 30-50 people), that left an imprint on me. Most of the people he pointed out didn't actually contribute in the ways I commonly thought were contributing, (i.e. running sound, DJing, working security, harm reduction, etc.), but that clearly didn't matter. This was a space in which all in attendance were seen and treated with equal respect. Obviously I didn't feel as tight with these people at that point because it was my first time meeting most of them (we are now friends on a first name basis despite 10-15 year age gaps), but everyone I talked to greeted me with a friendly, welcoming nature. On a less important (but still important) note, I also heard such an interesting variation of music genres being played that night, a far cry from many other raves I'd been to where it felt like every DJ played the same few genres.

This party got me absolutely hooked. I followed everything they were involved in closely, and everything they threw that I managed to attend was just as beautiful an experience as before, but they still felt distinct enough that it didn't all blend together. I later found out this was the product of a group of people who had been involved in the California rave scene for at least 10 years, some as long as 20 or 30. I figured, if this is the system that they use for their events after seeing 20 years of organizations, crews, venues, spaces and people come and go, there must be something to it. And this is why I'm writing this. Welcoming DIY spaces are crucial for the perpetuation of music scenes rooted in radical forms of creativity and self expression (which I think many can agree are the best things for music scenes to be rooted in). When a group of people unite over a shared love for music, creativity and community, and are able to do so in spaces where they can honestly express themselves without fear, they become extremely empowered. And in a world where we often feel so powerless to change anything on a broader scale, that means so much. I accredit such spaces with allowing me to evolve into the person I am today, someone I am proud of, and I want to share this beauty with others.

These communities can also be vessels for much more than just dancing. Many influential music scenes of the past have been politically active to some extent, and while the details of politics can be divisive, we live in a world where governments can commit genocide without punishment and basic human rights are being stripped of more and more people further and further with each passing day. These spaces can serve to unite people with common core beliefs, to spread information offline(zines and other paper media), and to allow individuals who feel hopeless to unite with others and fight for the change they want to see in the world. Maybe I'm getting to idealistic here, but I firmly believe in creating these spaces to unite and empower people. This feels like a good place to conclude, and it is now 3 am, so bye for now, but I will be writing more long form content in an attempt to express my thoughts, feelings, and ideas, particularly on music and the scenes and communities that allow it to keep evolving and doing what it does best: uniting people. If you read this far, thank you, and I hope you see this as a call to action to get out and see what's happening under the radar in your area, and if there's nothing, start something. You are not alone.