Recreational Drugs and EDM

I am not a fan of drugs in any context. I don’t even like taking Panadol unless the doctor says so. I think that taking drugs when you’re out at any sort of performance is a bit disrespectful, because it’s sorta saying that you don’t feel the performer can give you a good enough time by them/him/herself.

I’ll preface this by saying that I don’t take anything stronger than alcohol these days.

However, when I first got into Drum and Bass, I really liked listening to it on pirate radio and from mixtapes. But it wasn’t until I went to my first rave and took something cheeky that I really GOT that music.
I’m not saying that everyone has to take something to get into certain types of music, but that’s just how it happened for me, and it was a great experience.

well i cant speak for anyone else. But I got into the whole EDM scene sober. Go to concerts all the time and just love the music. A lot of the regulars around here go just for the music too, and shun the folks who only go high.
The same could be said about the 60s music. So no, I don’t think edm owes it’s success to drugs. I loved dance music, lights, glow sticks and “trippy” visuals when I was a kid who’d never even heard of drugs. I still flip on the itunes visualizer every now and then and just enjoy it with the music. You don’t have to be rockin 1 inch diameter pupils to enjoy a crazy laser show.

The whole scene took off because of drugs. Make no mistake, from the roots of EDM in downtown NY and Chicago gay clubs to the early the 90s in hedonistic UK, to the coke-befuddled last ten years, drugs are instrumental in influencing music and always have been.

Funny how now house and electro has gone totally mainstream and none of the listeners take any drugs.

As for DJs, doesn’t matter. Don’t play when you’re out of it on drugs obviously, but I think it does help to have lived a drug scene and to be able to relate to people who pop a pill to appreciate the music.

ellgieff, post: 1932 wrote: *warning: contains foul language, not suitable for minors or work*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10w3FuCwfQ

AMEN.

ellgieff, post: 1932 wrote: *warning: contains foul language, not suitable for minors or work*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10w3FuCwfQ

And along similar lines…

*warning: also contains foul language*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRDDOpKaLM

Ampero, post: 1951 wrote: While agreeing with most that has been said, I think peer pressure and the will for acceptance factor in heavily for the prevalence of drugs in any music scene.
Of the users you’d probably find 40-60% use as a means of habit or because they really feel like that’s the only way to connect to the vibe… :/ the other percentage would be the ones doing it because they assume that it’s a part of the ‘scene’ or because the person they came with is on something.. or they do it just to look cool.

So while EDM and E (per se) may go hand-in-hand, I think it has alot less to do with the culture of things and more to do with an assumed perception of them.

You’d have to take drugs to realise why dance music and drugs (especially ecstasy) are connected. The first pill many take may be partly down to peer pressure, but after that it’s nothing to do with that anymore. After the first MDMA wave of pure pleasure when dancing to music, people don’t need peer pressure anymore or any assumed perception of them. They keep taking pills because they enjoy it and it lets them connect perfectly well and deeply with EDM.

It’s completely cultural and the dance music we know today would be either nonexistent or totally different if you took away MDMA from the equation.

I’ve been accused in the past of being a “party pooper” or some other derogatory because I don’t take narcotics and have voiced my opinions on them. My main concern really wasn’t for those on drugs, but for now “amateurs” on drugs ruin things for everyone.

It’s the usual story, a rave scene grows from those “in the know” to getting weekend warriors who normally hit up college bars and high school dances. These new people have no clue how to take drugs and especially how to take care of themselves while high. They do too much, OD, end up in the hospital, and then on the news when one dies.

Suddenly the parents, acting all shocked, want the raves ended and the DJs and promoters punished. Now as a DJ I have to worry not only about the event getting busted, but getting fined something like $10,000 just because I DJed there. It’s why I’ll not have gear/music on me when I am not playing…so I can pretend to be just a patron.

I’ve heard “drugs are a part of the scene” many times, and I agree with it. I look at the music that came out of the late 80s and early 90s, and know it was fueled very much by the drugs, despite that the Pioneers of house music were not on drugs. Such is life, but I still say the scene needs to police itself so we’re not dealing with the authorities punishing us for throwing a party.

I think a lot of the music didn’t need drugs to start, but the drugs are what evolved them. They were taking LSD in the 60s, speed in the early 70s (Northern Soul), coke in the late 70s and into the 80s, E and acid in the late 80s and early 90s, and so on. Even now coke is still massive in the club scene with the bottle service. It’s just a fact of life that patrons want to come out, get trashed, possibly get laid, and have a wild night of debauchery. That’s for almost any scene…mainstream or underground.