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Howdy kids...
I'm posting my latest piece on the secret society of clubbers. I write bi-weekly mailers and send out all kinds of great music. I write purely out of the love of my friends in the NYC house music community. No one pays me to write these things. Take a read, and if you're interested, email me at dave@burnindustries.com and I'll add you to the list. Also, find me on myspace. All my previous mailers are in my myspace blog so you can get an idea of what you'll be getting. Enjoy!
We Are... 21st Century Counterculture
They call us "ravers". They're your co-workers. They're the people that you share the subway with or carpool with Monday through Friday, to and from the office. They're the people that I wear my faux-hawk down for, lest they discover what my lifestyle is like outside of work. They're really just about anyone you see on the street on any given day. They're the ones that say, "All house music sounds the same." They exist outside of "our world", rarely looking in, and without an opportunity, a motive, or even the slightest inclination to ever do so. Hmph… "ravers". If there was a clearer indication of how cursory their understanding of us really is, I don't know it. Just the other day, I was having a discussion with a co-worker of mine and I tried to describe electronic music to her and the different subgenres and styles… from acid to tech to funk to electro… "Wait, "electro"?? Like, what does that mean? Is it like, 'ZZZZZ'," she said as she feigned being electrocuted. Yes, unfortunately, this is what I'm working with day in and day out.
As for us… we're Neo from The Matrix where one day we took the red pill and figured out that life is more than just about the daily grind and mind-numbingly pointless business meetings. We dance in our cubes and listen to live DJ sets every chance we get. We're always tactfully trying to sniff out those secret in-the-closet electronic music lovers in our office. I'm sure most of you, my readers, know what I'm talking about… how we feel like we bear a secret lifestyle which only fellow electronic music fans are privy to. We carry on most of our days just like every other law-abiding citizen. On the weekends, well, not so much. The experience that it brings… it kind of resembles a "Fight Club" secret cult culture, doesn't it? Because I think we can all safely say that what we tend to engage in outside of work (with dance music and "the scene") is certainly, to them, out of the ordinary… or as I see it, rather extraordinary. The scene… the music, the late nights, the dimly lit dance floors, the high hats and bass, the party-goers, the adrenaline, the DJ's, the Red Bull vodka's, the pumping your fists in the air to dance floor revelations, the seemingly boundless energy from your core to your limbs and fingers, the "Muscle Milk" ready-to-drink (RTD) meals at 8am after a long night on the Terrace at Space, and everything else that goes along with dance music culture. It's all par for the course, I'd say.
In effect, what we encompass is the image of the modern day hippie. We are, in many ways, 21st Century counter-culture. Most of us do not get too entrenched in fear campaigns, politics, and the 11 o'clock news. Rather, we are love and late nights. We are passion and understanding, and most importantly, we are the music. We know it, we study it, we speak intelligently about it, and we follow it, wherever it goes. We know that what we hear on a regular basis is where music should be today. In fact, if one day all of house music were banished to a remote island in the Pacific, we'd be the first ones to pack our bags and move there, not a single question asked.
To the outsiders, our lifestyle may be aberrant and bizarre but I for one see our collective dance floors around the world as vistas to the future… where love and late nights aren't stigmatized, but rather understood as a beautiful medium through which compassion, acceptance, and solidarity is born night after night, through beats, rhythms, and of course, killer dance moves. This is why we preach house music. This is why we never stopped since the day we started. This is why we chant, "Dance b*tches, DANCE!!"
Thanks for reading. Email me comments/stories if you'd like.
DC
I'm posting my latest piece on the secret society of clubbers. I write bi-weekly mailers and send out all kinds of great music. I write purely out of the love of my friends in the NYC house music community. No one pays me to write these things. Take a read, and if you're interested, email me at dave@burnindustries.com and I'll add you to the list. Also, find me on myspace. All my previous mailers are in my myspace blog so you can get an idea of what you'll be getting. Enjoy!
We Are... 21st Century Counterculture
They call us "ravers". They're your co-workers. They're the people that you share the subway with or carpool with Monday through Friday, to and from the office. They're the people that I wear my faux-hawk down for, lest they discover what my lifestyle is like outside of work. They're really just about anyone you see on the street on any given day. They're the ones that say, "All house music sounds the same." They exist outside of "our world", rarely looking in, and without an opportunity, a motive, or even the slightest inclination to ever do so. Hmph… "ravers". If there was a clearer indication of how cursory their understanding of us really is, I don't know it. Just the other day, I was having a discussion with a co-worker of mine and I tried to describe electronic music to her and the different subgenres and styles… from acid to tech to funk to electro… "Wait, "electro"?? Like, what does that mean? Is it like, 'ZZZZZ'," she said as she feigned being electrocuted. Yes, unfortunately, this is what I'm working with day in and day out.
As for us… we're Neo from The Matrix where one day we took the red pill and figured out that life is more than just about the daily grind and mind-numbingly pointless business meetings. We dance in our cubes and listen to live DJ sets every chance we get. We're always tactfully trying to sniff out those secret in-the-closet electronic music lovers in our office. I'm sure most of you, my readers, know what I'm talking about… how we feel like we bear a secret lifestyle which only fellow electronic music fans are privy to. We carry on most of our days just like every other law-abiding citizen. On the weekends, well, not so much. The experience that it brings… it kind of resembles a "Fight Club" secret cult culture, doesn't it? Because I think we can all safely say that what we tend to engage in outside of work (with dance music and "the scene") is certainly, to them, out of the ordinary… or as I see it, rather extraordinary. The scene… the music, the late nights, the dimly lit dance floors, the high hats and bass, the party-goers, the adrenaline, the DJ's, the Red Bull vodka's, the pumping your fists in the air to dance floor revelations, the seemingly boundless energy from your core to your limbs and fingers, the "Muscle Milk" ready-to-drink (RTD) meals at 8am after a long night on the Terrace at Space, and everything else that goes along with dance music culture. It's all par for the course, I'd say.
In effect, what we encompass is the image of the modern day hippie. We are, in many ways, 21st Century counter-culture. Most of us do not get too entrenched in fear campaigns, politics, and the 11 o'clock news. Rather, we are love and late nights. We are passion and understanding, and most importantly, we are the music. We know it, we study it, we speak intelligently about it, and we follow it, wherever it goes. We know that what we hear on a regular basis is where music should be today. In fact, if one day all of house music were banished to a remote island in the Pacific, we'd be the first ones to pack our bags and move there, not a single question asked.
To the outsiders, our lifestyle may be aberrant and bizarre but I for one see our collective dance floors around the world as vistas to the future… where love and late nights aren't stigmatized, but rather understood as a beautiful medium through which compassion, acceptance, and solidarity is born night after night, through beats, rhythms, and of course, killer dance moves. This is why we preach house music. This is why we never stopped since the day we started. This is why we chant, "Dance b*tches, DANCE!!"
Thanks for reading. Email me comments/stories if you'd like.
DC
keep going!!! If you have to ask, that means we're not deep enough yet 
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