[Dancecult-l] Culture and Religion: special ed on EDMC

[Graham St John]

Just out. The special edition of Culture and Religion on EDMC. Heres 
the contents with abstracts.



Culture and Religion 7(1) 2006 (special edition - Electronic Dance 
Music Culture and Religion, edited by Graham St John)

Electronic Dance Music Culture and Religion: An Overview
Graham St John

Abstract The following provides a comprehensive and critical overview 
of existing research that investigates the religio-spiritual 
dimensions of electronic dance music culture (from disco, through 
house to post-rave forms). Studies of the culture and religion of 
EDMC are explored under four broad groupings: the cultural religion 
of EDMC expressed through 'ritual' and 'festal'; subjectivity, 
corporeality and the phenomenological dance experience (especially 
'ecstasy' and 'trance'); the dance community and a sense of belonging 
(the 'vibe' and 'tribes'); and EDMC as a new 'spirituality of life'. 
Moving beyond the cultural Marxist approaches of the 1970s which held 
youth (sub)cultural expressions as 'ineffectual' and 'tragic', and 
the postmodernist approaches of the early 1990s which held rave to be 
an 'implosion of meaning', recent anthropological and sociological 
approaches recognise that the various manifestations of this youth 
cultural phenomenon possess meaning, purpose and significance for 
participants. Contemporary scholarship thus conveys the presence of 
religiosity and spirituality within contemporary popular cultural 
formations. In conclusion, I suggest that this and continuing 
scholarship can offer useful counterpoint to at least one recent 
account (of clubbing) which overlooks the significance of EDMC 
through a restricted and prejudiced apprehension of 'religion'.


The Mainstream Post-rave Club Scene as Secondary Institution: A 
British Perspective
Gordon Lynch and Emily Badger

Abstract The article focuses on the importance of analysing the 
mainstream post-rave dance scene in the context of studies of the 
religious significance of electronic dance cultures. Drawing on their 
own ethnographic research, as well as other recent comparable studies 
in Britain, the authors argue that the mainstream post-rave dance 
scene is a 'secondary institution' supporting the new social form of 
religion identified by Luckmann (1967), which emphasises 
self-realization and self-expression. The study serves as an 
invitation to re-consider the definition of 'religion' in relation to 
electronic dance cultures and points to the role of mainstream 
leisure industries in supporting contemporary secular worldviews.


The Spiritual and the Revolutionary: Alternative Spirituality, 
British Free Festivals, and the Emergence of Rave Culture
Christopher Partridge

Abstract This article examines the sacralization of festival and rave 
culture.  Beginning with an exploration of the British free festival 
as a site of countercultural ideology and alternative spirituality, 
it traces the spiritual and ideological lines of continuity between 
the free festivals that took place with increasing frequency in 
Britain throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s and the rave culture 
of the 1980s and 1990s.


The Spiritual Economy of Nightclubs and Raves: Osho Sannyasins as 
Party Promoters in Ibiza and Pune/Goa.
Anthony D'Andrea

Abstract Interrogating the fusion of 'religion' and 'leisure' in 
contemporary societies, this article analyses how adepts of a 
countercultural religiosity (Osho sannyasins) have influenced the 
club and rave scenes in Ibiza ('clubbing capital of the world'), Pune 
and Goa (global centers of self-spirituality and digital dance). As 
'rave studies' has concentrated on the experiential dimension of 
raving, this article focuses instead on the socio-economic components 
of a 'nomadic spirituality' that underlies multiple forms of digital 
dance culture throughout the world. It compares four cases of dance 
parties (exotic, up-market, underground, and resort), all of which 
are promoted and attended by Osho sannyasins both in Ibiza and India. 
Such nomadic spirituality is evinced by the conjunction of 
transpersonal experiences, spatial displacements and expatriate 
identities found among ravers and sannyasins. The article concludes 
that the commodification of alternative lifestyles by tourism, 
entertainment and real-estate industries indexes not only the 
ambivalent desires of mainstream societies toward utopian lifestyles; 
it also suggests that transnational countercultures constitute a 
privileged analytical site that anticipates emerging social trends 
and predicaments of complex globalisation.


Churched Ibiza: Christianity and Club Culture
Stella Sai-Chun Lau

Abstract This article investigates the relationship between 
Christianity and club culture based on a case study of a Christian 
mission, 24-7 Mission, conducted on Ibiza, known as 'the Mecca of 
house music and club culture' (in the summer of 2003. Drawing on 
field research undertaken on Ibiza, this article discusses how a 
Christian youth group engages with club culture. Adopting an 
ethnographic approach allowing 'a microsociological' focus it 
interrogates the issues of 'spirituality' and 'community' in 
electronic dance music culture. My analysis is concentrated on 
members of the 24-7 mission team and the ways in which spirituality, 
community and dance music are discussed, leading to arguments about 
how members appraise and use popular music within their 'ministry'.


The Nine O'Clock Service: Mixing Club Culture and Postmodern Christianity
Rupert Till

Abstract This article investigates the interaction between popular 
culture and religion. It describes how club (or rave) culture 
presents itself as oppositional to mainstream culture and how it 
integrates elements of religion and spirituality. Addressing the 
adoption of club cultural elements within the Christian church, it 
then explores in detail the work of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), 
an Episcopal church in Sheffield, England. It describes NOS events 
(with particular attention to the use of multimedia arts) and 
discusses the development and growth of the alternative worship 
movement. It demonstrates how NOS adopted an actively postmodern 
agenda and pioneered the appropriation of culturally relevant music 
and arts from popular culture, commenting on the challenges this 
presents to the Christian church.
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