[Dancecult-l] Call for volume contributors: Psytrance: Local Scenes and Global Culture

[Graham St John]

Call for contributors for an edited collection:

Psytrance: Local Scenes and Global Culture

Edited by Graham St John

This volume seeks contributions to the study of psytrance 
(psychedelic trance) culture. In particular, it will feature research 
attending to psytrance as a product of intersecting local and global 
trajectories. International and interdisciplinary, the collection 
will host contributions from scholars researching psytrance in 
worldwide locations, employing various methods, within multiple 
disciplines: including anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, 
media studies, ethnomusicology and studies in religion.

Rooted in Full Moon parties held on the beaches of Goa, India, in the 
1970s and 1980s and incubated within "Goa Trance" scenes flourishing 
around the world in the mid-1990s, psytrance culture mushroomed 
globally over the past ten years. Inheriting from ecstatic and 
visionary pursuits of 1960s psychedelia, sharing music production 
technologies, DJ techniques and the culture of electronic dance music 
scenes, and harnessing the communication capabilities of the 
internet, psytrance would develop distinctive sonic and visual 
aesthetics, organizations and events, discourse and practice. This 
cultural proliferation would depend upon the growth of exotic sites 
of travel, exchange and performance (from Goa to Koh Phangan, 
Thailand, Bahia to Bali, Ibiza to Nevada's Burning Man and so on). 
With events attracting enthusiasts from dozens of nations, in the 
early 2000s psytrance festivals would become what are likely the most 
culturally diverse music and dance events on the planet. By 2008, 
psytrance music, style, and textile fashions are evident in scenes 
the world over, with the music and culture translated among 
populations across Europe, in Israel, North America, Australia, New 
Zealand, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Japan, and elsewhere.

Possible themes to be explored in the collection:

The roots of psytrance and the development of electronic trance music.
The hybridization of aesthetics, genres, and subcultures in psytrance culture.
The role of new communications media and music technologies in 
production, performance and culture.
Globalization and psytrance music and culture.
The cultural economy of psytrance.
Gender, race, class and psytrance.
Psytrance and counterculture.
Psychedelics, entheogens, and the trance experience.
The trance dance "experience" illuminated performance and/or trance theory.
Sonic/visual appropriation/sampling.
Trance carnivals and transgression.
Pilgrimage and festivals.
Fandom, and trance enthusiasts.
New spirituality, visionary culture, and psytrance.
Distinctions between "travellers" and "tourists".
Theories of subculture, neotribalism, scenes, and psytrance.
Contradictions and hypocrisy within psytrance countercultures.

While the volume will address these and other themes, contributors 
should keep in mind the principal objective of the collection: to 
investigate the local, regional, or national translations of 
psytrance, on the one hand, and its global character on the other. 
Chapters will at the very least attend to either the local or global 
dimensions of psytrance music and culture. Submissions focusing on 
the interfacing of local/global dimensions will be especially 
appreciated.

Interested contributors should send a 250-300 word abstract to Graham 
St John by May 1 2008. Please send abstract and direct questions to 
Graham at g.stjohn at uq.edu.au.

Graham St John
-- 
                     
http://www.edgecentral.net/
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