New journal about electronic dance culture

Dancecult is a new "academic"-style journal about "electronic dance music culture." It reminds me of the kinds of books about technology and postmodernism that I'd impulse buy in the early 1990s. Of course, I'd only make it through three pages before cracking open the new issue of Hate or Eightball. But at least the covers and titles were fascinating! Here are the featured articles in the first issue of Dancecult:

IDM as a "Minor" Literature: The Treatment of Cultural and Musical Norms by "Intelligent Dance Music"
Ramzy Alwakeel

Decline of the Rave Inspired Clubculture in China: State Suppression, Clubber Adaptations and Socio-cultural Transformations
Matthew M Chew

Neotrance and the Psychedelic Festival
Graham St John

Too Young to Drink, Too Old to Dance: The Influences of Age and Gender on (Non) Rave Participation
Julie Gregory

DJ Culture in the Commercial Sydney Dance Music Scene
Ed Montano

Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture (Thanks, Vann Hall!)

• [graham st john]

  Im the executive editor of Dancecult and yes it IS a peer reviewed journal – and you’ll find our advisory bard here:

  http://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/journal/about/displayMembership/3

  I’m also the author of the article about “neotrance” which is in fact not about genre categorisation but an effort to understand the kind of “trance” conditions experienced at the psychedelic events discussed. The common approach is to compare with traditional possession trance, which is problematic as we are looking at different phenomena. So this is an anthropological exercise and not one of micro-classificaton.

• [xaxa]

  @8: Everything in the sub-genre sounds the same, so instead of using individual track names, you may as well just say “hey, put some neo-trance on”.

  (I jest. I like industrial music, and psytrance, and sub-genres of either.)

• [Changeist]

  I look forward to the peer reviewed article Hardstyle v Melbourne Shuffle: Socio-economic Implications of Dancing in Underground Shopping Arcades.

• [mindysan33]

  So… why can’t I have a peer reviewed journal for punk? Maybe I should look into how to get that off the ground? I wonder who I talk to about that?

  Changeist, I don’t think that title would be far off.

• [toxonix]

  @#1CHANGEIST: LOLZ!

  I haven’t seen any raves or festivals here in the midwest for AGES. Apparently I’m too old for this now? There were a ton of 30+ ravers when I was a raver. I wasn’t really a raver. I went to some raves. OK I made some dance music for a while. I aint gonna lie.

• [gATO]

  I thought “electronic dance culture” was killed at least a decade ago by The Mainstream

  Or maybe I’m old

• [solipsisticnation]

  Just the other day a friend on Twitter was asking about literature and articles about hardcore techno, especially the technical aspect. I’m going to send him to Dancecult! Thanks, Vann Hall!

  Here’s where I pimp my own show. I produce a show called Solipsistic Nation (http://solipsisticnation.com) where I play the best of all genres of electronic music and interview with people from the electronic music community. If NPR did a show about electronic music I imagine it would be like Solipsistic Nation.

  The most recent show featured Mad E.P. and O’Slick, Sean Horton from Seattle Decibel Festival, mutantrumpeter Ben Neil, and Thesis from Echodub Records.

  Stay stuned!

• [Mazoola]

  It reminds me of the kinds of books about technology and postmodernism that I’d impulse buy in the early 1990s.

  That hadn’t occurred to me, Mr. P, but you’re absolutely right: All that stuff from the David Fox-curated alternative/transgressive publications table at Green Apple.

  Once again I realize just how badly I blew my grad school years by not milking them for all they were worth; the idea of getting grant funding to pay me to hang out with raver chicks blows my mind….

• [Ian70]

  @3 Gato: it wasn’t killed by the mainstream. Maybe you just wish it was.
  and by ‘you’ I probably mean ‘both you and me’
  and by ‘you and me’ I think I probably really mean ‘hopefully everybody’.

  Oontz Oontz Oontz Oontz Oontz Oontz Oontz Oontz.

• [Spinkter]

  Cool! I’m gonna write my dissertation on Kraftwerk!

• [EH]

  #1: peer-reviewed? as if!

  the title sounds more like they had original ideas for the domain name that didn’t work out.

• [Teller]

  As a public service:

  The term ‘Neo-trance’ was first used in the UK’s DJ Magazine by music critic and journalist Tim Stark to describe the work of German producers and DJs Kyau & Albert. It was subsequently adopted by and the group has begun to proliferate throughout the trance scene, however Kyau & Albert are not an example of neo-trance as they mainly produce Progressive Trance.

• [Anonymous]

  I’ve always been bemused by electronic/dance music fans’ obsession with categorizing and defining every little deviation of this music–where the slightest tweak calls for a new subgenre. It has to be the most overly and unnecessarily categorized form of music.

• [solipsisticnation]

  I love Boing Boing! I was putting together segments for this week’s solipsistic NATION and when I saw this post I contacted Dacecult editor Graham St. John. This week’s show also includes interviews with: Amy Grill, the director of Speaking in Code; Paul Owens, the director of Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet; Hannes Stöhr, director of Berlin Calling; and Fernando Fonseca about the Net Audio Festival that took place in Berlin last weekend.

  You can find the show at http://solipsisticnation.com/?p=358 or download it directly here!

• [ESQ]

  I’m confused now; if I’ve been playing the same hardcore records for the past 20 years and never moved on, am I now retro, dino, or ahead of the curve?