A Short History of UK Rave
UK rave is one of the most influential youth cultures Britain has produced. Here is the short version, from warehouse parties to the mainstream and back again.
1988-1990: acid house and the explosion
Acid house arrived from Chicago and Ibiza and detonated across Britain in the Second Summer of Love. Parties moved from clubs into warehouses and fields, and a new all-night culture was born.
1991-1994: hardcore and the golden era
The sound sped up and grew breakbeats, becoming the hardcore now known as oldskool. Huge licensed and unlicensed events drew tens of thousands. New laws, including the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, were introduced partly to curb unlicensed raves.
1994-2000: the split and the superclubs
Hardcore branched into jungle and drum and bass, happy hardcore, and UK garage, while house, techno and trance matured. Rave energy moved indoors into a golden age of superclubs and became a global business.
2000s to now: the long afterglow
Dance music kept splintering and spreading worldwide, and by the 2010s "EDM" had taken it to festival mainstages on a scale the early ravers could never have imagined. At the same time, a strong revival of interest in oldskool and 90s sounds took hold, which is exactly the lineage DOVEDUP draws on.
DOVEDUP is a rave-heritage electronic music project. Explore the rave dictionary and what “doved up” means at dovedup.com.