【コラム】レイヴとメディア：記録されない音楽文化のアーカイブ化

Column en 90s Euro History Psy-Trance Rave Zine

22 Sep 2025

Music that was supposed to disappear

Text: mmr

Genre: Cultural records/media considerations

Theme: Chasing the traces of disappearing music

Rave was an ad-hoc celebration of sound and light, and was basically a culture that did not assume that it would be recorded.Rave, whether in a club or outdoors, is a here-and-now experience, destined to be forgotten and never archived.

However, in the 21st century, with the advent of YouTube, SNS, and archive sites, ``cultures that were supposed to be unrecorded’’ are beginning to be recorded and reevaluated.This change is extremely interesting from both media and music culture perspectives.

Rave, a space without media

● The essence of rave is “anti-media”

Rave culture in the 1990s (particularly underground raves in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan) avoided media exposure and documentation.

Legal risks (illegal parties and drug problems)

Rebellion against commercialism (not “music that sells”)

The “physical experience” at that moment is everything (realized from records)

In other words, the rave was “live” in every sense of the word.It was aesthetics and politics to distance yourself from the media.

Unrecorded music culture

● Examples of what was lost:

DJ set (recording was prohibited at the time)

On-site VJ video and lighting production

Venue air, smoke, smell, temperature

Nonverbal interaction between spectators

Rave was not a sound source or score, but a phenomenon itself.Therefore, such records have fundamentally different challenges than ordinary music archives.

Who archives?Media deterioration

● Spontaneous archive from the underground

Since the 2000s, the following attempts have begun around the world.

MixesDB, Discogs: Information collection of setlists and minor sound sources

YouTube/SoundCloud: Upload old mixtapes and pirated recordings

Reddit, Forum, Blog: Verbalization of experiences at the time

Zine/Podcast/Documentary: Preservation movement with a DIY spirit

These are grassroots archives that fill areas not covered by traditional music media (magazines, labels, broadcasters).

Disruption and restoration of club culture

● The reason why there are few records in Japan

According to the Entertainment Business Law, clubs were classified as “entertainment businesses.”

It was easy to avoid taking photos and videos (especially in Shibuya and Roppongi)

Magazine media (such as LOUD'' andele-king’’) could only follow a limited scope.

As a result, the Tokyo rave of the 1990s only exists “in memory.”

● Recent developments

Citizen movement to preserve club culture (review of entertainment business law)

“Japan Rave Archive” and Zine projects are starting up

Archive of past footage of Shibuya WOMB and ageHa

Aggressive archiving is underway overseas

Established in 2007, “Rave Archive” is an archive that preserves and shares memories of 90s rave culture.From the perspective of a raver and an archivist, I will pass on a culture that tends to disappear to future generations.

Don’t miss the Archive of Old Rave Flyers from 1989-2000 from across the U.S. and Canada.

The value of “irregular archives” in the digital age

Many of the archives we rely on today are “unauthorized.”

・Mixtape with no label

Low quality video imported from VHS
Anonymous user memory-based setlists

However, this is also the most vivid means of preserving the ``reality of the place’’ at rave.Rather than institutionalized cultural heritage, a collection of “fragments of memories” pulsating underground is now becoming a single “cultural heritage.”

Conclusion: How to preserve unrecorded culture

Rave was an “art of experience.”It is impossible to record this and pass it on to future generations using normal music archiving methods alone.

However, the accumulation of memories, fragments, reinterpretations, and “passion” is making this possible.The time has come for those of us who have grown up with media to go beyond media and reconsider how we archive culture.

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