Dance, Drugs and Escape

Book excerpt: In the late 1980s the rave phenomenon swept the youth culture of the United Kingdom, incorporating the generations' two newest social stimulants: modern electronic dance music and a notorious designer drug known as Ecstasy. Although the movement began in rebellion against mainstream culture, its underground dynamism soon attracted the interest of novelists, screenwriters, and filmmakers who attempted to reflect the phenomenon in their works. Through artistic and commercial popularization, the once obscure subculture was transformed into a pop-culture behemoth with powerful links to the entertainment industry. This study deals with the transformative effects of film, television and literature on club culture. Chapters furthermore reflect club culture's own effect on crime, ethnicity, sexuality and drug use. As the study traces artistic depictions of club culture's development, each chapter focuses on individual books, films and television shows that reflect the transformation of the club culture into what it is today.