Should Lights Be Allowed At Raves

I guess our first question is why do we care?

Recently some new topics have arose about if lights promote drug use. While the topic of this article has nothing to do with drugs (sorry some), this does mention the word in the article so for those who are easily offended, this is not our  intention.

Now let's move on. Last July in Los Angeles, an annual rave was held at the LA Colosseum. More than 100,000 attendees went to the 2 day event. During this festival, great music and good times were had by most, but one unfortunate 15 year old girl took too many drugs and died. It was a tragic circumstance and our hearts go out to anyone affected. However, a unsightly scapegoat came out as a product of the death. Rather than Los Angeles banning any similar events, or the promotion company Insomniac altering the event, the scapegoat was lights. Lights you ask? Exactly.

The promoters all agreed that by people bringing lights to these type of events should now be banned and no one allowed to bring such a thing because it promotes drug use. It's an interesting topic, because there's a back story to it.

Electronic music, since it has come out in the 80's, has always had a negative connotation to it. Because it was introducing a completely new sound to the world, some people took to it, while others shunned it away. Most of the people that it entranced, seemed to be of a younger age and it immediately brought out a cult following of anyone playing electronic music. Fascinating in its simplest form, electronic music is simply computational algorithms for sounds that most people are accustomed to. Whether it's drums, guitars, birds chirping, all these things make a sound. When you convert this into a mathematical equation, some amazing things can happen to it. Not only can you produce sounds that are identical to the real thing almost seamlessly, but you can alter the sounds that most people have grown accustomed to. This dawn of a new era has brought some great artists and enlightened billions of people over the years. Today's electronic music is more known for artists like DJ Tiesto, Deadmau5, Armin Van Buurin, and more, as this uptempo music is popular in nightclubs, bars and raves.

Raves are huge gatherings that since their beginning have brought a slew of negativity caused by drug use. In their true essence, Raves gave people of all walks of life a chance to escape with other like minded individuals. As the rave scene has evolved, so has drug use, but one thing hasn't changed. Still to this day, statistically the amount of crime at a rave is less than any other large event gathering on the planet. Why? Some I'm sure would credit the drug use, but others would credit Electronic Music. Since it's beginning PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect) are the core values of Electronic Music and raves.

The debate today is whether or not lights should be allowed at raves and if so, do they promote drug use?