[csaa-forum] New Book ---> Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures

[Graham St John]

apologies for crossposting



Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures
by Graham St John (Equinox, 2009)




http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=392


"Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures is the most wide-ranging 
and detailed of all the books on rave. More than the study of a 
musical movement or genre, Technomad offers an alternate history of 
cultural politics since the 1960s, from hippies and Acid Tests 
through the sound systems and 'vibe-tribes' of the 1990s and beyond. 
Like Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces, Technomad makes unexpected but 
entirely convincing connections between people, movements and events. 
Like Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, St John's book 
introduces us to unknown heroes, committed geniuses and genuine 
revolutionaries. Beautifully written, with a genuinely international 
perspective on electronic dance music culture, Technomad is one of 
the best books on music I've read in some time."
Professor Will Straw, Department of Art History and Communication 
Studies, McGill University

Book description:

A cultural history of global electronic dance music countercultures, 
Technomad explores the pleasurable and activist trajectories of 
post-rave culture. The book documents an emerging network of 
techno-tribes, exploring their pleasure principles and cultural 
politics. Attending to sound system culture, electro-humanitarianism, 
secret sonic societies, teknivals and other gatherings, intentional 
parties, revitalisation movements and counter-colonial interventions, 
Technomad investigates how the dance party has been harnessed for 
transgressive and progressive ends - for manifold freedoms. Seeking 
freedom from moral prohibitions and standards, pleasure in rebellion, 
refuge from sexual and gender prejudice, exile from oppression, 
rupturing aesthetic boundaries, re-enchanting the world, reclaiming 
space, fighting for "the right to party," and responding to a host of 
critical concerns, electronic dance music cultures are multivalent 
sites of resistance.

Drawing on extensive ethnographic, netographic and documentary 
research, Technomad details the post-rave trajectory through various 
local sites and global scenes, with each chapter attending to unique 
developments in the techno counterculture: e.g. Spiral Tribe, 
teknivals, psytrance, Burning Man, Reclaim the Streets, Earthdream. 
The book offers an original, nuanced theory of resistance to assist 
understanding of these developments. This cultural history of 
hitherto uncharted territory will be of interest to students of 
cultural, performance, music, media, and new social movement studies, 
along with enthusiasts of dance culture and popular politics.

Contents

1. Introduction: The Rave-olution?

2. Sound System Exodus: Tekno-Anarchy in the UK and Beyond

3. Secret Sonic Societies and Other Renegades of Sound

4. New Tribal Gathering: Vibe-Tribes and Mega-Raves

5. The Technoccult, Psytrance and the Millennium

6. Rebel Sounds and Dance Activism: Rave and the Carnival of Protest

7. Outback Vibes: Dancing Up Country

8. Hardcore, You Know the Score


Available in paperback and hardback from Equinox:
http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=392

Or preorder at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Technomad-Global-Countercultures-Popular-History/dp/1845536266




Graham St John
http://www.edgecentral.net/





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