What is Goa Trance Music?

Ok, anyone who knows me knows that I'm not exactly into the whole rave scene. Wait, scratch that. I think it's a very cool thing (well, except for drug abuse, as opposed to drug use; I'm also obviously very opposed to rufie-induced date rapes, but neither of these are in any way limited to raves), I just don't go to them (probably a good thing, both for me and for ravers everywhere!). I haven't engaged in marathonesque, trance-inducing dance sessions since high school, at dances that were very pale imitations of raves.

There are, as usually is the case, politics around the standard media condemnations of raves. Frat parties are more devastating, but they largely are ignored, when not explicitly celebrated. But raves are a wholly different kind of event, firmly in the tradition of what Murray Bookchin calls "lifestyle anarchism," which is, as Bookchin also says, a rather shallow imitation of social or political anarchism, but this is the party scene, after all, so compared to drunken frat boy parties, raves have some, though too individualistic, liberatory possibilities.

Goa trance music is part of the rave scene, and since I love East Asian music generally, and also happen to like much rave music, it's a natural addition to my increasingly bizarre mixture of musical tastes.