This post will be longer than usual, and I plan for it to make up for those days that I haven't posted yet. So for those who do get through all of it, thank you for your time :).
For those who know me enough, you'd know I'm a fan of Melbourne's rave scene and it's electronic dance music scene. [Hell, if you read a little to the right, it's there]. To my point,having learned about Melbourne's current rave scene for about a year [not actually being involved in it yet as I am 3 years too junior], but I have been particularly observant of it.
Anyway, before I begin on my little rant, I will like to point out numerous things.
1. My only sources are from web forums. Particularly one forum which I moderate and leech music from.
2. The forum is full of gimps.
3. There are intelligent people on that website. Of them do I listen.
4. My opinion here is based upon what I notice, and built from many ideologies and structured opinions.
I apologize if I seem ignorant and stupid. In which case, stop reading now.
So take it back about 30 years on a random Friday night. The population of Melbourne is in the millions. And every Friday evening, a good thousand of Melbourne's population goes missing, for the night, in some of the most lively parties ever. For that night, while you existed nothing more than a sperm cell, your parents [or grandparents even!] could have been the heavenly collective missing every Friday. Missing in underground warehouses, abandoned train tunnels, old halls, or even, in the bush. Thousands missing in Melbourne, and no one would even have a clue about it.
They were much harder to come by in those days, the only way a party could be found was through leaked information, or secret radio stations. You're there at the party. You are shrouded by fog and smoke, and are blinded by lasers. But you don't care, you have the time of your life with or without the use of illegal drugs. From 22:00~08:00, you would be there raving it out with people you've never even met before, yet everyone in that arena would have a connection consisting of four/five things in one/two simple acronyms. Though the term is massively misused in today's scene, nonetheless, I speak of PLUR/PLURR.
Peace. Love. Unity. Respect. [Responsibility.]
These bonds would tie countless Melbournians and hell, even others around the world would have this connection. Where for the night, nothing mattered. You only lived in the moment of things. A call to society perhaps. A society that tells you otherwise, a society that pays you to think, tells you to keep single minded. A society that turns you into a machine. A calling from those "ravers" saying, "You can't tell us how to think, you cannot program us into single minded sheep created to do your bidding." And for years and years, that's how the rave scene would be.
Peace.
Love.
Unity.
Respect.
Responsibility.
And everyone would be in complete harmony with each other, for the 10 hours at their underground raves.
When the Melbourne Shuffle first made it's way to the streets, it was known to the locals as stomping. God knows how long before it caught on to the World and became labeled as the "Melbourne Shuffle." But like anything, it had to be nurtured. After all, it was only 2 repetitive twitches of the feet at the time. The Melbourne Shuffle was adopted by the rave scene, and the ideals of the rave scene had been adopted on to the Melbourne Shuffle. And things stayed that way for around a decade~ two decades. Everyone was still harmonious with each other. Melbourne lost a few thousand citizens every Friday, yet cream rises. And gradually, the scene in Melbourne became one of the finest in the world, and with it, the popularity of the Shuffle was also boosted. And kept continuing to become commercialized at an exponential level.
Bringing us to today. Let's look at where we are. A few years ago, if you searched Melbourne Shuffle into YouTube, you wouldn't get anymore than 2 pages up. But I dare you to search Melbourne Shuffle into it now. How many pages do you see?
You may also notice three letters infront of certain videos. Doesn't that remind you of breakdancing? But hold on, I thought the Melbourne Shuffle was supposed to be rave oriented, wasn't it all supposed to be all about PLUR? So what's it doing being oriented with battles, and crews, and competition? A lot has changed over time as mentioned before. It seems amidst the commercialization of the Melbourne Shuffle rising, it has been confused, like a child at the market, losing it's sense of direction, being guided into the wrong direction by those ignorant. The Melbourne shuffle now, is a lot similar to street dances [e.t.c. c-walking, krump], not visually of course, but following those ideals. Yes, it seems that the Melbourne Shuffle has seemingly being open about other dances. Yes. To some, it's an outrage, to others, it was an inevitable course of action, to those who made it exponentially popular over the years, it is just another trend, another thing that they can whore, unaware of the mass change that they were doing.
Let us not forget that the Melbourne Shuffle was adopted by the Rave scene, but it has grown up now, and has been given a sense of survival, adaptations if you will. To the original stompers, The Melbourne Shuffle will always be a rave dance, to the new generation, it will be a dance that can be willingly done on the streets, played by cheesy tunes on dodgy phone speakers.
You do not see much of Raves in Melbourne nowadays, compared to a few decades back, but change is a part of life. Let us not forget that The Melbourne Shuffle is about having fun, and just rocking it out. There are some who claim to do this, and do so respectfully, and there are those who lie. Those who use the Melbourne Shuffle for their own self good, for their own having a fan club purposes. The Melbourne Shuffle has changed, but all seriousness, people can take whatever side they want to, I won't bother resisting anymore.
In all honesty, since it doesn't affect me anymore; I couldn't give half a damn. Sure, I'd still like to see the Melbourne Shuffle in it's raving glory as compared to the 12 - 16 year old teenagers on the street being complete drop kicks and being complete nuisances to the public. Sure I'd like to see it revert back the way it had been. Sure it pains me to see such bad publicity being associated with the shuffle. But at the end of the day, the Melbourne Shuffle will change again, and sprout new seeds, adopting all forms of dancing. Those seeds will be planted deep, and eventually, a new era will begin.
A new loop, bringing out the best in people, a new loop, a revival of ideas given enough time. All it needs is hope, an abandoned warehouse, and thousands of people on any given Friday night.
For those of you who have read this far, I thank you for taking your time out to do so, and encourage you to leave a little criticism behind.
I apologize for those angry at the end of the post saying "Who's this stupid 15 year old kid to judge our scene?!", and rather than to use swear words and your capital letters, I ask you to lead me in the right direction.
Thank you for your time.
Note**.
I do not condone battles, crews, or anything associated with the Melbourne Shuffle, it is just a personal preference of mine, not that I hate crews; because hate is so strong a word. I just loathe them with a passion.
tl;dr
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