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For the Love of Music 
 
 

Kathy Huynh 
Department of Sociology 

California State University, Los Angeles 
 

 
Are you E-ing, rolling, dropping, or popping?  This is a question that the 
author was constantly asked when she attended a rave at the LA Sports 
Arena, basically asking if she was on Ecstasy.  Not knowing what to 
expect, she was very surprised by the journey on which she embarked on. 
The author explores a subculture full of people who want to escape the 
realities of life. These same individuals gather every year for these eight to 
twelve hour parties, no matter what part of the world they are from. It is a 
subculture that is all about love for one another and for music. 

 
 
1Think of the biggest gathering of people 
listening to the best electronically 
charged music, people dazed and 
confused on drugs, people dancing 
around, some jumping with their hands 
in the air, lights flashing everywhere, 
girls scantily dressed, and people just 
acting free.  This was what I encountered 
when attending a huge outdoor party, 
also known as a rave.  Not knowing 
what to expect when arriving at LA 
Sports Arena, I was highly excited and 
wondering  what it was going to be like 
to finally experience something that was 
totally out of my norm.  
 My first thoughts about a rave 
were basically what it is; a huge eight to 
twelve hour party full of drugs and 
music.  At first, I did not want to go  
because I felt as if I was not going to fit 
in.  I was not going to take 
                                                 
Kathy Huynh is an undergraduate student in the 
Department of Sociology. Her paper was 
originally submitted to SOC. 301 Writing for 
Sociology, taught by Dr. Tabor in Winter 2011. 

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine 
(MDMA) a psychedelic drug also known 
as Ecstasy (Eisner, Bruce 1989: xvii).  
MDMA is a popular drug of choice 
when attending one of these huge 
outdoor parties.  I thought that people 
were going to be mean, rude, or weird 
because they were under the influence of 
something.  I also had the preconception 
that being on drugs would be universal.    

As I got to the rave, the first 
thing I noticed was how scantily-dressed 
the girls were: an underwear, bra, and 
fairy wings bedecked most of them.  
Some wore 6 inch platform boots with 
fake fur, and every inch of their skin was 
covered in glitter.  I thought, “Wow, 
what a place to really free one’s 
sexuality.” There were homosexual men 
dressed as fairies too.  This is where 
people can act like grown-up kids, full of 
psychedelic imaginations, music, and 
fun.   

As I sat back and enjoyed the 
music, I started to scan and study the 



FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC by Kathy Huynh  64 
 

CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY JOURNAL, 2011, VOL. 3 (ISSUE 1: 63-66) 

crowd.  Some were high out of their 
minds on weed or other drugs, some 
were drunk, and some were like flies to 
light.  E-ing, on E, on X, dropped, 
popped, and rolling are all jargons that 
were constantly mentioned referencing 
the use of Ecstasy.  At the sides of each 
venue, people were giving light shows to 
people who had “dropped”, it was one of 
the most beautiful and interesting things 
to look at. 

The people there acted like 
hippies and they were very friendly.  
Because Ecstasy intensifies senses and 
perceptions, people were rubbing each 
others backs, some were making out on 
the dance floor, and some were glued to 
the flashing laser light shows of the 
stage.  One person who looked to be 14 
years old actually went to the hospital 
because she had overdosed on a cocktail 
of different drugs, her eyes were rolling 
back into her head and she was acting as 
if she was having a seizure.   

As the night went on, I was 
trying to dance without anything in my 
system, and my feet started to hurt after 
the 5th hour.  It is as if the people who go 
to raves are professional all night 
dancers.  This one boy I saw when I first 
walked into the venue was dancing with 
super high energy. Towards the end of 
the night, he was still dancing with the 
same energy as he started out with. It 
was amazing and very impressive to see.    

I started to talk to some of the 
people who were as tired as I was from 
dancing and found that some came from 
out of state to go to the raves in 
California.  A boy from Arizona said 
that we have the best raves and the best 
people, and a girl from Texas said that 
she has gone to the raves every year 
since she was 17 because it is like an 
escape and a get-away from home.  They 
were all recovering from the last pill 

they had swallowed, and then they told 
me how it feels like to drop.  The girl 
from Texas said, “It is like an out of the 
body experience, something that can’t 
really be explained; only that it feels 
amazing when you are dancing and 
listening to music.  The flashing lights 
and the light shows are like the most 
amazing piece of art, coming to life 
when you look at each and every single 
stroke.” The boy from Arizona said that, 
“It just gives you a feeling of euphoria 
and there is a feeling of no care or 
problems in the world.”  Then I thought 
to myself: maybe I should have dropped.  
Ecstasy is not something that I would 
want to try because I heard that it makes 
holes in your brain.  It was surprising to 
know that there were people just like me 
who were not on drugs; we were there 
for the music and entertainment.   

Another thing that people do at 
raves is trade off colorful beaded 
bracelets.  These bracelets basically 
represent a friendship statement, and the 
more bracelets people have means that 
they are long time ravers and have a lot 
of friends.  Besides the exchanging of 
bracelets, senior ravers would also give 
nicknames to new ravers.  These names 
usually describe how the individual is 
dressed or acts on first impression.  I 
was given the raver name “Bubbles” 
because the person who gave it to me 
said that I had a bubbly personality.  

A rave is a huge gathering of 
people who dance all night and promote 
PLUR: peace, love, unity and respect, 
and most recently added responsibility 
(Wikipedia, 2010).  I noticed that the 
word PLUR was expressed excessively 
in the process of exchanging beaded 
bracelets and personal information. 
Unlike church, which does promote the 
same morals, the rave subculture is full 
of people who want to escape the 



FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC by Kathy Huynh  65 
 

CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY JOURNAL, 2011, VOL. 3 (ISSUE 1: 63-66) 

realities of life and just have fun.  These 
same individuals gather every year for 
these eight to twelve hour parties, and it 
does not matter what part of the world 
they are from. Some use drugs like 
Ecstasy to enhance their enjoyment and 
pleasures as they dance the whole night 
away.  They all have different reasons 
for why they go to raves; some go 
because it is a get-away, for the fun of it, 
for the music and entertainment, to meet 
people, to dance, to experience 
something different, or to use drugs.  It 
is definitely a subculture that is all about 
unity, love for one another, and love for 
music.   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC by Kathy Huynh  66 
 

CALIFORNIA SOCIOLOGY JOURNAL, 2011, VOL. 3 (ISSUE 1: 63-66) 

REFERENCES 
 
Eisner, Bruce. 1989. Ecstasy: The 

MDMA Story. Berkeley, CA:  
Ronin Publishing, 
Inc.  

Wikipedia. 2010. “Rave.” Retrieved 
June 2, 2010
 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w
iki/Rave). 

 
 


