MDMA and the Rave Party Music Culture. 

• MDMA: (3, 4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine)
• MDMA or ecstasy was first developed in 1912 by Anton Kollisch. The drug as its name states emits feelings of immense ecstasy and leaves users in a euphoric stage.
• Users take MDMA in a pill form. The drug is in powder form and placed in a capsule pill that when ingested will eventually leave the user with intense pleasure and comfort. The effects of ecstasy on users intensify when taken in social settings which are why many parties are overwhelmed with ravers under the influence of the drug. 
• Ecstasy is its most common name. The drug has been heavily instilled into many party music scenes, most notably the rave scene, and more recently MDMA has really garnered a big following in the recently revived house music genre and in the hip hop scene where it is known by the name molly.
• Users grow tired of always drinking at parties and getting drunk to the point where they cannot comprehend where they are and how they got there. Drinking alcohol to get drunk has been around for centuries, and for centuries people have woken up only to potentially not remember what they may have done the previous night because they drank so much that they blacked out. Ecstasy users want to be able to have a great time at a party but also remember the next day how good of time they had. 

• Rave Party Music Culture
• Rave culture dates back to the 1980s, and its birthplace is in the UK. The culture reached its climax around the middle to the end of the 1990s. Rave culture eventually spread out across the ocean to America during the 1990s.
• After that time period rave culture began to become more and more commercialized as investors and clubs organizers began to find ways to make money off of the huge parties. The culture has been watered down from what it used to be known as during its hay day. Movies, television shows, and music videos glorified the cultures’ edgy and energetic parties to the point that the culture started to become more of a fad as the new millennium rolled around. 
• The parties became less and less about the ravers and more about whatever famous DJ or performer would show up to play that night for the party. New crowds of ravers would show up to party leaving behind the impact those past generations of ravers had on the culture. 
• The early generation of ravers was known to have their parties in abandoned buildings like warehouses. They would break into the warehouses and set up the necessary equipment such as lights, speakers, microphones, and all the other necessities needed for a great rave. Utilizing abandoned buildings to have the rave were an important part to why rave culture was a counter culture in the first place. The act of having a party in an abandoned building was illegal under any circumstance, so for the partiers that took the chance on getting arrested by cops, the rave meant much more than going to your average college party at some fraternity’s house in the middle of nowhere.
• The danger of being caught at any time meant that ravers had to party as hard and wild as they could before the entire operation got shut down. Ravers wanted to elude the watchful eye of police and all other social institutions put in place to keep the youth from straying out of the norm of societal structure. 
• The new generation of ravers had clubs and other large indoor facilities to party in. These clubs were built to tailor to the needs of ravers who were looking for a safer alternative to the hazards presented by partying in unsafe environments like warehouses and old burnt down factories.
• Club owners were well aware of the drug activity that rave cultures brought to parties. Clubs were always in risk of getting shut down because of the rampant use of ecstasy going on during raves. Ecstasy users tend to overheat while under the influence of the drug especially while in the setting of a packed dance floor of a rave. The body loses the ability to properly police ecstasy users’ bodies which can result in severe dehydration, heat strokes, seizures, or possibly even death.

 

• Downside of MDMA and Rave Party Culture
• Laws and fines have been in place to restrict the use of ecstasy at rave parties.
• Those laws that punish club owners for keeping ecstasy users safe put those users in harm’s way of becoming dehydrated or dying from the effects of ecstasy. Club owners are put into hard decisions of potentially letting dancers overheat and die or keeping dancers safe and getting fined or imprisoned. Either decision will potentially leave the owner with a chance of getting his or her club shut down.
• Without clubs willing to allow ravers to party while under the influence of ecstasy, rave culture was at risk of being discontinued. Law enforcers have ratcheted up their efforts to bust the drug cartels that ship in ecstasy to America.
• Deaths from ecstasy use are not the only deaths that should be noted. Gang wars involving gangs that distribute the pills have resulted in many more deaths or severe wounds.  

 

• Counter Culture Movement
• MDMA use and party music combine to form a counter culture movement that entices young adventurous people looking to take their party scenes to the next level regardless of how society views their sometimes reckless ways.
• The act of taking MDMA to experience its mind altering qualities in order to enhance one’s night dancing in a rave falls right in line with what makes the two put together a counter cultural movement.   
• Users can die from the effects of the drug, and drug dealers can either be arrested or shot and killed by rivaling dealers in the area. The danger that the drug brings with it adds to the counter culture aspect of the rave culture. 
• Rave culture became its own enemy; as the culture took off and grew to bigger heights it began to lose what made the culture a counter culture movement in the first place. 
• MDMA and rave culture have successfully revived themselves in today’s society, and both of the two underwent name changes and very subtle alterations to become revived.