N.C. Raves: 'Dorks' at parties
The people who rave : 'Dorks' at parties (7 of 7)

 

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Chapel Hill deejay Jodie Webb (DJ Mizar) started going to raves partly to get away from the high school cliques she didn't like. Raves were a place she could thrive. MORE
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Copyright ©1998 Jim Webb. All rights reserved.


Webb (no relation to the author) grew up in St. Louis. During her high school years, she felt isolated from her peers. "I was an outcast, no matter where I was, for my entire life, because I did things differently," she says. Feeling awkward because she was interested in subjects like science and chemistry, she didn't fit in with the popular crowds at school.

Eventually, she discovered raves, a place where she could thrive. She saw raves as providing a home for 'dorks,' her affectionate term for the kinds of kids shunned by the popular cliques. "Almost all the ravers that I met way back then were not accepted by a majority of the people," she says. "They were dorks in their high schools too."

That was four years ago. Since then, raves have become more popular -- including, Webb says, among the popular kids she was once trying to avoid. "There are these cliques now of superficial people, just like the cliques in high school," she says. "We were trying to get away from that in the first place, and then they followed us in, you know?"

Karin, a Chapel Hill ravegoer, says cliques form in today's rave community just as easily as outside. In her group of friends, she says, outsiders are looked down upon: "Especially older ravers, candy [younger, less experienced] ravers, people who can't dance, and people who aren't dressed right." She wishes it didn't have to be that way, but at the same time, most of her friends are in the scene. "If I stopped going to raves, I wouldn't have any friends left."

Raleigh ravegoer Todd Morman says it's difficult to focus on the open-minded, clique-free ideals of raving he would like to preserve. "It's a standard riff to say that it's not as good as it used to be, because more people are hearing about it through MTV, a lot of kids hear about it because they think it's a place to get drugs," he says.

Still, it's not the quantity Morman minds so much as the quality. "I think a lot of people who come to raves these days just see it as another consumption-entertainment thing, like a concert," he says. "Pay your money, spectate, and leave. And that's totally antithetical to what raves are all about."

"It should be as close to 100 percent participatory as it can be," he says. "But it's harder to keep those ideals in focus as more and more people come in who aren't giving anything back." TOP