The Virtual and The Real

Youth & Society
http://yas.sagepub.com
Rave and Straightedge, the Virtual and the Real: Exploring Online and Offline Experiences in Canadian
Youth Subcultures
Brian Wilson and Michael Atkinson
Youth Society 2005; 36; 276
DOI: 10.1177/0044118X03260498
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ARTICLE
10.1177/0044118X03260498
YOUTH
Wilson,
Atkinson
& SOCIETY
/ CAN
/ MARCH
ADIAN YOUTH
2005 SUBCULTURES AND INTERNET
RAVE AND STRAIGHTEDGE,

THE VIRTUAL AND THE REAL
Exploring Online and Offline Experiences
in Canadian Youth Subcultures
BRIAN WILSON
University of British Columbia
MICHAEL ATKINSON
McMaster University
Over the past 10 years, sociologists have attended to the impacts of the Internet on
youth subcultural coalescence, display, identity, and resistance. In this article, the authors develop a critique of this body of work, describing how existing research places
undue emphasis on young peoples experiences either online or offline and how a lack
of consideration has been given to the ways that subcultural expressions are continuous across the apparent virtual-real divide. With the aim of addressing some of
these concerns, the authors draw on ethnographic case studies of Rave and
Straightedge to explore the impact of the two realities (i.e., online and offline realities) on understandings of subcultural experience in these youth formations and articulate how the theoretical split between the virtual and real in cyber-subcultural research does not accurately capture the lived experiences or identity negotiations of
these youth.
Keywords:
Rave; Straightedge; youth; subculture; Internet; resistance;

cyberculture
In recent years, various attempts have been made to empirically

document and theoretically dissect millennial youth subcultures.
Notable in this context of inquiry are discussions about the rise of the
Internet and its impact on the globalization of youth cultures, and conAUTHORS NOTE: We acknowledge the support provided by Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada graduate fellowships. We are also grateful
to Kathryn Herr and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful suggestions.
YOUTH & SOCIETY, Vol. 36 No. 3, March 2005 276-311
DOI: 10.1177/0044118X03260498
2005 Sage Publications
276

Wilson, Atkinson / CANADIAN YOUTH SUBCULTURES AND INTERNET
277
siderations of the Internets influence on traditional forms of youth expression, resistance, and identity development. Along these particular
lines of investigation and others, researchers have begun to examine
the characteristics of, and issues surrounding, the emergence of subcultures as cybercommunities or cybersubcultures. Hackers
(Ross, 2000), hate groups (Hier, 2000), fan groups (Clerc, 2000), and
cybersex participants (Branwyn, 2000) are some of the many groups
profiled in this broad area of research.
Despite innovations made in areas concerning youth cybercommunities, a series of theoretical and substantive schisms tend to be
replicated within this body of work, two of which are the focus of this
article. The first is that conceptual understandings about subcultures
and the Internet are typically offered without referencing (in any integrative manner) the literature on youth subcultures and the media.
This is a problematic schism given that scholars on both sides of the
Atlantic have focused considerable attention on the youth-subculturemedia relationship via the study of media audiences, media contents,
and media production practices. In a related way, more recent work on
alternative zine cultures is seldom referenced or taken as a theoretical guide for examining subcultural production through the Internet.
The second is that existing research on Internet (youth) cultures tends
to focus on either online or offline subcultural experiences, without
uncloaking the links between these two subcultural worlds, or interrogating the implications of these links for subcultural members
(Sterne, 1999).
In this article, we partially redress these theoretical and empirical
issues through the critical inspection of (a) the intricacies of the relationship between youth subcultures and the media, in light of the
emergence of the Internet as a computer-mediated communication
(CMC) platform and (b) the complexities of youth membership in
offline subcultural communities that are influenced by online participation. Substantive questions addressed through this analysis include
what links can be made between the cybersubcultures literature and
more mainstream work on youth subcultures and media; how has the
Internet been integrated into the everyday subcultural lives of youth;
to what extent has youth community formation been affected by the
globalization of culture and the rise of the Internet; what overlaps/
connections exist between online and offline cultures and how are

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YOUTH & SOCIETY / MARCH 2005
these overlaps relevant to current understandings of the nature of

youth subcultural communities? To accomplish this, we discuss previous work on subcultures and media and provide a bridge between this
literature and recent theory/research on the Internet and cybercultures. This is followed by an analysis and comparison of two youth
subcultural formations that are characterized by their range of media
and technology-oriented perspectives, experiences and practices
Rave and Straightedge, respectively. We examine the impact of
the two realities (i.e., online and offline realities) on understandings of
subcultural experience in these youth formations and suggest that the
theoretical split between the virtual and real in existing cybersubcultural research does not accurately capture the lived experiences or
identity negotiations of these youth.
SUBCULTURES AND THE MEDIA:
HISTORY, GAPS, AND LINKS
Contemporary discussions of youth subcultures and the media typically commence with reference to Cohens (1972) landmark book,
Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of Mods and Rockers,
Hall, Critcher, Jefferson, Clarke, and Roberts (1978), Policing the
Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order, and/or Hebdiges
(1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style. The general arguments put
forth in these volumes were that subcultures tend to be portrayed in
popular media as, on one hand, troubled or troubling (i.e., as alienated
and disaffected, or as social problems/deviants), and on the other
hand, chic and cool. This representational treatment of subcultures
was considered to be part of a process whereby groups viewed as
threatening/resistant to the status quo are initially censured and labeled and later incorporated into mainstream culture (e.g., by converting subcultural signs into mass-produced objects). This process, according to these authors, inevitably leads to the ideological
neutralization of oppositional groups.
Most pertinent to this article is the way that media are interpreted
by youth subcultures themselves, and how media (in a variety of
ways) plays an integral part in the formation and maintenance of these
groups. Thorntons (1995) work on club cultures in Britain ex-

279
plored two issues central to this topic. The first dealt with how
youths subcultural ideologies position the media, and the second,
with how the media are instrumental in the congregation of youth and
the formation of subcultures (p. 121). Regarding the first issue,
Thornton discussed how subculture members perceive mass media/
culture as a threat to their status as an esoteric group (e.g., because of
the medias tendency to incorporate/popularize previously distinct
subcultural styles). Regarding the second, Thornton emphasized how
relationships with mass media are a necessary and inescapable part of
subcultural development and ideology, and are crucial for confirming
subcultural status:
The positioning of various media outletsprime time television [music] chart shows versus late-might narrowcasts, BBC versus pirate radio, the music press versus the tabloids, flyers versus fanzinesas well
as the discourses about hipness and selling out, moral panic and
banning are essential to the ways that young people receive these media and, consequently, to the ways in which media shape subcultures.
(pp. 121-122)
Perhaps the most notable of Thorntons contributions is her discussion of the diversity and evolution of the subculture-media relationship, wherein she identifies the problems with theoretical interpretations of mass media reactions to youth deviance, and the increasing
importance of alternative media in subcultural struggle. The latter
point is elaborated on by McRobbie and Thornton (1995), who argued
that young subcultural folk devils are not only less marginalized
than they once were but now find themselves vociferously and articulately supported in the same mass media which castigates them, and
find their interests to be simultaneously defended by their own niche
and micro-media (p. 559).
Although McRobbie and Thornton usefully identify the potential
for counterhegemony through alternative media, work on media and
subcultures tends to focus on soft forms of resistance in media consumption, discussing the ways that viewers/readers become empowered through media by temporarily subverting the influences of consumer culture. Work in this tradition of audience research focuses on
groups that share interests in music, sports programming, television

280
shows, and romance novels (Ang, 1985; Jhally & Lewis, 1992;
Radway, 1991; Wilson & Sparks, 1996, 1999). Studies that unveil the
sometimes resistant readings that audiences/consumers made of these
popular culture texts/items (e.g., the collective and individual use of
texts/items in ways unintended by media producers) are sometimes
linked to the subculture-media traditionalthough some of these
works are criticized for being overzealous in celebrating the ability of
audiences to resist the influences of media texts (Gruneau, 1988;
Muggleton, 2000).
Although McRobbie and Thornton described a movement toward
the use of alternative media as a form of resistance and community
forming, Duncombe (1997) is one of the few authors to devote extended analysis to this topic. In Notes from the Underground: Zines
and the Politics of Alternative Culture, Duncombe (1997) provides a
series of clarifications to some of McRobbie and Thorntons points,
describing how zinesters and affiliated subcultures are prepolitical
groupsgroups that are made up of people who have not yet found, or
have only begun to find, a specific language through which to express
their aspirations about the world. Cresser, Gunn, and Balmes (2001)
research on female zinesters points to the political potential of CMC,
and how the cultural aspirations of online resisters cannot be fully realized in cyberspace. In this way, zinesters (i.e., those who produce,
publish, and distribute noncommercial, nonprofessional, small-circulation magazines) are akin to the niche and micromedia producers
identified by McRobbie and Thornton. Duncombe does, however, acknowledge that the distribution of hard-copy zines is now being halted
by the creation of Web-zines, which have a much larger and more
diffuse audience.
Although Duncombes work is seldom referred to as a departure
point for studying subcultural struggle and alternative/Internet media
production, there are several existing studies that broach these areas,
including Leonards (1998) work on the Riot Grrrl Punk movement,
and Jordan and Taylors (1998) study of hackers. Leonards (1998) research is especially notable in this context because it examines feminist youth movements with a focus on the hard-copy and online zine
platforms that promote them. Although Leonard does not establish
theoretical links between work on alternative media and studies of
Internet cultures, her empirical investigation of the ways that female

281
youth subcultural resistance is enacted through various media and in

public and private spaces is noteworthy. Despite these advancements,
existing studies say little about the Internets positioning in the offline
lives of subculture members, or about the everyday experiences of
those who are part of online subcultures (cf. Sterne, 1999).
Other authors, such as Robins (1996), critique the tendency for
commentators to glorify the virtual, out-of-body, multiple-identity
possibilities of the Internet without adequately considering relationships between virtual and real-world experience. This simple reification of online reality is also rejected in Markhams (1999) work on the
interconnection between on- and offline selves, and Parks and Roberts (1998) research on the relationship building through computer
MOOs (multiuser domain, i.e., chat rooms, online role-playing environments). In this context, Robins (1996) expressed his disapproval of
work that emphasizes a dual reality, or writing that is overzealous in
adopting poststructuralist and postmodernist interpretations of online
culture:
Virtual reality and cyberspace are commonly imagined in terms of reaction against, or opposition to, the real world. . . . In certain cases,
these are presented as some kind of utopian project. Virtual Reality is
imagined as a nowhere-somewhere alternative to the dangerous conditions of contemporary social reality. . . . The mythology of cyberspace
is preferred over its sociology. I have argued that it is time to re-locate
virtual culture in the real world (the real world that virtual culturalists,
seduced by their own metaphors, pronounce dead or dying). Through
the development of new technologies, we are, indeed, more and more
open to experiences of de-realisation and de-localisation. But we continue to have physical and localised existences. We must consider our
state of suspension between these conditions. (Robins, 1996, pp. 16,
26)
Although Robins (1996) call for balance and for more integrated
research are both rationales that underlie this article, we more directly
suggest that research underpinned by microsociological emphases
can guide understandings of the relationship between online and
offline lived experience. For example, in Denzins (1995) and Pleace,
Burrows, Loader, Muncer, and Nettletons (2000) respective examinations of Internet-facilitated communication processes between

282
members of addiction/recovery groups, important links are made between the conventions of Internet support communities and the oral
traditions of face-to-face support meetings. Jordan (1999) also explored the relationship between offline and online communication
(with a particular focus on gender), discussing the potential for more
egalitarian online discussions because of the liberating and limiting
potential of exclusively text-based conversation. Turkles (1995)
work on identity and the Internet includes several stories of individuals whose experiments with online identity are part of developing their
offline selves (e.g., playing the role of another family member). Issues
to do with race/ethnicity, class, and gender have also been studied as
part of understanding the relationship between offline and online experience/identity (cf., Ebo, 1998; Harcourt, 1999). Burkhalter (1999),
for example, showed how racial politics emerge in newsgroup discussions and described the linkages between racial identity online and
grounded racial experiences offline. Equally, through a netography
of displaced Croatians online communication, Stubbs (1999)
inspected how diaspora and community restructuring are signified
across Internet spaces.
Miller and Slaters (2000) ethnographic study of the Internet in
Trinidad is one of the most rigorous pieces of research on the positioning of the Internet in the everyday lives of people. The rationale they
provide for their approach is at odds with much of the research that has
been conducted to date, as they explain:
[The existing] focus on virtuality or separateness as the defining feature of the Internet may well have less to do with the characteristics of
the Internet and more to do with the needs of these various intellectual
projects. . . . The present study obviously starts from the opposite assumption, that we need to treat Internet media as continuous with and
embedded in other social spaces, that they happen within mundane social structures and relations that they may transform but they cannot escape into a self-enclosed cyberian apartness. Indeed, to the extent that
some people may actually treat various Internet relations as a world
apart from the rest of their lives, this is something that needs to be socially explained as a practical accomplishment rather than as the assumed point of departure for investigation. How, why and when do
they set cyberspace apart? Where and when do they not [italics in
original] do this? In what ways do they make use of virtuality as a

283
feature of new media? What do they (businesspeople, Carnival bands,

schoolkids or government agencies) regard as real or virtual or consequential? (pp. 5-6)
Their research confirms the need to consider the way that the Internet
is part of everyday life, and not necessarily abstracted from it.
In sum, then, despite a surge of work in the area of Internet and culture, few studies explicitly link online culture/community with offline
culture/community. Especially relevant is that although authors such
as Porter (1997), Smith and Kollack (1999), and Tapscott (1998) have
produced path-breaking empirical interrogations of virtual communities, only a handful of researchers have critically inspected the intersection between on- and offline life within youth subcultures. In this
article, we argue that to grasp how youth subcultural activity is experienced in everyday life and how young people negotiate their identities
through various forms of subcultural resistance, it is important to consider how subcultural members negotiate the online-offline divide,
and how for many youth, this might not be a divide at all.
THE VIRTUAL AND
THE REAL IN RAVE AND STRAIGHTEDGE
It is from the aforementioned theoretical and substantive departure

points that we interrogate the relationship between the virtual and real
in two separate youth subcultures in CanadaRave and Straightedge.
This exploration is based on fieldwork conducted by both authors.
Our discussion in this section emphasizes conceptual issues, using
previously collected data as a departure point. The analysis of Rave
derives from an ethnographic study of the culture as it existed in
southern Ontario from 1995 to 1999 (Wilson, 1999, 2002b), from ongoing contact with the southern Ontario scene through Internet and
newsgroups, and especially from observations of two Ontario-based
newsgroups and one global newsgroup (contributed to by Ravers in
various locations around the world). Observations at a virtual Rave
party and analyses of high profile Rave Web sites that were key reference points for those who were part of the southern Ontario scene are
also referred to here.

284
In the second example of Straightedge, the discussion presented in

this article stems from a participant-observation based study of
Straightedge lifestyles in Canada (Atkinson, 2003a). The conceptual
analysis of Straightedge as a distinct youth group has been partially
culled from field observations, in-depth interviews, and lifestyle participation (i.e., the researchers personal practice of Straightedge with
group members) with 32 Straightedge practitioners in three Canadian
cities. More germane to this article is, however, that the second author
conducted an extensive netography (Stubbs, 1999) of 117 Straightedge Web sites, and regularly participated in or contributed to four
Straightedge chat rooms/bulletin boards. The analysis of Straightedge
offered here is predominantly derived from these latter data.
RAVE CULTURE
In 1988, Britain experienced what has come to be dubbed the second summer of love, a time and label now synonymous with the
mass-mediated emergence of the all-night dance/drug culture known
as Rave or Acid House. For some dance music historians and theorists, this second summer of love signified the beginning of the end
(i.e., the end of Raves potential as a resistant force), for a culture
whose origins could be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s dance music scenes in New York City, Chicago, Detroit and Ibiza, Spaina
holiday sun location where the original Rave dance parties occurred in
the early 1980s and where working-class British vacationers were inspired to start a scene at home (Collin, 1997; Redhead, 1997). Of
course, the idea that 1988 was an endpoint is vast overstatement if
Raves mass-mediated emergence is viewed as part of a subcultural
evolutionary process, where a subculture does not dissipate, so much
as it morphs. As authors such as Thornton (1995) described, Rave culture evolved into a more incorporated club-based dance culture defined less by collective resistance to the mainstream, and more by the
attempts of subculture members to attain esoteric status within their
group. Others, such as Reynolds (1997), documented Raves evolution into a fragmented (i.e., fragmented musically and philosophically), cynical, drug-driven, and destructive scenea hedonist subculture without a cause. Bennett (2000) and Malbon (1998), more

285
positively, describe the neo-tribal habits of dance music consumers

and connoisseurs, who move from scene to scene, embracing a variety
of subcultural spaces and (electronic) sounds.
As might be expected, debates about the historical importance of
Rave are complex and have persisted among critics. Some commentators argue that Rave is similar to other working-class cultural movements of the past, in the sense that Ravers are reacting to (by escaping
from) the oppressive and mundane circumstances that frame their everyday lives at weekend dance/drug party retreats (Wilson, 2002b).
Others contend that Rave is unique because, unlike previous subcultures that were defined by overt and symbolic expressions of resistance by their members, Rave is an apolitical culture of avoidance and
hedonism (McRobbie, 1993; Tanner, 1996). Still, others have labeled
Rave the first postmodern subculture because of its escapist stance
and de-emphasis on traditional markers such as gender and race
(McGuigan, 1992).
Of central relevance to this article is the small body of work that has
focused on Raves intriguing relationship with media and technology.
To a certain extent, this relationship is encompassed in the writings of
McRobbie and Thornton (1995), and Thornton (1995) that described
how subcultures such as Rave respond to their stigmatization in mainstream media within (prosubculture) niche and alternative media. As
relevant, but less studied, is the somewhat interdependent relationship
that Rave has with media-related technological advances. That is to
say, unlike previous youth subcultures that rejected mainstream progressions in communications and media, Ravers embrace technology
as part of their philosophy (Wilson 2002b).
In fact, a closer look at the early Rave cultures in New York City,
Chicago, and Detroit, as well the early/influential German techno music band/duo Kraftwerk, reveals how technological (i.e., computergenerated) music came to reflect and articulate the social dislocation
that many DJ-musicians and their audiences felt in postindustrial localities (Collin, 1997). The blurring of Rave and the cyberpunk culture and genre of writing in this context is striking. Kellners (1995)
description of cyberpunkan especially technology-sensitive culture
that influenced early techno musicis instructive here:

286
[As writers and consumers of science fiction stories, novels and movies] cyberpunks are very much a product of the technological explosion of the 1980s with its proliferation of media, computers, and new
technology. Their work is heavily influenced by the saturation of culture and everyday life through science, technology and consumer culture . . . a response to (the) explosive proliferation of technology and
mass culture which it embodies. (p. 303)
Similarly, for Rave, there is a relationship between the usage/consumption of technology by subcultures members, and the everyday
experiences, perspectives and activities of these same membersa relationship seldom studied in work on youth subcultures. Of course,
and as Gilbert and Pearson (1999) argued, the problem with employing the term technology so widely is that it assumes high technology, when in fact dance music cultures interact with and are predicated a variety of technologies, new and old, high and low
(p. 111). It is from these underpinnings that we consider the position
of Internet technology and communication in the Rave subculturea
topic not engaged by Gilbert and Pearsonand interrogate relationships between online and offline life for Rave subculturalists.
RAVE CULTURE, THE INTERNET, AND EVERYDAY LIFE
By recognizing that Rave cultures in different locales are subtly

distinct, we begin by establishing that Rave in southern Ontario, Canada, is a largely middle-class youth scene, renowned for amphetamine
drug use, an interest in computer-generated music known as techno (a
term used here to describe a variety of electronic dance music genres),
and attendance at all-night Rave dance parties (Weber, 1999; Wilson,
1999, 2002b). In Toronto in particular, Rave culture, or what is sometime called club culture (a more evolved and mainstream version of
Rave), has evolved to a point where techno dance music is widely
available in mainstream and after-hours clubs. Having said this, more
conventional Rave partiesusually nonalcoholic events, with a
younger crowd (14 to 25 years old) that are promoted in ways that are
in keeping with the peace-love-unity-respect (PLUR) doctrine that
is a traditional reference point for the southern Ontario Rave communitystill occur, albeit in legally sanctioned venues. The Rave com-

287
munity is especially defined by their protechnology views and practices, which are embodied in the computer-generated music they
produce, the often technology-related occupations they hold, and, of
course, their frequent use of the Internet for various reasons (Wilson,
2002b). In fact, Dery (1996) described Ravers as countercultural
technopagans because of their participation in the subcultural ritual
of free-form dancing to synthesizer-produced, heavy-beated music
that is arranged by DJ techno-Shamans (p. 52).
Following Dery, we assert that Rave is a complex example of a subculture that is not only defined by its existence online and offline but
also by its tendency to embrace this relationship. Online-offline relationships were evident in the practice of Raving, the dissemination
of Rave values, the promotion of the local and global Rave community, in the business of raving, in the politics surrounding raving, and
in the globalization of Rave more generally.
The most explicit example of the relationship between online and
offline is the virtual Ravea simultaneously virtual and real event.
Virtual Raves, which take various forms, usually include live video of
DJs playing music and an accompanying chat room where virtual
Ravers can interact (the video and chat room appear together on the
events Web page). Evidence that Ravers are leaders in the development of online and offline subcultural links is that virtual Raves surfaced (in Canada) in the mid-1990s, a time when the World Wide Web
was only beginning its rise. In Toronto, for example, among the first
online-offline Rave parties took place at the home of Toronto DJ Mental Floss in the summer of 1997, followed by another event in this DJs
university residence (also in Toronto) the following year.
A more traditional example of online-offline interaction is on
southern Ontariobased newsgroups and Web sites that were designed to promote the local scene and community. Although several
currently exist in Toronto area, one of the longest running sites is the
Western New York and Southern Ontario Rave-Net (WNYSOR). Begun in 1993 as an e-maildriven Listserv discussion group (which
continues to operate), the community is now supported by a welldeveloped Web site that includes
a list of local DJs who are part of the newsgroup (including links to
their own personal/business Web pages),

288
a list of upcoming events,

links to local online radio stations,
links to mass media articles about Rave and drugs,
photos from recent local Rave parties,
a space to sign-up for the e-mail based Listserv, and
a chat room/forum for discussion.
In the chat room section, online interactions take place that are particularly relevant for offline subcultural life and developments. Topics
discussed are under the headings Rave Events (with subheadings
event reviews and upcoming events), Music (with types of music and
discussions among DJs subheadings) and General Topics. Especially
notable is the DJ discussion area, described as a place to discuss ways
to promote yourself as a DJ and your gigs, to discuss skills such as
mixing, scratching, producing, gear, record shopping, labels, and new
vinyl releases, and to promote local DJ relationships. The General
Topics area includes a subsection devoted to harm reduction and information about illicit drug use. Other topics in this section include
the politics of the Rave scene, relationships with police and the law,
Rave-related clothing styles and their meanings, and places and times
that Listserv members can meet at upcoming Rave parties.
In some respects, this promotion and protection of community (especially the local DJ community) through Internet technology is at
odds with conventional arguments by commentators such as Buxton
(1990) who suggested that technology/synthesizer music such as that
produced by Kraftwerk has disenfranchised the musician at the expense of the computer boffin (Gilbert & Pearson, 1999, p. 119). Recognizing that Buxton is referring to the impacts of technology on the
authenticity of produced music (which is itself a contentious claim),
the irony here is that state-of-the-art technology has always been used
to advance the production quality of music. In the same way, the do-ityourself distribution possibilities made possible by the Internet, along
with the local and global business and peer-group connections that are
enabled by Web pages and discussions forums, have enfranchised
many DJ-musicians and helped democratize music promotion.
The Rave community generally, and its attendant online-offline relationships, are also supported through Web sites posted by Rave promoters. In the earlier days of Internet and Rave in Toronto (mid-

289
1990s), the posting of information online about secret Rave locations and times was common, and congruent with Raves history of
subversion tactics, wherein Rave promoters needed to avoid having illegal parties closed down by police. Eventually, though, the Internet
became more about the advertising of Raves through promotion company Web sites. Since the late 1990s, promotion company sites have
remained quite static, typically including
a history of the company and its most noteworthy events/parties,
an overview of companys Rave-related values and what it hopes to
contribute to the scene (Note: It is here where variations of the peacelove-unity-respect doctrine of the Rave community tend to be outlined
and promoted),
profiles of the DJs that regularly spin at their parties,
a promotional section focused on upcoming Raves being put on by the
company, usually with a Rave flyer for the event posted online,
photographs taken at previous Raves put on by the company,
a message board where Ravers talk about the companys most recent
event and talk about the Rave scene generally,
links to other Rave-related Web sites (often other companies that might
be run by friends of the promoter), and
a contact e-mail for the promotion company.
These sites are rich sources for understanding online and offline Raverelated experiences because they embody simultaneous connections
with the business of raving, the promotion of community within the
Toronto Rave scene, and the marketing of Rave-related philosophies
and values more generally. In some respects, a vortex of (subcultural)
publicity has been created as these mutually supportive networks of
Rave promotion interact and interweave (cf. Wernick, 1991). Some
companies exemplify one of these layers of connection more explicitly than others though, depending on their ideological orientation.
Torontos Nightmare Productions (www.nightmarehell.com/) is an
example of a company that has positioned itself as a promoter of an
underground Rave community. At the same time, though, the Nightmare Productions Web site is intricately connected to the business of
Rave, through Web-site links to a Rave clothing company, to a Canadian retailer of LED lights (used at Rave parties), and to various onand offline Rave-inspired stores that sell clothing, CDs, and tickets.

290
This is in addition, of course, to the companys promotion of its own

Rave parties.
A Baltimore-based Rave promotion company known as Ultraworld
advertised what they perceived to be the final step toward a virtual
Rave world on one of the Toronto Rave newsgroups. This vision of a
communication, business, and pleasure-oriented environment for
those from the electronic music community embodies the fluidity and
continuity of the online-offline connection. This is evident from the
following description of the Ultraworld concept appearing on the
companys Web site:
We are creating a virtual world dedicated to the electronic music community. In this world you will find individuals and businesses that have
some relation to the growing worldwide electronic music scene. This is
an interactive 3D virtual environment, in which you can have an identifiable character. . . . From the business end, we will be populating the
Ultraworld with anything and everything that is relevant to electronic
music, or anything that we think is cool enough to be in the world.
There will be record stores, DJ booking offices, clothing stores, theatres where visual artists can show their work, etc. . . . There is no limit to
what we can do. Here again, the setup can be simply a link to a businessesWebsite, or they could have a virtual store where customers can
come in and browse. Imagine this scenario: You log into the
Ultraworld, and the virtual world appears on the screen. You choose
your avatar and youre ready to go. The onscreen display tells you that
there are over 400 people worldwide currently logged on! From the list
you see 10 people that you are friends with, and you send them all a letter: Hey, I just logged on, meet me in front of the Ultraworld Visitors
Center as soon as possible....After that, you want to do some record/
CD shopping, so you walk to the street where record stores from all
over the world are located.
As pertinently, Web sites similar to the one proposed by Ultraworld

facilitate offline relationships between Ravers around the world, as do
globally oriented community Web sites that provide links to Rave-related sites in various countries. In this sense, and drawing on Best and
Luckenbills (1994) framework for understanding deviant organizations and Straws (1991) conceptualization of music scenes and communities, Rave can be understood as a complex social organization

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that includes local, integrated communities that exist within more

transient local scenes. In turn, these communities and scenes are located within a more diffuse and imprecisely defined subcultural
world. The San Diego-based Web site Rave Links is an example of a
world-level links site, while sites such as Seattle, Washington-based
Event Nation disseminate information about and links to a variety of
regional scenes in North America. Interactions on this world level
have been facilitated for several years by the Web site called Hyperreal, a site that historically had a North American and European version. The philosophy underlying the Web site is as follows:
[Through] on-line connections, information is exchanged, a loose
community evolves. Technology fosters communication: Interacting
on the Internet helps bring us together (from http://www.hyperreal.
org/Raves/spirit/plur/PLUR.html).
The potential interactions between Ravers from around the world
are online experiences that will sometimes result in offline transactions or potential meetings. Indeed, the current hyperreal.org site includes a map of the world and an invitation for users to click on any
part of the map to download Rave-related information about that location. Affiliated with Hyperreal is the globally accessed newsgroup,
alt.Rave, that has been in operation since 1992a newsgroup that, according to Hyperreal, is read by approximately 20,000 users.
The increasing number of offline travelling Ravers who tour
around the world with the primary goal of raving/clubbing is notable
in this context, as is the increasingly global Rave/club scene and business, because they embody key relationships between the Internet, the
globalization of culture, and the globalization of subculture. In particular, these trends are consistent with Appadurais (1990) understanding of travel, technology, media/communication, finance, and ideas as
various dimensions/avenues of cultural flow that contribute to the
development and acceleration of a global culture (or in this case,
global subculture; cf., Carrington & Wilson, 2002). Similarly, these
links between a global Rave scene, the Internet, and interrogations of
online and offline cultural life bring to mind Gilbert and Pearsons
(1999) view of technology and the modes and locations within which
various music is encountered and interacted with (p. 130). That is to
say, by incorporating understandings of the various spaces that simultaneously guide and structure interactions with technology into our

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examination of the Internet and Rave, much can be ascertained about

the notion of subcultural mobility and its relationship to the apparent virtual-real divide. This is especially evident in the movement of
electronic/techno music (from CDs or MIDI files to the Internet
through uploading, and to CDs or MIDIs through downloadsand
eventually to Walkmans and music players), information (e.g.,
Internet discussions about upcoming events or about the quality of
newly released dance music that move between online forums and
offline music stores or DJ-basement parties), and people (whose online and offline interactions at virtual-real Raves are facilitated by
movements between cyber and physical spaces). This perspective on
the connection between (global) flows of culture, local interactions
and interpretations, and everyday life is consistent with our thesis that
online and offline experiences do not exist in disparate social spaces,
nor are they conceived as such by subculture members.
STRAIGHTEDGE
In 1981, an American Punk Rock band named Minor Threat wrote

a song titled, Out of Step (With the World). The song extolled the
virtues of self-restraint, personal responsibility, and social awareness.
By rejecting the largely nihilistic messages offered to youth by other
Punk Rockers of the day, Minor Threat challenged their fans to embrace more positive social attitudes about the body (Wood, 1999,
2001). Specifically, instead of being encouraged to aggressively resist
their own political disenfranchisement and cultural dislocation
through present-centered hedonism, a new generation of Punks were
asked to adopt strict corporeal practices that would enrich their lives.
The credo of this inverted Punk philosophy, dubbed Straightedge, became dont drink, dont smoke, dont fuck. At least I can fucking
think. These underlying ideas suggested that if young persons could
first take control over their own bodily impulses, they could collectively stimulate cultural change (Irwin, 1999). In effect, Straightedge
evolved into a lifestyle of rebellion against the physical excesses
associated with many youth, and indeed adult, cultures in North
America.

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Through the early 1980s, the first and second waves of North
American Straightedge practitioners fabricated brands of Punk music,
clothing, and language to represent their philosophies of corporeal asceticism. Closely aligned with more traditional Punk styles (e.g.,
ripped clothing, Mohican hairstyles, shaven heads, thrasher music,
and Doc Marten boots), Straightedge style drew attention to an alternative message of walking the edge through self-restraint. By the
mid-1980s, Straightedge had developed into a fully subterranean lifestyle of social resistance, with practitioners alternative physical
styles entwined with nonmainstream messages of physical purity
(Wood, 2001). Reaching the apex of its initial popularity during this
period, the lifestyle waned in appeal by the latter part of the decade as
Rap, Grunge, Goth, and other socially rebellious (and more nihilistic)
style cultures blossomed in suburban scenes.
However, facing social uncertainties initiated by globalization processes, economic expansion, biological threats, and cultural fragmentation characteristic of the 1990s (Hannerz, 1990; Muggleton, 2000),
some middle-class North Americans and Europeans started to re-explore the viability of Straightedge as a lifestyle geared toward selfprotection. During this time, Straightedge spawned a variety of ideological offshoots such as Hardcore and Emo, and some practitioners
incorporated Vegan and/or Animal Liberation Front ideologies into
the lifestyle. Some of the younger Straightedgers in the United States
(New York, Utah, and across southern California), Canada (British
Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland), England (London and Manchester), and Sweden (Umea and Lulea) adopted more militant positions regarding physical purityclaiming absolute purity to be the
hallmark or true subcultural uniqueness of Straightedge. An even
smaller number of extremist Straightedgers (termed terrorist or hateedgers) began to aggressively promote Straightedge, utilizing violence against nonbelievers as a means of illustrating their commitment
to the lifestyle.
The sociological literature on lifestyles of bodily resistance such as
Straightedge is a diverse collection of empirically oriented and theoretically diverse research. Sociologists, for instance, have located and
theorized about how corporeal practices ranging from ritual piercing
(Pitts, 1998) to the cultivation of cyborg bodies (Balsamo, 1996;
Wolmark, 1999) are undertaken in the process of representing cultural

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discord. From a review of studies on lifestyles of corporeal resistance,

a consistent theoretical theme is uncoveredresistant bodily practices such as Straightedge tend to be produced by structural relationships of exploitation/inequality, and are designed to confront dominant social structures, relationships, and ideologies in dramatic and
highly disruptive manners. They are, as Hebdige (1979) might concur,
forms of distinct cultural noise in situated contexts of social interaction. Despite McRobbies (1994), Muggletons (2000), and Wilsons
(1999) suggestions that resistance in the postmodern era may take on
more mundane, everyday, and less spectacular forms of expression,
few study corporeal resistance as that which is either muted or more
private. Even fewer, aside from feminist researchers, analyze forms of
bodily resistance as the hyper-acceptance of dominant norms rather
than the deliberate violation of cultural standards.
In a related way, only a handful of researchers have critically inspected the role of middle-class youth in developing subcultures of
physical resistance. Despite cursory research on middle-class resisters including Slackers/Gen-Exers (Epstein, 1998), Ravers (Wilson,
2002b), Cyberpunks (Featherstone & Burrows, 1995), and Modern
Primitives (Atkinson, 2003b; Atkinson & Young, 2001)all of
whom arguably engage in bodily resistance (i.e., through idleness,
drug experimentation, wearing technology, or ritual body marking)
as variations of retreatism (Merton, 1938)scant theoretical attention has been granted to forms of corporeal resistance common among
White, heterosexual, youth in the urban middle class. Research on antiwar movements (Boulding, 2001), environmental rights advocacy
(Jelin, 2000), and anticorporate movements (Seymour, 2001) has respectively identified key factions of the young middle class as social
dissidents, however sociologists have remained largely inattentive to
how subcultural resistance may be enacted through the body in
micrological contexts of interaction. Equally, there is a paucity of research on the processes through which lifestyles of corporeal resistance are affected or mediated by the pursuit of social protest online
(Shields, 1996). In the following discussion of Straightedge in Canada, emphasis is given to how off- and online resistance became interlaced within the Straightedge figuration (Atkinson, 2003a), and
how practitioners utilize cyberspace to promote and reaffirm the
experience of bodily purity.

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STRAIGHTEDGE, THE INTERNET, AND EVERYDAY LIFE
Similar to any other belief system underpinning a lifestyle orientation, Straightedge cannot be understood when decontextualixed from
its practice-situated contexts of interaction. In the case of Straightedge, we must commence with a fundamental recognition that the ascetic mantras of personal responsibility and self-protection (i.e., no
promiscuous sex, illicit drugs, or alcohol) are more than espoused philosophy; these dictums are the very bedrock of the everyday life practices of Straightedgers (Atkinson, 2003a; Irwin, 1999; Wood, 1999).
Such corporeal orientations permeate all aspects of practitionerslives
and are not merely experimented with in the leisure sphere. The ability
to walk the Straight-edge (i.e., to integrate principles of self-control
into daily regimen) set the individual apart from the cultural mainstream. As the Straightedger Patrick (age 25) proclaimed:
Walking the Edge is not just a thing you do when its convenient. Its a
minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day lifestyle. Wherever I go,
whatever I do, its with me. . . . I look at myself, and see myself as different, because I am in control, I am strong.
On these grounds, self-proclaimed disciplined group members coalesce around and revel in their perceived distinction from others. In
Thorntons (1995) terms, it is the possession and display of such
subcultural capital that distinguishes them as an esoteric group.
Outsiders, perhaps quite predictably (cf., Muggleton, 2000), are collectively deemed as a homogeneous set of unsympathetic, unconvinced, or unenlightened others. It is, then, the everyday physical performance of Straightedge (i.e., the management of desire, the
renunciation and control of impulse, the battle with addiction and
craving, and the suppression of hedonistic urges), coupled with identity-confirmation processes between group members in micrological
contexts, that reinforce the meaning of the lifestyle for practitioners.
Straightedge is typically practiced within a local community of
mutually identified and interdependent others. Because group members are interlinked by ideology and everyday lifestyle performance,
they form into a web or con-figuration (Elias, 1994) of actors. Some
within the Straightedge figuration are bound to one another through
deep interdependencies, while others more occasionally affiliated

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(Atkinson, 2003a). In a majority of Canadian cities, the population of

local practitioners is relatively small, ranging from a few dozen to a
several hundred. Therefore, people involved in the local scene (Irwin,
1977), come to know one another and develop at least loose personal
affiliations. Others form more tightly-knit Straightedge factions
termed crews. These relative lifestyle enclaves (Stebbins, 1997)
reflect more traditional, symbolic interactionist conceptualisations of
what subcultural life entails (cf. Prus, 1997):
Your crew is where you feel at home, even more so than among your biological family. The crew understands where you come from, and how
tough it can be to lead the lifestyle [Straightedge]. . . . When we hang
out together at a [music] show, its like going home, taking your shoes
off, and putting your feet up. Sometimes, I feel like Ive known these
guys my whole life. (Jim, age 26)
Principally, active crew members place qualitatively and quantitatively similar emphases on walking the Straight-edge, actively practice Straightedge as a group lifestyle, reaffirm the identities of other
practitioners as legitimate and authentic, forge personal relationships
with members that transcend the spare-time spectrum, and promote
intense commitment to Straightedge among others.
Whether one interacts with Straightedgers in an open community
of locals or an internally policed crew that defends its subcultural capital, a central gathering place for all practitioners is the urban music
show (simply, a concert involving at least one, but typically several,
Straightedge bands). As in other subcultures such as Rave (Wilson,
1999, 2002a), Hip-Hop (Bennett, 1999, 2000), and Goth (Hodkinson,
2002), music plays a key role in signifying and disseminating
Straightedge ideologies (Wood, 1999). The current generation of
Straightedgers organize and perform collective expressions of
Straightedge (though music/lyrics, dancing/posturing, dress, and
other forms of display) at urban shows, much like their Punk predecessors of the 1980s (cf. Baron, 1989; Leblanc, 1999). The show is,
then, a vehicle for realizing and exhibiting Straightedge as a meaningful group behavior. As in Wilsons (2002b) case study of Rave culture,
practitioners ritually perform their ideologies at music shows through
symbolic gesture (i.e., dance) and language (i.e., interpersonal com-

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munication and musical lyric). In most Canadian cities, shows form

the interactional hub of Straightedge figuration; they are a focal meeting place for practitioners, showcase central figures of the lifestyle
(i.e., musicians), and function as a tool for attracting potential
newcomers or neophytes.
Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has provided Straightedgers
with a vital communicative medium for the promotion of local bands
and shows. Web sites such as straightedge.com, posionfree.com,
xsisterhoodx.com, and xstraightedgex.com have become beacons for
disseminating information about Straightedge music and its global
history. Although the Internet is not nearly as engrained in the
Straightedge figuration as in the Rave scene, Straightedgers have
found in the Internet a useful platform for marketing local shows:
Without the Net, the music scene in this city would be damn small. You
have to realize that Straightedge is really only starting to develop in
Canada, and word of mouth only gets you so far. Now, people bump
into Straightedge bands on-line, and come across postings for local
shows all the time. I cant tell you how many kids show up just because
they found us on-line. (Pete, age 28)
As a result, online communication about Straightedge music has altered the contextual flavor of the show scene in Canada and elsewhere.
Some Straightedge bands have achieved widespread notoriety in Canadian cities, as an outcome of online exposure on Web sites such as
vancouverhardcore.com and davexxx.com. This has helped establish
certain urban centers such as Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and St.
Johns as Straightedge hotbeds. In other cases, the online promotion
of Straightedge shows advertises the very existence of the music
scenes in particular locales. Here, the Internet is used as a device for
bringing people together in real timeunlike the creation of virtual
communities wherein participants rarely, if ever, meet face-to-face
(Parks & Roberts, 1998; Pleace et al., 2000).
The Internet has also become central in the circulation of songs by
independent bands who do not possess the financial resources to
widely distribute CDs. Instead, Straightedge music is transformed
into MP3 or MPEG audio files and placed on Web sites for free download. Rather than explicitly resisting technological advances similar

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to their Cyberpunk cousins (Featherstone & Burrows, 1995),

Straightedge practitioners integrate various music-related media platforms into their signifying practices. The age of free digital piracy
has seemingly helped to raise awareness about and interest in the
lifestyle:
Realistically speaking, I know our band is not going to get a lot of
mainstream airtime [radio], and I could care less. I want people, who
want to listen my music, to come out and support us. When you have to
dig around in obscure places to find something, and then its free if you
want it, youll appreciate. Anyone down with the lifestyle [Straightedge] can download from our [on-line] song list all they like. (Darren,
age 23)
In Markhams (1999) terms, the utilization of CMC by individuals

such as Straightedgers facilitates a sense of subcultural control and
agency through group signification processes. The broad use of the
Internet to circulate independent music (and do-it-yourself fashion) is
also congruous with traditional antiestablishment and anticorporatism Punk philosophies, where autonomy in all phases of the music
distribution process is celebrated.
Practitioners have also seized personal Web space as CMC to clarify popular cultural definitions of the lifestyle, and debunk popular
myths or misconceptions about Straightedge. For example, a host of
personal Straightedge Web pages have arisen in light of the American
polices official labeling of the group as a recognized gang, and rising
concerns in North American schools about Straightedges evolution
into a violent and socially disintegrative youth movement. Such online counterlabeling activities by social outsiders are not unprecedented. Durkin and Bryant (1999) noted how pedophiles (i.e., as a
group of stigmatized social actors) collectively utilize cyberspace in
an attempt to neutralize negative definitions of their behaviors. Other
Straightedge Web pages form in response to unsympathetic peers labeling of Straightedge as a movement for freaks, losers, or misfits.
The creation of such personal Web pages, and the development
of Straightedge message-boards, is a process of, as Cohen (1972)
might describe, winning cultural space via online ideological dissemination:

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I go on-line to strike back, you know. I read a lot of shit about so-called
Straightedge kids in the U.S., and I feel like I have to get active on the
Net to break media stereotypes. Wouldnt you rather know about the
scene from somebody involved, rather than some bullshitting cop or
reporter? (Rick, age 19)
In this instance, winning space means reclaiming the right to define

your esoteric group through self-employed terms and categories, and
to discursively reframe Straightedge as a lifestyle geared toward personal empowerment and social/civic responsibility. Practitioners attempts are clearly orchestrated to negate the ideological dilution of
their messages of resistance created by mainstream media sources.
More important, when youth are able to secure space on a local area
network (LAN) or server, they may initiate a political claims-making
process of their own. Without such access, their philosophies of resistance may be further silenced, marginalized, or rearranged through
other preferred media frames (Hall, 1980).
In everyday interaction, then, Straightedgers tap into Internet media as a means of engendering broader cultural knowledge of and tolerance toward their collective lifestyles. As the Internet is a public
space that can be easily politicized (Cresser et al. 2001; Wilhelm,
1998), personal or group-oriented Web pages are fashioned into billboards for promulgating core tenets of the groups ideology and counteracting the labeling process initiated by more mainstream media
from which Straightedgers are excluded. By exploring the Internet as
a more diverse CMC platform, and not simply a tool for promoting local shows, practitioners exploit the virtual world to underline the positive social outcomes of strict personal responsibility and restraint. Not
only does their middle-class, relatively affluent, social standing provide them with the resources to resist online, the hyper-middle-class
nature of their corporeal philosophies is highlighted through CMC.
For example, testimonials about personal recovery (i.e., from addiction), individual growth, and social bonding through Straightedge can
be readily posted in these virtual clubhouses. Encoded with decisively
middle-class ideologies of corporeal asceticism (White, Young, &
Gillett, 1995), personal responsibility, and morality, their messages of
resistance are publicly clarified online:

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To all the people out there who think addiction cant be beaten, youre
wrong. Be straight and you will survive. This [Internet] space is for all
of those who have been kicked by life and want to use their bodies to
fight back. Total fucking purity and courage is what you need to succeed. . . . If you discipline your mind, the body will follow. (posted online by an anonymous Straightedger)
Through the creation of stable, ongoing, and easily locatable virtual

clubhouses wherein visitors may peer into Straightedge lifestyles,
practitioners reach communities across the country (and indeed the
world). Web sites transform into spaces that normalize the groups belief systems, signifying the group as a cadre of hyper-normative
(rather than excessively profane) social protestors.
A stark outcome in the production and consumption of Straightedge communication online has been the proliferation of the lifestyle
in Canada. Quite simply, the creation of a vibrant and proactive online
Straightedge network facilitates the development of more integrated
offline Straightedge scenes from coast to coast. The consolidation of
Straightedge scenes via CMC supports Katzs (1996) and Robins
(1996) contentions that online interfacing between people alters
offline bonds and relationships. Micrological pockets of Straightedgers are connected with others across the country (even those in
rather remote locations), and communication between members enhanced. Similar to empirical findings in Stubbs (1999) study of virtual social networks between diasporic Croatians, Straightedge can be
organized but not wholly experienced online. Yet such communication tends to reinforce practitioners sensibilities about corporeal asceticism, underline the social importance of the lifestyle within the
group, and help actively recruit various youth in crisis (Acland, 1995)
who seek personally empowering subcultural solutions to an array of
status problems (i.e., within peer groups, educational circles, and families) or chemical dependencies. As a result, then, the mass extension
of Straightedge into virtual space has stimulated a heightened sense of
figurational communitas (Turner, 1969) among some Canadian
practitioners.
We must be mindful, however, that Straightedge is neither realized
nor consolidated by individuals by simply participating online with
other practitioners. As illustrated in the case of cybersex (Wiley,

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1995), one does not fully realize a corporeal practice in the virtual
world. As noted above, Straightedge is a lifestyle that must be performed daily through physical experience. Even though individuals
may coalesce in cyberspace, Straightedge is principally done
among groups of mutually-identified others in the here and now of everyday life. Similar to Modern Primitives or Cyberpunks who resist
techno culture by testing the boundaries of the corporeal through
bodily ordeals (Atkinson, 2003b; Atkinson & Young, 2001;
Featherstone & Burrows, 1995), some Straightedgers practice the
lifestyle as a form of resistance to techno modes of living that they perceive to be characteristically detached from physical experience (unlike their Rave counterparts). Such practitioners reject the global escape into virtual worlds and prefer to explore/control the body as a
meaningful social text of communication. Quite paradoxically,
practitioners exploit virtual space to inspire consciousness about the
lived body.
Yet online communication between Straightedgers across the
country (and around the globe) has fuelled a splintering among them.
Although most Straightedgers tacitly believe in similar orienting life
principles, there is noticeable disagreement as to how stringently one
must believe in and practice corporeal edicts of restraint. Debates
about the authentic nature of Straightedge have been exacerbated
within online chat rooms, and those with varied understandings about
the lifestyle now meet in virtual space to contest definitions they practice. Such debates transcend cyberspace and are occasionally enacted
through heated confrontation at shows or other public places. Following a trend in European football hooliganism, as evidenced at the 1998
and 2002 World Cup events (Finn & Giulanotti, 2000), violent confrontations at public spectacles between individuals are arranged in
advance through the Internet. Small, aggro-oriented or anti-hateedge pockets have formed as a responsefrom hardcore practitioners who adopt a militant party line, to more liberal Straightedgers
who explicitly condemn the more radical factions of the movement.
Given the increased popularity of Straightedge among Canadian
youth and the genesis of antagonism among practitioners, Straightedge styles (and other signifying practices) cannot be easily, or singularly, decoded. With the proliferation of Straightedge styles (including music, clothing, dance, argot, and tattoos), practitioners have

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experienced an internal incorporation (Thornton, 1995) of the lifestyle. In other terms, Straightedge may be, as some members describe
it, eating itself from within. Although Straightedge movements in
North America have never constituted a homogeneous set of peers, we
should not overlook the contemporary diversification of the lifestyle
spawned by CMC, and the very real effects of group segmentation on
the physical practice of Straightedge in group contexts.
A number of hardline practitioners lament that there have been unintended ideological and representational shifts within Straightedge
stemming from online communication. Because anyone may venture
online, learn about Straightedge, and mimic the lifestyle as popular
fashion (in many cases, without fear of reprisal from committed practitioners), the practice is open to be poached by youth in search of chic
countercultural movements:
One of the main problems with the Internet is the anonymity factor.
Anyone can get onto the Web and call themselves down for life. Or
else, you learn a bit of the jargon, and play the role. . . . Its when people
steal from our dialogue on-line, and pretend they have an understanding about what its really like that pisses me off. (Don, age 24)
Questions arise, then, regarding how deeply Straightedge philosophy

has been inserted into everyday physical regimen by some. According
to self-proclaimed devotees to Straightedge, certain posers barely
extend the virtual into the physical realm. This critique is most frequently directed at those middle-class youth in Canada who have access to high-powered computing systems and high-speed home connections to the Internet and dabble in Straightedge (i.e., through style
or participation at local shows) as a means of experimenting with
subcultural difference: To all the hypocritical losers out there in the
suburbs who think theyre Edge because they listen to Minor Threat,
drop dead. Hardcore [Straightedge] is the only way to live, and unless
youre hard now, you never were and never will be (posted online by
self-termed Hate-Edger Stewart, age 21).
However, because the Straightedge figuration is somewhat close
knit in most urban areas in Canada, distinctions can be made readily
between those who participate in Straightedge on a recreational basis,
and those who possess a level of commitment to the lifestyle.

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In sum, the community of Straightedge practitioners in Canada is

perhaps best conceptualized as a moving figuration of mutually identified and interdependent actors. As individuals collectively participate (albeit to varying degrees) in the lifestyle, they are bound by relationship chains that are forged online and offline. Because communication online brings people together and mediates understanding
of what it means to be Straightedge, one may be inclined to refer to the
group as an online community or subculture (cf., Porter, 1997;
Shields, 1996; Smith & Kollack, 1999). To be sure, relevant information about Straightedge and ideological debate regarding the lifestyle
are presented online. However Straightedge (as a corporeally driven
activity) is chiefly practiced through physical regimen and thereby is
lived in real time. Practitioners do not differentiate between on- and
offline performance; to them, both are included as part of walking the
Straight-edge.
REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
The cases of Rave and Straightedge provide a rich basis from which
to consider the positioning of the Internet in the lives of subculture
members and, in turn, to reflect on the changing nature of subcultural
life. The most striking themes that emerged in this analysis had to do
with relationships between these subcultures and mainstream culture.
In broad terms, it appeared that there is a complex and contradictory
relationship between youth who support Internet-related business
practices that contribute to the incorporation of these subcultures (especially in the case of Rave), and those dedicated to the online (as well
as offline) promotion of alternative communities and antimainstream
philosophies and perspectives. Also relevant in this context is that the
Internet provides subculture members with frequent and various opportunities to be active media audiences/consumers and producers
roles and identities that are also blurred and interconnected. For example, subculture members studied here used the Internet to promote
ideologies, communities, events, and consumer products (in the case
of Rave), while at the same time responding to the sometimes-negative mass-mediated mainstream portrayals of their subcultures and to
attempts to incorporate their scenes. It is worth noting that the subcul-

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ture-Internet relationship described in these case studies is akin to

perspectives that are presently circulating among those who study the
Internet, social movements, and political economy more generally.
That is to say, current understandings of the Internet as an effective
tool for promoting and organizing social movement groups (Castells,
1997; Wilson, 2002a) and as a medium for promoting commerce,
consumption, and the global market (Schiller, 1999) mirror our
finding that the Internet enables subcultural resistance and supports
incorporation practices.
This position is reinforced by our finding that Rave and Straightedge are distinct subcultural entities who resist the cultural mainstream through media production in different ways and with variable
intensities. Straightedge, a subculture that is philosophically opposed
to the physical excesses promoted by mainstream culture industries, is
unlike Rave (and especially Raves descendent, Club Culture) that in
many respects promotes weekend (often drug-related) excesses as
forms of symbolic escape (McGuigan, 1992; Wilson, 2002b).
Straightedges emphasis on self-restraint and its still overtly alternative orientation has made the lifestyle less marketable as pop culture
and, in turn, somewhat less incorporated. That Straightedge is a
closer-knit community than the increasingly diffuse Rave scene is
similarly important in that Straightedge posers are more recognizable
and more easily discouraged from selling out because the market interests/attractions that influence Rave promoters are less a part of the
Straightedge reality.
Conversely, the positioning of the Internet as a medium for promoting Rave and its DJs is seldom challenged by the protechnology
Ravers, especially those who work in Rave-related occupations (such
as DJ or promoter) and those who recognize the legitimacy of these
occupations. Although not explicitly described as an online-offline
relationship, work by authors such as Smith and Maughan (1998) who
have studied dance musics emerging underground economy and the
links between this economy and the rise of Internet communication/
technology similarly demonstrates the extent of Raves (internal and
external) incorporation. Straightedge is much more cynical about the
capitalist opportunities presented by the medium because the group is
less dependant on the market/occupational side of the subcultural life.
That is to say, walking the Straight-edge is more clearly anticorporate

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than Rave, and for this reason, the Internet tends to be used in more
countercultural ways than the more apolitical and incorporated Raver/
Clubber subculturalists. Understanding these complexities and differences, our findings also provide some nuance to McRobbie and
Thorntons (1995) observations about the development of the relationship between media and subcultures by describing how the philosophical orientations of Rave and Straightedge are intricately related
to the groups perspectives on (alternative) media production and
usage.
The insights derived from these cases also inform our understandings of the impact of the Internet on the structure of youth subcultural
formations. For example, it is clear that global subcultural networking
(through Internet communication) has been enabled in unprecedented
ways, and that this is at least somewhat related to the emergence of a
loosely defined global level of involvement for Raver and Straightedge youth. As above, though, the differences between Rave and
Straightedge in this context are substantial and significant. In essence,
for Rave, the conflict between the capitalist motives underlying the
distribution of the culture (especially in the form of items such as
techno music and Rave clothing styles) around the world and those
that oppose the incorporation of the culture has played out on a global
stage, precisely because of the political and economic influences that
are part of Rave culture (and especially its descendant club culture).
Straightedge, which has more effectively rejected the advances of the
mainstream, largely because this kind of rejection is the philosophical
raison detre for the group, is less of a global culture at present.
The Rave and Straightedge cases are also intriguing departure
points from which to consider how the Internet might enhance social
cohesion among youth by facilitating offline meetings and events, and
providing an online forum for support and discussion. That is to say,
youth culture in the age of the Internet could be viewed not only as
more fragmented, diffuse, and neo-tribal than traditional subcultures
described in classic British works in the area (e.g., Hall & Jefferson,
1976; Hebdige, 1979) but also as more cohesive in the sense that virtual connections can enhance local relationships while allowing for
global cultural/support networks (Wilson, 2002a). Having said this, it
is worth emphasizing that media developments such as the Internet are
still utilized and made sense of on a local and intrasubcultural level, or

306
as Ekholm-Freidman and Friedman (1995) stated, While all social

systems are complex, everyday life tends to reduce this complexity to
schemes of meaning and action that are significantly simplified
(p. 134).
In following the work of Bennett (1999, 2000) and Malbon (1998),
who adopted Maffesolis (1995) notion of neo-tribes as a concept for
understanding the transient aspects of youth cultures, our examination
of online and offline cultures points to transience and movement
within communities, scenes, worlds, and figurations. Through the
study of Rave, Straightedge, and other youth formations, we have
come to learn about the permeability and fluidity of subcultures in an
increasingly global and cyberage, and to consider how the Internet has
affected young peopleabilities to maneuver between different leisure
or lifestyle activities. Here, however, we also see a pressing imperative
to examine the extent to which local subcultural ties are disrupted and
challenged by the Internet, because the continuity between online and
offline life evident in these two groups might not be applicable to all
youth peer groups/cultures, especially youth who tend not to identify
with a specific subcultural group. It is our overarching aim, then, to
empirically ascertain how youth actually interpret a variety of information available on the Internet, and how alternative media production and interpretation are linked for youth subculturalists. In this way,
the task of enhancing sociological understandings of how youth
subcultural communities relate to media in an age of Internet technology may be addressed, and widespread claims about the impacts of an
increasingly global and cyberculture empirically critiqued.
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Brian Wilson, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His research interests include youth culture, media constructions of race and gender, audience studies, social movements, and the sociology of sport and leisure generally. His published work
appears in such journals as the Canadian Journal of Sociology, the Canadian Journal of
Communication, the Sociology of Sport Journal, the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, and the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. He is currently leading a project
funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: Connected
Youth: A Study of Youth-Driven Social Movements, Globalization and Community in the
Age of the Internet.


Michael Atkinson, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at
McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His teaching and research interests
revolve around issues in social deviance, radical body modification, violence in sport,
and figurational sociology. He has published articles and book chapters on such topics as
tattooing, modern primitivism, Straightedge lifestyles, professional wrestling, ice hockey
violence, terrorism and the Olympics, ticket scalping, and qualitative interviewing. His
work has appeared in diverse academic journals including Deviant Behavior, Sex Roles,
Field Methods, and The Sociology of Sport Journal. He is the author of the book, Tattooed: The Sociogenesis of a Body Art. His current research projects include bodily asceticism, criminal violence in ice hockey, self-amputation, and mens cosmetic surgery.

311

The Virtual and The Real

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Youth & Society

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RAVE AND STRAIGHTEDGE,

University of British Columbia

Rave; Straightedge; youth; subculture; Internet; resistance;

In recent years, various attempts have been made to empirically

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YOUTH & SOCIETY / MARCH 2005

these overlaps relevant to current understandings of the nature of

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YOUTH & SOCIETY / MARCH 2005

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youth subcultural resistance is enacted through various media and in

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feature of new media? What do they (businesspeople, Carnival bands,

It is from the aforementioned theoretical and substantive departure

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YOUTH & SOCIETY / MARCH 2005

In the second example of Straightedge, the discussion presented in

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positively, describe the neo-tribal habits of dance music consumers

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By recognizing that Rave cultures in different locales are subtly

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a list of upcoming events,

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This is in addition, of course, to the companys promotion of its own

As pertinently, Web sites similar to the one proposed by Ultraworld

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that includes local, integrated communities that exist within more

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examination of the Internet and Rave, much can be ascertained about

In 1981, an American Punk Rock band named Minor Threat wrote

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discord. From a review of studies on lifestyles of corporeal resistance,

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STRAIGHTEDGE, THE INTERNET, AND EVERYDAY LIFE

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(Atkinson, 2003a). In a majority of Canadian cities, the population of

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