Raves, all-night dance parties often held in secret locations, have come to be identified with youth of the 1990s and 2000s in much the same way that the love-ins of hippies (see entry under 1960s—The Way We Lived in volume 4) were identified with youth of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although police, parents, and the media tend to focus on the drugs and sex that are often freely available at raves, ravers defend their gatherings as safe and loving spaces where they can be accepted for who they are while immersed in the driving beat of electronic music.

The rave scene began in Britain in the late 1980s. The dance parties soon spread among youth around the world, arriving in the United States in 1990. Early raves were traditionally onetime events in garages and warehouses, loosely organized without official permits or media advertising. News of a rave...