Tales From A Corporate Raver: What it Means and Why it Matters

What does it mean to be a “corporate raver”? The term sounds almost paradoxical; doesn’t everything that embodies the stereotypical raver mantra (free-spirited, passionate, young-at-heart) directly contradict the corporate world? Some may say yes. Some would say that if you’ve sold your soul to “the man” and spend most of your days slaving behind a desk and a computer, that you are completely out-of-touch with what it means to be a raver. We would argue that they aren’t contradictory, and in fact, they are absolutely corollary with the goals of the modern day rave scene.

Let us go back to what it means to be a raver in the modern day. It used to be that raves were held in warehouses, located in the middle of nowhere, and the only advertisements were fliers, handed out at local universities (if you were lucky) or only found out from a “friend of a friend”. You had to call the phone line on the flier, and get directions from there. You would hang out with all of your usual raver friends, and groove to whatever beats were on play that evening. Those days, as beautiful and unique as they were, are long gone.

In its place, you have the modern-day music festival, its giant arms encircling all things “dance music related” (i.e “EDM”) and perpetuating itself in the popular spotlight. Young kids, from all over, would love to attend Paradiso, or EDC, stoked at the notion of seeing their favorite mainstream DJ, Hardwell (or Tiesto, or David Guetta…you get my point), and are willing to pay big dollars to do so. [bpm_ad]