Michael moved to Los Angeles in 1991 and built his career in photojournalism, documenting the city’s goth and industrial scenes as well as the celeb-studded upscale Beverly Hills party scene. Dissatisfied with the velvet rope mentality and unremarkable music, Michael found his way into the underground rave scene at just the right time, towards the end of 1995.
Los Angeles was ground-zero for North American dance culture. The city was unique in its abundance of talent, its unique venues, and entertainment industry tastemakers. What happened in LA set the tone for America’s rave experience for years to come and Michael creatively documented it like no one before or since.
In this episode we discuss:
- Why LA was the perfect launchpad for the US rave experience
- America's Satanic Panic vs its Rave Panic
- Joe Biden's controversial RAVE Act
- Why mid-sized events have disappeared from LA
- How the underground vets attendees in the digital age
- The weigh of identity politics on rave culture
- And much, much more
FIND MICHAEL
Online
His books Dancefloor Thunderstorm and The Raver Stories Project
On Instagram and on Facebook
On Getty Images
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Information
- Show
- Published17 September 2020 at 16:40 UTC
- Length1h 8m
- Episode9
- RatingExplicit