Rave Dictionary

A plain-English A-Z of UK rave and dance culture, the language of the 1990s and early 2000s dancefloor. Start with “doved up”.

Acid house: The electronic sound, built around the squelch of the Roland TB-303, that lit the fuse for UK rave in the late 1980s. The smiley face became its symbol.
Anthem: A track that defined a season or a scene, guaranteed to lift a room the moment it dropped. Every era has its anthems.
Banging: Approving slang for a track or a night with real energy and drive. A banging tune, a banging set.
BPM: Beats per minute, the tempo of a track. Rough guide: house around 120-130, techno and trance a little faster, hardcore and jungle well north of 150.
Breakdown: The section where the drums drop away and tension builds, before everything crashes back in. The setup for the drop.
CDJ: The digital deck, made standard by Pioneer, that let DJs play and mix from CDs and later USB and files rather than vinyl. The modern club standard.
Chillout: The slower, ambient side of the scene, and the room you went to when you needed to come down from the main floor.
Decks: The turntables. Classically a pair of Technics SL-1200s, the workhorse of DJs for decades.
Doved up: Rave-era slang for the euphoric, loved-up feeling of a night on the dancefloor, tied to the ecstasy culture of the 1990s. The root of the DOVEDUP name.
Doves: A common nickname for ecstasy pills in the late 1980s and 1990s, some pressed with a dove motif. The bird also chimed with the peace-and-unity spirit of the scene.
Drop: The moment the full beat and bassline slam back in after a breakdown. The payoff, and the point of the whole build.
Drum and bass: The fast, bass-heavy UK sound that grew out of jungle in the mid-1990s. Breakbeats around 170 BPM over deep sub-bass.
Dubplate: A one-off acetate cut of an unreleased track, a DJ’s secret weapon before a tune hit the shops. To have the dub was to have the edge.
Four to the floor: A steady kick drum on every beat of the bar, the backbone of house and techno. The pulse that keeps a floor moving.
Free party: An unlicensed, no-cost rave, often outdoors or in a squatted space, run by a soundsystem crew rather than a promoter.
Hands in the air: What a room does when the drop hits and the anthem lands. The physical shorthand for a peak moment.
Hardcore: The fast, breakbeat-driven rave sound of the early 1990s, high on energy and euphoria. Parent of jungle and happy hardcore.
House: The four-to-the-floor sound born in 1980s Chicago that became the foundation of dance music worldwide. The broad church everything else branches off.
Jungle: The chopped-breakbeat, heavy-bass UK sound of the early-to-mid 1990s, fusing rave energy with reggae and dancehall. The bridge to drum and bass.
MC: The voice on the mic hyping the crowd and riding the rhythm alongside the DJ, central to jungle, drum and bass and garage.
Oldskool: The rave and hardcore sound of roughly 1988 to 1994, and the affectionate name for that whole first golden era.
PLUR: Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. The unofficial ethos of rave culture, a shorthand for the warmth and openness of the dancefloor.
Promoter: The person or crew who put the night on: booking the venue, the DJs and the rig, and taking the risk to make the party happen.
Rave: A large dance event built around electronic music, and the culture around it. Once a byword for illegal warehouse and field parties, later mainstream.
Rig: The soundsystem. The stacks of speakers and amps a crew builds and hauls, and often the name of the crew itself.
Second summer of love: The name given to 1988-89 in Britain, when acid house broke through and the rave scene exploded. The cultural big bang of UK dance.
Set: A DJ’s performance: the run of tracks mixed together over a slot. A good set is judged on selection and on how it is put together.
Techno: The stripped, machine-driven electronic sound born in 1980s Detroit, harder and more hypnotic than house. Built for the long dark hours.
Trance: The melodic, euphoric strand of dance music that rose through the 1990s, built on long builds and soaring breakdowns.
UK garage: The swung, bass-led London sound of the late 1990s and early 2000s, blending house and two-step with an MC on top.
Vinyl: Records. The original medium of DJing and still the format many selectors swear by for feel and sound.
Warehouse party: A rave thrown in an empty industrial building, the defining setting of the early acid house and rave years.
White label: A promo or limited pressing with a blank label, released ahead of or instead of a full commercial run. Prized by DJs and collectors.

Read the story behind DOVEDUP, or keep up with the wider scene at dovedup.news.