I do think people look at the 'old days' with rose coloured specs. As I recall it has always been the case that there were people on the scene who were only in it for the most superficial reasons and who knew nothing about the music, from 1988 (when I first discovered the music) right through 'til now.
No, because they stood out. House, techno, and hip hop all came up around the same time in the early 80's. At the time, hip hop was the "cool" underground thing and there were all the "Break dance in 15 Minutes" tapes and everything. But folks generally ignored them. We all knew that "Breakin'" was a Hollywood vision and never took it to be anything more than that (nice soundtrack, though). Whenever anything is "underground" there will be folks looking to exploit it or folks who have no clue beyond someone told them that it was cool. It's a trend. And when the trend shifts, so will these folks.
The problem comes in when you have a "trendy mass" that causes the other folks to stop coming out. I'm going to get personal and target the "ghetto raves" that some seem to enjoy around Detroit (and, if my sources are correct, this happens elsewhere, though maybe not to our extreme). You've got (still) this moneyed suburban white young crowd coming into a broke assed ethnic neighborhood (sometimes in the middle of gang territory??!!!?!) paying $30 so they can enjoy some event that the people who live there can't afford to attend. AND THE PROMOTERS, ATTENDEES, DJS, WHOMEVER, JUST DON'T GIVE A FUCK??!!? And this lack of respect eventually makes it's way to the DJ because who the hell cares about the DJ as long as someone's playing "Music To Get High By" by Artist of the Month. And everyone's running around so friggin' happy you think, "Hmmm, could it be...THE DRUGS!!!???" Then some locals decide, "Fuck it, everyone's so friggin happy to be in the hood, let's party!" and they start robbing the poor confused bunny rabbits. Yeah, a lot of you around Detroit know where I'm talking about, I used to live there, myself, even had some events there, but NO FRIGGIN BODY WAS ROBBED.
And for some who used to enjoy going out, the prospect of spending a night with a bunch of suburban addicts is less than appealing, so they stay away. And the promoters like it like that. I remember hearing (at the last second) about a well known Latino DJ/producer who was playing at some rave here. My guy, Mark Flash (who had also heard about it last minute), hooked up with him at the event. The question that got posed to Flash was, "Hey man, I thought there were black and Latinos in Detroit?" You see, this rave promoter either A) had no clue that black and Latino music lovers were huge fans of this man and his work, which was why s/he/they didn't bother to have info in those areas, or B) had a clue but didn't care = NO RESPECT FOR THE DJ OR HIS FANS. This is noticed not only by black and Latino fans, but white ones as well, who question what is PLUR when there is no UR (heh, and that was not an intentional pun, but what the hell).
It's not what you do, but how you do it. If you want to dress weird, cool. You may set a new trend. If you dance crazy, so be it. Drugs have been around for long before this, but we've also witnessed the drugs destroy a number of our greatest musical heros of all genres. We should have learned something. Still, folks are gonna do what they're gonna do. But RESPECT where you are, the people you're around, your DJ, all of it. Be yourself, but have some common sense and respect.
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