Originally my post title was: What is it called when you are at a club and there is a good DJ and everyone is dancing and having a good time?
But it didn’t fit in the subject line.
Seriously there’s got to be a commonly used name for this phenomenon?
I have typically always called it “Vibe”, but in multiple google searches I can’t find any references to that.
Maybe it’s too abstract of a concept… But it is like this:
Hardly anybody is dancing or enjoying the DJ = Crappy vibe
Medium amount of people are dancing = OK vibe
Everybody is dancing and the night is rocking == Great vibe!!! The vibe is on!!
It has been over a decade since I have danced in a club/rave, but the memories of those days are still really meaningful to me. For a long time I have been wanting to write an essay or paper about the concept of “vibe”. But as I get closer to actually writing it, I want to make sure I use a term that people understand what I’m talking about.
Just some random observations about vibe:
*Vibe has to include other people. One person on the dancefloor cannot vibe on their own. Trust me I have been the only person on the dancefloor MANY times… not out of “hey look at me, I’m showing off”, but just because I love music and dancing so much. And even though it is fun to dance to music by yourself, you don’t get the same energy as when there are other people.
*Vibe requires a certain number of people. The more the better, in general. If you take 5 to 10 people, a small vibe can exist, but if you have 200 people, then vibe has the potential to be much much greater.
*However, insanely large crowds are not always conducive to vibe. In my experience some of the largest raves I went to had about 7000 people and they didn’t have very good vibe. Maybe it was just the night or the DJ’s, I think if the people had been into it, the vibe could have been a lot better. Typically the best vibing clubs for me were where there were maybe 2000 people in attendance at the entire club and the dancefloor itself could fit about 200 - 400 people on it.
*Every genre of music and every culture has a different type of vibe. For example house music is my favorite kind of vibe, uplifting and energetic and social… but drum & bass has a totally different darker vibe that is less social, more personal, darker and more aggressive. And I’m not talking about the music itself… I’m talking about the way people act in a group when they are listening to it. Even non-electronic music all have their own vibe. For example punk or metal has mosh pits, rock concerts have people squished together and kind of bouncing up and down… etc.
*Vibe cannot be forced. For example if I’m at a club where nobody is dancing and I am frustrated that nobody is dancing, I can’t just go put a gun to a bunch of peoples heads and force them to dance, even if that were possible, then just the act of them dancing forcedly would not have the same vibe. Vibe has to be spontaneous and the people involved have to enjoy the music and enjoy the dancing.
Anyway. Yeah. I am going to write an essay/personal account of one of the most memorable experiences of my life which was around the year 2000, dancing to house music at a club. Hopefully it will raise awareness about the fact that this concept exists at all.
Anyone have any thoughts on this concept? Any idea what it is called? Or should be called?
