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Raving I’m raving (over 30 years later)
Midlife, Middle Age, the bit in the middle.
However you define it (Gaby Logan’s The Midpoint podcast uses the 35 to 58 definition from The Economic and Social Research Council), I have heard it described otherwise as anything from 30–60.
How we behave and the challenges we face as we get older are not new.
The environment we are doing it in now is different. Be it the plethora of people focused on how “young” they look (personally, no thanks from me) to those in lockdown who decided to let the grey out (if only — I’m headed straight to white) or the emerging trend of colouring your hair grey/silver.
For those of my generation, the period of the late 80s/early 90s was an incredible time for music. Specifically, in my eyes, Dance music. I can remember dancing until dawn and all the good bits (my memory has done a great job of removing the less good moments).
I’m not sure what I thought I’d be like 30 years later when I got to my 50s, but I didn’t know it would include the desire to carry on the same behaviour!
I’m no trend watcher, but I think there has been something stirring in the older ravers marketplace. Digital radio in the UK has made it super accessible, and if I take a station like Centreforce88.3, you have a vast community of diverse people united in one simple thing:
Music and the joy it brought 30 or so years ago and is still doing so now.
For all the talk of Boomers, there is an equivalent that can be applied to Generation X. A group who have seen tremendous change and for whom getting older in relatively good health carries evolved expectations.
So watch out, world — the ravers, are back (and in all honesty, never really went away). As the world reopens after covid, the fields may well be full of midlifers going wild to classic dance tunes.
Hopefully, see you there!