Origins, commodification, and significance of Berlin's Love Parade

Term Paper , 2002 , 16 Pages , Grade: 1 (A)

Cultural Studies - European Studies

Carnival, as an ideal type identified by Cohen, ′is a season of festive popular events that are characterized by revelry, playfulness, and overindulgence in eating, drinking and sex, culminating in one or two days of massive street processions by masqued individuals and groups, playing or dancing ecstatically to the accompaniment of loud and cheerful music. Also, every carnival is a place in which 'hegemonous and opposition political formations […], alliance and enmity, consensus and conflict are expressed like a grand joking relationship'. In the light of this it is worthwhile to examine contemporary carnivals as movements of cultural production and places of cultural policy and contestation. In this case study the author focusses on a very recent offspring of carnival culture, which has in a short period of time outnumbered the traditional carnivals in London′s Notting Hill district and Trinidad, and has at one time been the biggest street dance event and youth meeting in the world. The Love Parade in Berlin, initially held as a birthday party for a Berlin DJ, Dr Motte (Mathias Roeingh) in 1989, has developed from an underground electronic dance music event (or better demonstration) and the voice of the (German) techno and rave scene, often referred to as ′Generation X′, to a mass event with 1.5 million visitors in 1999. Today, the parade, has been turned into a ′global brand′ with offshoot events held in Vienna, Mexico City, Leeds, Tel Aviv and plans for parades in Cape Town and Hong Kong. In the following the origins, the increasing commodification and the cultural as well as political significance of the Love Parade are being examined.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Origins, commodification and significance of Berlin's Love Parade
• Four months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dr Motte and some of his friends (around 150 in total) gather on Kurfürstendamm, a busy shopping street in the centre of West Berlin, to demonstrate With music playing from 'three little trucks' (Motte, 1995, see flyer in Appendix) as a key element.
• However, the Love Parade is not being initiated as a carnival for the people in the first place but rather as a demonstration of the vibrant Berlin Club culture scene of the early 90's.
• For the first time in 1991 party people and activists from different scenes all over Germany are taking part in the parade With the motto 'Ny House ls Your House And Your House ls Mine".
• In 1992, about 15.000 people accompanied by 15 floats celebrate the 4th Love Parade, which gets 'media coverage all over the world- from the Tagesschau (the German equivalent to the BBC News) to i-D Magazine' (techno.de, 2002).
• With techno music gaining in popularity and even dominating the Charts, also the Love Parade grows bigger and, in 1996, has to move from its birthplace on Kurfürstendamm to the Tiergarten park in the middle Of the City.
• The biggest parade so far is held in 1997 With one million people dancing on the streets.
• The inevitable commercialisation reaches new heights in 1999 when 1.5 million people celebrate a parade With the most apolitical motto so far: "Love is the key".
• The increasing sell-out of techno culture and the parade itself becomes apparent on the official Love Parade website (www.loveparade.de).
• A threat to the parade's democratic outlook and inclusiveness is also posed by the growing appropriation through politicians and parties.
• Mainly the parade's financial success and the missing expression of explicit political ideas lead to the ruling of Germanys highest court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVG) in 2001 , which says that the Love Parade is a commercial event and can no longer be held as a demonstration.
• Rave and techno culture for which the Love Parade initially stands for are Often seen as having 'no goal beyond their own propagation' (Reynolds, 1998: 86).
• What Bakhtin (1998: 251, italics his) identifies as the 'Very important aspects Of a carnival sense Of the world', that 'distance between people is suspended and instead replaced by 'free and familiar contact among people Who in life are separated by impenetrable hierarchical barriers' can be applied to the Love Parade as Well.
• Gore (1997: 52), sees in the Love Parade an example of 'rave culture that incorporates elements of experimentation, especially artistic but also socio-political, the aim of which is not however direct counter-cultural contestation, but rather the celebration of values seen as alternative to those of the fight-Wing realpolitik' of the 1980's.
• Apart from carnival's many possibilities 'for serving as an instrument for political Opposition' to the prevailing hegemony such as its 'difficulty to control [...l, the personal anonymity' of each reveller and 'the masquerading' (Cohen, 1982a: 36), it must also be acknowledged here that the Love Parade is an important event for cultural production and artistic expression (for examples See appendix l).
• TO conclude the case Study it can be Said that the Love Parade and Other offshoots across Germany and the world stand as significant symbols for peace and freedom and sometimes even as antitheses to State repression.
• Appendix
• Appendix 1
• References

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte

Diese Fallstudie untersucht die Entstehung, Kommerzialisierung und Bedeutung der Love Parade in Berlin, einem der größten Straßenmusikfestivals der Welt. Sie beleuchtet die Entwicklung der Love Parade von einer Underground-Techno-Veranstaltung zu einem Massenereignis und analysiert die Auswirkungen der Kommerzialisierung auf die ursprüngliche Subkultur und die politische Bedeutung der Parade.

• Die Entstehung der Love Parade aus der Berliner Clubszene der frühen 1990er Jahre.
• Die zunehmende Kommerzialisierung der Love Parade und ihre Auswirkungen auf die Subkultur.
• Die politische Bedeutung der Love Parade als Symbol für Frieden, Freiheit und Jugendkultur.
• Die Rolle der Love Parade als Plattform für kulturelle Produktion und künstlerischen Ausdruck.
• Die Kritik an der Love Parade als apolitisches und kommerzialisiertes Ereignis.

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel

Die Fallstudie beginnt mit der Beschreibung der Entstehung der Love Parade im Jahr 1989 als eine Demonstration der Berliner Clubkultur. Die Parade wurde ursprünglich als eine Art "Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen"-Veranstaltung konzipiert, die für Abrüstung, internationales Verständnis und eine gerechtere Verteilung von Ressourcen plädierte. Im Laufe der Zeit entwickelte sich die Love Parade zu einem Massenereignis, das Millionen von Menschen aus aller Welt anzog.

Die Studie analysiert die zunehmende Kommerzialisierung der Love Parade, die zu einer Abwanderung von kleineren Clubs und Aktivistengruppen führte, da die Teilnahmegebühren für die "Love Trucks" immer höher wurden. Die Parade wurde zunehmend von kommerziellen Sponsoren und Medienunternehmen dominiert, was zu Kritik von Seiten der ursprünglichen Subkultur führte.

Die Studie untersucht auch die politische Bedeutung der Love Parade als Symbol für Frieden, Freiheit und Jugendkultur. Die Parade wurde oft als eine Plattform für den Ausdruck politischer Meinungen genutzt, obwohl sie von vielen als apolitisch und hedonistisch betrachtet wurde.

Schließlich beleuchtet die Studie die Rolle der Love Parade als Plattform für kulturelle Produktion und künstlerischen Ausdruck. Die Parade hat die kulturelle Landschaft Berlins und Deutschlands bereichert, indem sie Künstler und Musiker aus aller Welt zusammengebracht und eine Plattform für neue künstlerische Ausdrucksformen geschaffen hat.

Schlüsselwörter

Die Schlüsselwörter und Schwerpunktthemen des Textes umfassen die Love Parade, Techno-Kultur, Jugendkultur, Kommerzialisierung, politische Bedeutung, kulturelle Produktion, Berlin, Deutschland, Frieden, Freiheit, Subkultur, und die Kritik an der Kommerzialisierung von Kulturereignissen.

• College: University of Leeds (Cultural Studies department)
• Course: Carnival
• Grade: 1 (A)
• Author: Florian Mayer (Author)
• Publication Year: 2002
• Pages: 16
• Catalog Number: V9037
• ISBN (eBook): 9783638158497
• ISBN (Book): 9783638815796
• Language: English
• Tags: Love Parade, Karneval, Kulturpolitik, Globalisierung, Carnival, Culture, Globalization, Globalisation