“Nu-rave” - why must it be spelt like that?

“Nu-rave” a craze that’s been going around the UK for a couple of months now (this is a long overdue post I think). I describe it as a craze because it can’t really be described as much else, it’s a mainstream craze, nothing more to it really. Glow-sticks, brightly coloured clothing and “nu-rave” music is basically what’s involved.

Typical “nu-rave” bands include the Klaxons and apparently the New Young Pony Club. I’m not a big fan of the Klaxons, but on the whole I don’t mind the music. Mostly because recently I have been listening to more ‘beaty’ things (electro I suppose - introduced to me by my good friend, who was introduced to it by the Mighty Boosh) and so “nu-rave” is kind of falling into the category (on wikipedia, it was classed as “a style of music fusing elements of electronic dance music and rock”)

Now I come to the ‘look’ of “nu-rave” folks. On the tv last weekend, I heard it described as “looking in the mirror and thinking, yep I look like an idiot”. I’m sure many people have bought straight into it - it’s not exactly hard with high street brands such as Topshop having a whole collection dedicated to the trend (’POP’, which I blogged about a while ago); Entire magazines such as POP also just on this one topic (I actually forked out the £5 for that issue and I didn’t particularly think it worth the money); tv programmes such as Skins featuring “nu-rave” people (made me laugh, especially the hoodie with the flouresant pink “TWAT” written on the back).

You’d think that I would completely hate it because I pretty much hate anything that is an obvious trend. Yet honestly, I’m a bit undecided about it. On the one hand, I’m not about to go and start dressing head-to-toe in “nu-rave” style clothing, because I have my style, yet elements of the style do appeal to me. I mean, I have some bright blue tights from a couple of years ago which I do love. People who claim to be “nu-rave” or “electro” and solely that do annoy me, because personally I like to have more than one interest and element influencing me, variety is the key. It’s tricky really, I don’t buy into mainstream trends simply because I know that 6 months down the line, it’ll be obsolete and kind of pointless and quite honestly I don’t really care about being classed as ‘cool’ or ‘trendy’ for those few months. It’s a strange concept really - how can someone love fashion, but not be willing to love trends. To a certain point, everyone, be they fashion followers or not, are influenced by trends and the catwalk, because the ideas are taken and turned into something more wearable for consumers to purchase at a shop. “Nu-rave” is something that’s around, but I think it’s something that ought to be taken with a pinch of salt. Fair enough if you’ve been into “nu-rave” before it became a mainstream phenomenon, but I just think that for those of us who haven’t, you kind of risk looking like a sheep really - you know, just getting swept up into the hype.

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