Whistling at parties: Where did it start?
No matter the genre of electronic music, whistling at parties is a given.
Whether it’s Techno, Psy-Trance, House or even straight up EDM, there will always be a chorus of whistling protruding the DJ set.
It usually takes place during the build or drop of a track; I guess to ‘amp’ up the crowd or maybe even to exert their own enthusiasm.
Sometimes, you even get the ‘whistle blowers’ as I like to call them- they whistle at any random point of the track, and they whistle long.
It can be a hit or a miss, maybe more miss than a hit but one thing it surely has is history- 30 years to be exact.
Whistling and raving are long-time friends and veteran techno raver, “lakeeffectoperative” sheds light on some of the first whistles.
Whistle Mania
I guess clapping will get lost in the sound system, but whistling, if done right, can ring through. Recently a Reddit thread has emerged that tackles this conundrum of why people love whistling at raves so much.
One such Redditer, “lakeeffectoperative” has provided a trip down memory lane as to how the ‘rave whistle’ came to be.
As it goes, the whistle actually originated from behind the stage where acts like CyberSonik, P909 and even Underground Resistance whistled to whip up the crowd.
As with most stage antics, it migrates to the dance floor and soon, the whistle also made the trek to the DF!
So next time before getting annoyed, remember that whistling at parties is a tradition rich in rave
culture.
