‘Raver vs Hipster’?! What are these kids doing in KLCC?

Lately we’ve been noticing a weird new trend on Facebook. A lot of people were clicking ‘Yes’ to attend an event on this Facebook page called RAVER VS Hipster Episod 2. And amazingly the page summore got decent support – 1.1k going and 1.4k people shared:

But uhhh…what’s going on here? From the title we can only guess it sounds like a show or movie. Kinda like Batman vs Superman, or Alien vs Predator. Out of curiosity/kepo-ness we poked around the page and found giler banyak videos of people doing this:

OMG what did we just watch?! We have so many questions. 5W 1H. Why are these kids randomly dancing in public?

Then we found more Raver vs Hipster pages on Facebook (here and here) and many, manyyyy more videos like the one above being posted on social media sites. Seems there is a whole lotta something going on that we never knew about until now.

Thanks to our SOSCILI team, we found out that they are ravers and hipsters. Prolly some of you know of their existence already, but if you’re not very up-to-date on the Malay pop culture scene, here’s what’s we’ve been missing out on… 😀

‘Raver vs hipster’ is the current trend among Malay secondary schoolkids

Ravers and hipsters are two separate sub-culture groups that are popular among Malay teenagers (between 13 to 19 years old) right now. But when you put the two together, watch out, because ravers and hipster have gone to “war” with each other! Chill, chill… in spite of them using words like ‘pertempuran’ and ‘perang’ on Facebook, they’re not actually fighting with fists or parangs. They’re fighting with dance moves!!

So, the simplest way to explain this strange trend is that Malay youngsters have found themselves aligning with two different groups, and apparently there is some (thankfully) non-violent rivalry going on.

In the video above however, only the ravers (not hipsters) were dancing in front of KLCC like nobody’s watching. Presumably they were the ones who filmed it too. According to our SOSCILI team, the whole ‘raver vs hipster’ movement looks like the ravers just syok sendiri wanna tunjuk aksi and act alpha. The hipsters aren’t actually involved in this ‘fight’ and haven’t responded to any provocation from the ravers. You know dat feel, like when your annoying friend is trying to piss you off but you don’t wanna layan?

Although the terms ‘raver’ and ‘hipster’ probably have different meanings in different cultures and countries, the easiest definition would be:

• Raver: A party-goer (1960s-1970s); a party animal; more specifically an enthusiast of raves (a large dance party featuring performances by DJs and occasionally live performers playing electronic music).
• Hipster: Affluent or middle class youths, broadly associated with indie and alternative music, non-mainstream fashion, generally progressive political views, organic and artisanal foods, and alternative lifestyles.

The raver sub-culture might have been adopted by Malay teens since 2015 (this date is unverified, but according to SOSCILI writers it was likely the sub-culture became popular last year. In any case, we did find a raver video dated 30 August 2015). And we can safely say the raver culture is not originally buatan Malaysia – it most likely started in London, UK, around the mid-1960s when garage rock and psychedelia bands were hot stuff (most notably The Yardbirds).

Anyway, when kids started following the trend here in recent times, their one defining trait is their sotong dance. Because of the ravers’ strange movements when dancing, they have been nicknamed sotong. That’s how you can identify a raver if you ever see one in KLCC. Among some other nicknames we saw on social media are beruk, lipas, and sampah (so mean 😥 ), although we also think it reminds us of this:

And of course this:

SOSCILI told us the dance moves may have originated from Tecktonik, a hip-hop mashup dance that started in the streets of Paris and spread mostly via YouTube. We watched this video of Tecktonik dancing and ya wor, betul-betul same moves.

Anyway, these kids must take their sub-culture very seriously if they practice so hard to achieve that perfect squid-like fluidity. Unfortunately, the rest of Malaysia can’t…

Srsly. People bomb these kids left, right, center

Aiyo kesian these kids. We all know haters gonna hate right, but the amount of hate ravers are getting is enough to power a nuclear bomb. The majority of comments on social media have been negative, some downright mean, at the same time quite funny. Someone even disliked it enough to purposely spend time creating and managing a Twitter account called Hapuskan Sotong, which has 16.1k followers.

However, it’s not ALL hate, there have been people trying to smooth ruffled feathers. Even if some commenters don’t necessarily like the sotong dance, they choose not to spread the hate. They said these kids weren’t harming anyone so let them be la. It’s probably just how youngsters like to express themselves, they’re just having fun, etc.

Aiya give them a break laa. Some of us oso follow our own trends what 😛

Whatever we may think of the ravers’ sotong dance – cool, lame, funny, yucky, embarrassing – tastes are subjective and not everyone will share the same opinion. Sometimes not everybody is going to like what you do and that’s fine.

Besides, we know that trends and cultures are always changing anyway, so it won’t be long before this one fades into oblivion. Heck, what if the next trend that replaces this one is more cringey? Then we’re so gonna wish that the sotong dance would come back. 😆 People will always come up with creative new ideas and others will follow.

Remember in the 70s everyone wanted to be so hippie with their BeeGees hair cut and bell bottoms and anti-establishment attitudes. Then in the 80s it was shoulder pads, neon leotards, and Rick Astley. In the 90s and early 2000s it was boy bands, Juicy Couture baju, choker tattoos, yo-yos. And then there were sub-cultures like skinhead, punk, goth, emo, you name it. In fact, some of the things we do today might be considered lame by our kids in the future. 😛

So yeah, maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on these kids? At least they’re getting some exercise! One day when they grow up, they might look back on their raver days and cringe, or maybe they might look back on those days fondly and regret nothing. Live and let live.