This dissertation seeks to place the emergence of the Acid House subculture at the turn of the 1980s into the context of Thatcher’s deindustrialisation campaign in the North of England. I argue that this campaign created a ‘dystopic’ environment for the youth of the time, raised in an atmosphere of unemployment, violent strike action and a loss of masculine identity. When we consider the Acid House explosion within the North of England, I argue that it can be seen as a direct response to deindustrialisation, with the subculture acting as a ‘utopia’ and a way in which the youth were able to escape and resist the burdens placed on them as a result of said deindustrialisation. Following this, it will be argued that the Acid House subculture elicited an authoritarian and violent response from the government, reminiscent to that of the miners’ strike seen just a few years prior, characterised by violent police action and a demonisation within the press. I argue that the persistence of Acid House, despite this harsh opposition, through a militarisation of the movement and an alliance with the New Age Travellers, demonstrates the youth refusing to accept this wrongful and extreme application of Thatcherite power. Ultimately, this positions Acid House and the rave culture that followed, as a continuation of working-class protest, born out of Thatcherism and early 1980s deindustrialisation.
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