Flashing lights, EDM, and dance: what other ways to describe club culture? KRUX Underground, a rave-style event held by NMSU’s student-run radio station, KRUX 91.5 FM, had all this and more on Dec. 4, emphasizing how club and rave culture provide a space for college students to thrive.
One of the most important aspects of club culture is dance. Historically, dance is a way to express yourself, create art, and connect with others. At KRUX’s event, the sentiment was no different.
“I think that dancing with people, is like, the most innate human thing that we can do to connect with each other,” KRUX Music Director Adara Walker said. “It crosses every language barrier, every physical barrier. Dancing is so important.”
Dance, however, wasn’t the only medium for expression that night.
Hand-in-hand with a sprawling dance floor, the event had student DJs, offering a creative outlet through music and highlighting underground artists. Amongst college students, music works like dance as a tool of expression and bonding between classmates.
“Music, at least for me, really is my most creative aspect of myself,” KRUX DJ Trenton White said. “Like, it’s what I care about more than movies or TV shows, and so being able to just dance, have fun with other people, really allows me to be myself.”
For many students, high-energy experiences like KRUX Underground bring attention to something they feel is lacking on campus.
While dance and music hold such a high level of importance in the hearts of college students, many agree that universities, such as NMSU, should provide more spaces for it. One of KRUX’s goals, Walker said, is to provide that space.
“We don’t have this here at all,” Walker said. “There’s no space for you to just dance. There’s no space for this type of music. We get like, a lot of AC [Adult Contemporary] and country, and as KRUX, we put on a lot of like, funk and rock stuff. There’s no space for this until you create it. I think it’s really important that you create those spaces if you want them.”
Still, even when the space exists, many students struggle with the vulnerability that comes with expressing themselves publicly. In a world where your image holds such high importance, the action of dancing and sharing music could be seen as embarrassing; a sentiment that members of KRUX hope to dispel.
“For anyone out there that is like, scared to be who they are shamelessly, I would say forget about the eyes of the world,” KRUX Programming Director and KRUX Underground DJ, Lilliana Ruvalcaba, said. “People are going to be looking all the time, and if you’re, like, ashamed to be who you are and let your light shine, then how are you ever going to find people like you? Because you’re never alone.”
