Could legislation aimed at stopping electronic music events actually improve the events and the music instead? With the current trends in music technology illustrated here on Controllerism.com, the idea is certainly plausible.

In December of 2010, California State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma introduced AB-74, a bill that would essentially make anyone who holds an event on California public property “at night that includes prerecorded music and lasts more than three and one-half hours,” guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to large fines. No DJ dance parties, in other words.

“The Anti-Rave Act” was later put on hold after heartfelt public outcry of a scale not seen since Herbert Ross’ classic 1984 musical-drama. One of the main criticisms against the bill was the vagueness of the wording. The Rave shall live on!

But perhaps the Rave is in need of refreshment and it’s time we move past the tried and true method of two turntables and a microphone, a format that has been in existence since 1947, according to Jimmy Savile’s autobiography.

DJs, by nature, play prerecorded music, but controllerists don’t necessarily have to. If the bill had passed and California turned into a strange Beaumontesque police state, the vague wording of the bill could have served as a clever loophole. It could have forced DJs to be more creative and invent new live acts to perform at parties, a result that would arguably be favorable.

“No officer, no prerecorded music here. Just good clean live music.”

In reality, that argument would probably not hold up in court, mainly because there is no clear definition of “prerecorded music” in the bill and no clearly defined difference between “prerecorded music” and prerecorded samples.  This is also not to say that raves aren’t already moving towards a more live-performance oriented format.

The idea that a legislative war on fun has the potential to completely backfire because of new music technology is simply an amusing idea to think about, and it shows that we have come a long way since Savile’s original DJ dance party.