Author(s): Matthew Collin

Music

From its first publication in 1997, "Altered State" established itself as the definitive text on dance culture. This new edition sees Matthew Collin revisit many of his interviewees from the original book, with hindsight casting a fresh eye on the heady events of the second summer of love. "Altered State" is the bestselling text on rave culture and acid house, written at the time of the election campaign of Tony Blair (which used an Ecstasy anthem as its musical theme), and the trial and acquittal of a 19-year-old for supplying the drug that killed Leah Betts. "Altered State" re-examines the causes and contexts, ideologies and myths of Ecstasy culture, dramatizing its euphoric narrative from peak experience to comedown and aftermath, and shedding new light on the social history of the most spectacular youth movement of the twentieth century.