In the early 1990s, as the underground rave scene exploded from warehouses in Detroit and London to open fields in Los Angeles and Berlin, an unlikely but vital player helped fuel its rise: the airlines

At a time when the internet hadn’t yet connected global subcultures, it was the physical movement of DJs, record crates, and rave promoters that stitched the global rave map together — and they did it at 30,000 feet.

As DJs began gaining recognition outside their home cities, airlines became the literal vehicle for the global spread of electronic music. From record shop imports, to UK breakbeat artists jetting to LA, techno producers from Detroit flying into Berlin, the underground was becoming international — often on cheap, red-eye flights booked by scrappy promoters who were gambling everything on a night that might get shut down by sunrise. Unlike previous generations of traveling music acts, djs traveled lightly and did not require tour buses, roadies and moving countless pieces of equipment. DJs were perfectly positioned to be able to get booked and easily connected by means of the airlines.

Air travel also enabled ravers to follow their favorite artists across countries and continents. For the first time, electronic music culture was not just local — it was a global underground, stitched together by ticket stubs, crates of vinyl, and jet lag.