most people who were teenagers in Europe during late 1980s / early 1990s have hazy memories of at least some of those years. That is not due to drugs, that we are getting senile any earlier or they were that badly treated back then and want to forget it all (although some who are now parents might not want to admit 100% what they got up to to their own teenage children). We simply didn’t have the resources to document much of our earlier youth culture; what remains of it are things like vinyl gramophone records and a few surviving videos and audio tapes (unfortunately magnetic tape deteriorates with age if not stored properly).
The rave music scene’s association with drugs means there was also an understandable paranoia about any sort of cameras or recording equipment being brought into music events other than by trusted folk; and decent kit was bulky and heavy too. there were some licensed “youth radio stations” (and numerous pirates) as well as various paper magazines but their distribution range was normally limited to the regions they came from (and in the local languages).
About the only thing which did get across borders (other than drugs) were records and various equipment for making music/noise with; something to do with “EU/free trade” agreements. the record shop was often laundering the pill money and 90% of anyone associated with was on all sorts of stuff (and/or selling it too); at least until it got so sketchy the cops got involved. Some countries like Belgium and many regions of England have airbrushed the entire rave culture out of mainstream history due to the shame associated with it (especially as the fallout from drugs heavily impacted middle class families).
The big events that still go on in NL / DE / FR and some bits of UK are now nearly all in shitty deprived areas of the countries usually near a coast or tidal river but without active container ports so the local economy is dependent on their revenue. They were never as good as the original warehouse/squat parties anyway.
We had Internet from about 1994 in most countries but it wasn’t easy to use or usable for sharing good quality audio and video until about 2001. it was quicker to send the physical media by post. By then, other from records and maybe a few carefully hoarded tapes and magazines (and sound equipment, now vintage gear) a lot of the history has been accidentally or deliberately lost.
I can understand why many younger people think “old skool rave music” starts from 1997-2001 rather than 1989-1992; in some respects EDM in Europe is becoming much like the pirate radio subculture in NL / DE border areas (if you listen to these the DJ’s play tracks from the late 1960s until the early 1990s and often span two generations).
