Trance music

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Template:Genrebox Trance is a style of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 160 bpm, featuring repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track, often crescendoing or featuring a breakdown. Sometimes, vocals are also utilised. The style is arguably derived from a combination of largely techno and house as well as being heavily influenced by Goa trance. Trance got its name from repeating and morphing beats and melodies which would presumably put the listener into a trance but because the music is almost always played in nightclubs at popular vacation spots and in inner cities, one could argue this style of music would be better known as club music.

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History

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Origins

Early electronic art music artists such as Klaus Schulze have proven to be a significant influence on trance music. Throughout the 1970s Schulze recorded numerous albums of atmospheric, sequencer-driven electronic music. Also, several of his albums from the 1980s include the word "trance" in their titles, such as the 1981 Trancefer and 1987 En=Trance.

Elements of what became modern club music also known as trance music were also explored by industrial artists in the late 1980s. Most notable was Psychic TV's 1989 album Towards Thee Infinite Beat, which featuring drawn out and monotonous patterns with short looping voice samples and is considered by some to be the first trance record. The intent was to make sound that was hypnotic to its listeners, this would also lead to a strain of trance known as Euphoria being developed which caused an uplifting sensation among its listeners who became somewhat euphoric during listening.

These industrial artists were largely dissociated from rave culture, although many were interested in the developments happening in Goa trance which is a much 'heavier' sound than what is now known as trance. Many of the trance albums produced by industrial artists were generally experiments, not an attempt to start a new genre with an associated culture -- they remained firmly rooted culturally in industrial and avant-garde music. As trance began to take off in rave culture, most of these artists abandoned the club style.

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Trance begins as a genre

Main articles: acid trance, Goa trance

The earliest identifiable trance recordings came not from within the trance scene itself, but from the UK acid house movement, and were made by The KLF. The most notable of these were the original 1988 / 1989 versions of 'What Time Is Love' and '3AM Eternal' (the former indeed laying out the entire blueprint for the trance sound - as well as helping to inspire the sounds of hardcore and rave) and the 1988 track 'Kylie Said Trance'. Their use of the term 'pure trance' to describe these recordings reinforces this case strongly. These early recodings were markedly different from the releases and re-releases to huge commercial success around the period of the 'White Room' album (1991) and are significantly more minimalist, nightclub-oriented and 'underground' in sound.

The trance sound beyond this acid-era genesis is said to have begun as an off-shoot of techno in German clubs during the very early 1990s. Frankfurt is often cited as a birthplace of Trance. Some of the earliest pioneers of the genre included DJ Dag (Dag Lerner), Oliver Lieb, Sven Väth and Torsten Stenzel, who all produced numerous tracks under multiple aliases. Trance labels like Eye Q, Harthouse, Superstition, Rising High, FAX +49-69/450464 and MFS Records were Frankfurt based. Arguably a fusion of techno and house, early trance shared much with techno in terms of the tempo and rhythmic structures but also added more melodic overtones which were appropriated from the style of house popular in Europe's club scene at that time. This early music tended to be characterized by hypnotic and melodic qualities and typically involved repeating rhythmic patterns added over an appropriate length of time as a track progressed.

At about the same period of time in the late 1980's and early 1990s, a musical revolution was happening in Goa, India. Electronic body music (EBM) bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Front 242 came to Goa and began influencing artists like Goa Gil, Eat Static, Doof, and Man With No Name who heard the psychedelic elements of EBM, expanded on them minus the vocals and guitars to create Goa trance. Goa music is heavily influenced by Indian culture and psychedelic drugs, as seen in numerous references to both in track and album titles.

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The sound of modern trance

Main articles: progressive trance, anthem trance

By the mid-1990s, trance, specifically progressive trance, which emerged from acid trance much as progressive house had emerged from acid house, had emerged commercially as one of the dominant genres of dance music. Progressive trance set in stone the basic formula of modern trance by becoming even more focused on the anthemic basslines and lead melodies, moving away from hypnotic, repetitive, arpeggiated analog synth patterns and spacey pads. Popular elements and anthemic pads became more widespread. Compositions leaned towards incremental changes (aka progressive structures), sometimes composed in thirds (as BT frequently does). Buildups and breakdowns became longer and more exaggerated. The sound became more and more excessive and overblown. This sound came to be known as anthem trance.

Immensely popular, trance found itself filling a niche as 'edgier' than house, more soothing than drum and bass, and more melodic than techno, something that makes it accessible to many people. Artists like Paul van Dyk, Ferry Corsten, and Armin van Buuren came to the forefront as premier producers and remixers, bringing with them the emotional, "epic" feel of the style. Meanwhile, DJs like Paul Oakenfold, DJ Tiësto, and DJ Jean were championing the sound in the clubs and through the sale of pre-recorded mixes. By the end of the 1990s, trance remained commercially huge, but had fractured into an extremely diverse genre. Some of the artists that had helped create the trance sound in the early and mid-1990s had, by the end of the decade, abandoned trance completely (artists of particular note here are Pascal F.E.O.S. and Oliver Lieb).

Perhaps as a consequence, similar things were happening with the DJs as well. For example, Sasha and Digweed, who together had helped bring the progressive sound to the forefront, all but abandoned it by 2000, instead spinning a darker mix of the rising "deep trance" and "tech-trance" style they pioneered along with producers and DJ's like Slacker and Breeder. Sasha and John Digweed might argue that their 2000 release "Communicate" not be called trance at all.

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Trance in the mainstream

As trance has entered the mainstream it has alienated many of its original fans. As the industry became bigger, companies (especially Ministry of Sound) and DJs began to alter their sound to that of a more pop based one, so as to make the sound more accessible to an even wider, and younger, audience. Vocals in particular are now extremely common in mainstream trance, adding to their poppy sound.

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Musicology and styles

Trance is a form of music best characterized by quarter note drum patterns, and 16th/32nd note rhythm synthesizer patterns. It has a meter of 4/4, with a quarter note bass drum acting as metronome, and quarter note high-hat hits on upbeats. This unwavering drum mechanism may be constantly tweaked with for effect, with the Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release (ADSR) all given liberal treatment. The tempo is generally around 130-160 beats per minute (bpm).

The arrangement consists mostly of a repeating 16th note sequencing arpeggio, and a bass section of whole notes usually drifting through the aeolian or natural minor scale. Harmonic structure is typically minimalist, with often no more than 2-4 chords. Iterations of the i-iv-v progression (A minor, D minor, and E minor, for example) lend a dark feel by eschewing major chords entirely. Additional rhythm sections are added and subtracted every 16 measures (sometimes 8, and sometimes 32) to add weight and anticipation to the composition. The bass chord will usually change every 4 measures.

There is a lead synth, and it will be a simple minor scale melody of 8th notes, looping every 4 measures (some have 2, some have 8. Some even have 16). Trance is produced with keyboards, computerized synthesizers, drum machines, and music sequencer software connected via MIDI. The average trance song has a polyphony of 8. The most busy will have 16.

Some sub-genre classifications of trance include:

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Notable trance records

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  • Last train to trancecentral by The KLF
A classic rave-era, UK progressive breaks track that also defined a huge part of trances later sound, direction and high prooduction values.
The classic trance record which very probably officially gave a name to the genre in Germany, where the sound was first emulated and produced by subsequent German artists, and played in underground clubs and raves; never alone, but always with another genre of electronic music, as the DJ's back then never played only one style of music.
  • Open your mind by Usura
Has become one of the most well known trance tunes of all time. Remains one of the most popular and energetic trance records to this day sprouting off numerous remixes.
Perhaps the first hard trance track, at least the first well known one, with a very deep bassdrum and possibly one of the most recognisable melody lines in trance music.
An early trance classic it defined a style and a sound that continued for a decade. Paul van Dyk continues to play it.
A powerful dream trance/house hit that has received acclaim from critics both inside and outside trance. This is a song which has introduced many music lovers into the world of dream trance and is widely considered one of the greatest trance songs of all time.
A widely-accepted classic. Example of progressive trance. Composed in thirds, the structure of this tune represents the evolving, progressive structure of mid-1990s progressive trance.
An epic trance monster that took Binary Finary (producers Matt Laws and Stuart Matheson) worldwide within a year and became an all time classic overnight. Famously influenced by goa and psytrance.
Widely considered to be one of the greatest anthems of progressive trance, as well as a perennial favorite in Ibiza. Still played by many DJs to this day.
This track blew up on the Finnish, UK and US club scene and helped bring recognition to Hard Trance. Darude originally found fame as an online unsigned band on the now demised mp3.com site.
This uplifting, epic track was produced by the British DJ Nick Bracegirdle and is widely regarded as one of the greatest trance singles ever.
This track is probably the highlight of Global Underground 13: Ibiza, arguably the best GU album that was released at the height of popularity of progressive trance.
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External links

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Trance News Portals

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