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Backlash against Trance is in vogue these days...
I'm noticing a very bad trend in dance music. Many popular DJ's have taken the view that it's cool to diss Trance music as "euro-crap" (even though they used to play it themselves!) and now spin sets completely free of melody. Somehow they truly believe that dance music can be good without exciting melodies.
John Digweed said in an interview, "I find many Trance records offensive." (I find his progressive house offensive, but that's another story.)
Apparently "big tunes," with captivating melodies and breathtaking synths, are not "cool" anymore. Well that's too bad since the quality of Trance is deteriorating quickly. No wonder many people say "trance is dead" nowadays.
Have you heard any other famous DJ's dissing Trance? What pathetic idiots!
Re: Backlash against Trance is in vogue these days...
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Eugene Apparently "big tunes," with captivating melodies and breathtaking synths, are not "cool" anymore. Well that's too bad since the quality of Trance is deteriorating quickly. No wonder many people say "trance is dead" nowadays. Have you heard any other famous DJ's dissing Trance? What pathetic idiots! |
I havn't heard anybody saying stuff like that, but I'd imagine they're talking about the state trance is in at the moment. And in part I'd agree. I mean, there have been some great tracks released this year but what percentage are real classics? Will any of them be remembered in years to come? Of course there have been a lot of great tunes recently, but compared to the mid-nineties there's not much to get excited about. And compared to 1998/1999 there's no contest! I think Trance as we know it is just getting old, there's nothing new, it's all been done before and whenever anything half decent is released it's ass-raped and played on the radio 24/7 until you can't bear to listen to it any more.
Then on the other hand we've got prog., which while not "new" is by no means "old". It's something that hasn't really been explored too much so it's no wonder that a lot of DJ's are starting to spin that kind of stuff, because it gives them a chance to be original and creative again. I personally love it anyway so I'm not too bothered.
I'm not saying epic/uplifting Trance is crap these days, and I doubt it will ever die, but I think it would probably do the scene some good to put it on the shelf for a while and have a bit of a breather.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Spad I'm not saying epic/uplifting Trance is crap these days, and I doubt it will ever die, but I think it would probably do the scene some good to put it on the shelf for a while and have a bit of a breather. |
Eugene - i totally know what ur on about...
it seems to be very "cool" if ur a dj to say u find trance immature. and unoriginal bla bla..
annoys me so much that the music i love more than anything is being killed by the media etc.. 
it's basically dj's just trying to be trendy and show how in touch with the music they are bla bla..
I would say that there is just as many tunes coming out this year as there was in 98/99, but it's not fashionable to listen to them anymore - weird?!? but... i think the tunes around now are amazing, but somehow different to ones from a few years ago... not quite sure exactly what it is, but people seem to be ignoring them now?
rest assured when i finally finish the tunes I'm working on - they'll be so good and uplifting that they'll spark a whole reinterest in the genre 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Rich rest assured when i finally finish the tunes I'm working on - they'll be so good and uplifting that they'll spark a whole reinterest in the genre |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Spad I think Trance as we know it is just getting old, there's nothing new, it's all been done before and whenever anything half decent is released it's ass-raped and played on the radio 24/7 until you can't bear to listen to it any more. |
""trance needs to evolve"" ""epic/uplifting style needs to be put on the shelves and take a breather"" ..... *sigh* First of all, ALL YOU GUYS SOUND LIKE A BUNCH OF POP/RAP/HIP-HOP FANS WHEN YOU MAKE COMMENTS LIKE THESE! I mean honestly, ''take a breather''?!? wtf? I don't know what you people are talking about, but I think there've been plenty of epic/uplifting tracks released this year (Souvenir De Chine, Urban Train, Flight 643, Lost Emotions 2001, etc...). Maybe you guys aren't as ''addicted'' as you thought. Maybe the only reason you listen to trance is to be 'cool' and be part of the 'in' crowd. Personally, I listen to trance because it makes me feel good. Not because it's ''hip'', that's just pathetic. You need to re-adjust your thinking before you start listening to 'Nsync and watching MTV just to see who made it to the top of TRL. Other than that, ''with its current status, Trance has nowhere to go but up''... unless people like YOU screw it up. PLUR
Re: Backlash against Trance is in vogue these days...
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Eugene I'm noticing a very bad trend in dance music. Many popular DJ's have taken the view that it's cool to diss Trance music as "euro-crap" (even though they used to play it themselves!) and now spin sets completely free of melody. Somehow they truly believe that dance music can be good without exciting melodies. John Digweed said in an interview, "I find many Trance records offensive." (I find his progressive house offensive, but that's another story.) Apparently "big tunes," with captivating melodies and breathtaking synths, are not "cool" anymore. Well that's too bad since the quality of Trance is deteriorating quickly. No wonder many people say "trance is dead" nowadays. Have you heard any other famous DJ's dissing Trance? What pathetic idiots! |
trance vs. bananas?
I totaly agree with everyone, I think what should be done, to keep epic scene alive is a balance of everything.
Let's take for example PVD, he does not spin just trance. He plays all kinds of electronic music. Techno/trance/electro and so on.
Have you noticed when there is too much of something it is not always good? The less the better is my opinion. I was born in Siberia (Russia) and the only time we had bananas or any other type of fruit was in the summer. I loved fruit it was my favorite food. No I live in North America for over 6 years and can't stand fruits, I barely eat them.
I think there always has too be a balance.
That's why I also love Armin Van Buuren so much.
But you can't forget Tiesto and Ferry because they have stayed true to them seves and made pure uplifting trance tracks through much of their carrer.
I also believe there is always a choice of what you listen. I personaly listen to epic because I like it. Do I really care what Digweed says about Uplifting trance? No, absolutely no, I am hurt by hearing shit like that, but fuck him. (No offence intended to any progressive addicts here) He has never spun uplifting, and I think it's a loss for him not us. He will never be able to hear and experice what a lot of us UPLIFTING/EPIC freaks love.
Dont listen to trance cause its trendy......
Dont move onto progressive just cause some DJ says "its the new kindof trance" dont start listening to progressive cause you think Uplifting/epic trance will die....cause if everybody does that....then it WILL die......as long as people listen to it....it will be there....as long as there is money in the bussiness producers will produce it.....Listen to progressive cause you like it.......who cares if the tunes are new or old.......as long as they are good......And to the one that said that there are no good uplifting tracks produced theses days....i have ALOT of them.....and whatabout the new Gouryella release after winter? U seriously think that would be a progressive realease? NO! it will be a classic!
And Souvenir de chine was also a big step for uplifting music...... What about Jan Johnston - Flesh? Isnt that a classic already? I love it....
Uplifting trance music wont die......let ppl say what they want.,.....listen to the music you like....not the music other ppl like.,....
Peace
DJs are turning away from this stuff because it all sounds the same and almost all tracks being labelled 'trance' are crap. even your 'trance god' paul van dyk refuses to be associated with the word 'trance', because its credibility has dived to new lows. i hardly hear any tracks these days that have a decent melody - nearly all of it is random keys pressed on the synth during the boring, predictable breakdown.
i was in the record shop today and they had just received a dutch shipment in. i listened to them all and every single record apart from 3 or 4 out of about 100 had the same old shit - loud synths with no melody, a breakdown that does nothing but bore you to tears and no differentiation to the song before. i get pissed off when i have to constantly waste my time sifting through this crap (the shop was too and have decided to stop dutch shipments) to find the occasional good one. i sympathise with the big name DJ's that have to go through thousands of talentless promos to find something worthwhile and it isnt suprising to see everyone turning away from it.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Eugene In fact, here's another truth: It's always been difficult to find lots of CD's with good Anthems. Apart from the obvious Tiesto and Acosta offerings. So whenever someone says "let's put this aside, we've had enough," I disagree. Personally, I've had very little!! |
I think the problem is that many people associate trance with epic/uplifting, and therefore regards a shift in music-styles as the death of trance.
Actually "popular" trance has been bouncing from one genre to another over the years. In the early nineties we had what I would label as the original trance (music that would induce you in a trance-like state) with Jam & Spoon, Abfahrt etc. Then came the mid nineties where Goa was the big media-thing that everybody associated with trance, after that the golden years (according to me) with Sosa, 1998, Caf� del Mar - mainly german club music being associated with trance, and then in the late nineties epic/dutch-inspired trance.
Now it seems we're in a new transition period. Some will hate the new dominant style, some will love it, but remember that during all those years there were other types of trance than the most popular ones, and if you went looking for them you would find them.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Jukx 36 - 1 castles in the sky - ian van dahl 32 28 15 we come one - faithless 31 36 4 dance valley theme 2001 - system f 26 32 2 the sound of goodbye - perpetuous dreamer 21 19 8 such is life - rank 1 11 20 3 flight 643 - dj tiesto |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Eugene In fact, here's another truth: It's always been difficult to find lots of CD's with good Anthems. Apart from the obvious Tiesto and Acosta offerings. So whenever someone says "let's put this aside, we've had enough," I disagree. Personally, I've had very little!! |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by plastikE ""trance needs to evolve"" ""epic/uplifting style needs to be put on the shelves and take a breather"" ..... *sigh* First of all, ALL YOU GUYS SOUND LIKE A BUNCH OF POP/RAP/HIP-HOP FANS WHEN YOU MAKE COMMENTS LIKE THESE! I mean honestly, ''take a breather''?!? wtf? I don't know what you people are talking about, but I think there've been plenty of epic/uplifting tracks released this year (Souvenir De Chine, Urban Train, Flight 643, Lost Emotions 2001, etc...). Maybe you guys aren't as ''addicted'' as you thought. Maybe the only reason you listen to trance is to be 'cool' and be part of the 'in' crowd. Personally, I listen to trance because it makes me feel good. Not because it's ''hip'', that's just pathetic. You need to re-adjust your thinking before you start listening to 'Nsync and watching MTV just to see who made it to the top of TRL. Other than that, ''with its current status, Trance has nowhere to go but up''... unless people like YOU screw it up. PLUR |
) because I never want to join them at the cheesy 70s/80s bars they love to frequent.
Amen Leigh.
I'm sure I've discussed this in a different topic, but I used to love the mainstream euro-trance that you guys are talking about here. Started listening to it in probably 97 or something (when I was about 14) and listened to it and not much else for like three years straight. Now I think back to 1998 and think of all the truly great trance tunes there were: Binary Finary, Out of the Blue, Gouryella - I could go on for days. The sound was fresh and exciting and I couldn't get enough of it. But, for me, the sound grew old very quickly. Every man and his dog started ripping off the Rank 1/System F "sweeping-synths-followed-by-loud-breakdown" method and it all started to get very unimaginative and very boring in a hurry.
Can you guys name one trance track released in the past 12 months that's going to go down as a classic? I can't....... Urban Train? Not bad but nowt special. Flight 643? Nope, but bordering more on the side of prog anyway. Castles in the Sky? Can you spell euro-pap?
Trance, as you guys know it, is dead. The only producers left are simply cashing in late on a fad that peaked in 98, and there isn't much left to get excited about. PVD has moved on, Tiesto looks like moving on, Ferry Corsten's disappeared off the face of the planet. Now someone before was saying how trance needs to evolve? It already has/is.
Progressive is not some evil form of music that just came out of nowhere because people didn't think that "normal" trance was trendy enough anymore, and everyone listens to it - and they secretly hate it but play along just to look trendy - just because all the big dj's play it. Progressive is the next natural step. I've noticed that the majority of people arguing that mainstream euro-trance isn't dead are either American (where the club scene is three years behind anyway) or too young to have been listening to it for long enough to understand where I'm coming from.
Progressive is simply the direction that trance has to head in in order to survive. The big-synth euro stuff has become cliched and lost all of its original impact, whereas the progressive sound is fresh and exciting. To the people who are bagging progressive, have you actually tried listening to it? I mean apart from buying GU19, playing it once and then whinging about it? The majority of people who have actually gone out of their way to appreciate progressive (by hearing it in a club, downloading a wide variety of artists) end up preferring it to mainstream trance. I mean sure, in 3 years I may be sick of progressive and I'll have to take the next musical step, but for now progressive dominates my life and rocks my world. In the same way that trance did 2-3 years ago. But the music's evolved since then and so have I.
Anyways, instead of feeling threatened by progressive because its something slighty different, perhaps you could try listening to it and give it a chance instead of desperately clinging onto your collection of 98/99 trance anthems? I mean don't get me wrong, I still love trance and still listen to it. Binary Finary - 1998 is still my favourite track of all time. But, in my opinion anyway, that euro-trance phase is over and it really doesn't have anywhere left to go, without evolving into prog or some other genre. Too much of anything is a bad thing, and I think that trance has run its course. You can't flog a dead horse, and no matter how desperate you may be to keep the euro-trance genre going, I really don't think it has anything new to offer. Vive le musique de progressive.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Renegade "Can you guys name one trance track released in the past 12 months that's going to go down as a classic?" |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Renegade "Ferry Corsten's disappeared off the face of the planet." |
Well it's interesting you should mention Sovenir De Chine, because it illustrates my point perfectly. It's a nice track certainly, but nothing special because we've seen it all before.
Besides that, a lot of people would disagree that it's a particularly good track in the first place (there's a thread on these boards somehwere that says as much) and secondly I don't think I've seen this track mentioned on any other forum apart from this one, including by people on these boards who are self-confessed trance-fans. Now just because no-one else on any other board that I visit (HoM, P4DJs, Insomnia) has mentioned it, it doesn't mean that it's not a good track, just that it can hardly be considered a classic.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Renegade Can you guys name one trance track released in the past 12 months that's going to go down as a classic? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by mindshooter And to the one that said that there are no good uplifting tracks produced theses days....i have ALOT of them..... |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Leigh i get pissed off when i have to constantly waste my time sifting through this crap (the shop was too and have decided to stop dutch shipments) to find the occasional good one. i sympathise with the big name DJ's that have to go through thousands of talentless promos to find something worthwhile and it isnt suprising to see everyone turning away from it. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Renegade Amen Leigh. I'm sure I've discussed this in a different topic, but I used to love the mainstream euro-trance that you guys are talking about here. Started listening to it in probably 97 or something (when I was about 14) and listened to it and not much else for like three years straight. Now I think back to 1998 and think of all the truly great trance tunes there were: Binary Finary, Out of the Blue, Gouryella - I could go on for days. The sound was fresh and exciting and I couldn't get enough of it. But, for me, the sound grew old very quickly. Every man and his dog started ripping off the Rank 1/System F "sweeping-synths-followed-by-loud-breakdown" method and it all started to get very unimaginative and very boring in a hurry. Can you guys name one trance track released in the past 12 months that's going to go down as a classic? I can't....... Urban Train? Not bad but nowt special. Flight 643? Nope, but bordering more on the side of prog anyway. Castles in the Sky? Can you spell euro-pap? Trance, as you guys know it, is dead. The only producers left are simply cashing in late on a fad that peaked in 98, and there isn't much left to get excited about. PVD has moved on, Tiesto looks like moving on, Ferry Corsten's disappeared off the face of the planet. Now someone before was saying how trance needs to evolve? It already has/is. Progressive is not some evil form of music that just came out of nowhere because people didn't think that "normal" trance was trendy enough anymore, and everyone listens to it - and they secretly hate it but play along just to look trendy - just because all the big dj's play it. Progressive is the next natural step. I've noticed that the majority of people arguing that mainstream euro-trance isn't dead are either American (where the club scene is three years behind anyway) or too young to have been listening to it for long enough to understand where I'm coming from. Progressive is simply the direction that trance has to head in in order to survive. The big-synth euro stuff has become cliched and lost all of its original impact, whereas the progressive sound is fresh and exciting. To the people who are bagging progressive, have you actually tried listening to it? I mean apart from buying GU19, playing it once and then whinging about it? The majority of people who have actually gone out of their way to appreciate progressive (by hearing it in a club, downloading a wide variety of artists) end up preferring it to mainstream trance. I mean sure, in 3 years I may be sick of progressive and I'll have to take the next musical step, but for now progressive dominates my life and rocks my world. In the same way that trance did 2-3 years ago. But the music's evolved since then and so have I. Anyways, instead of feeling threatened by progressive because its something slighty different, perhaps you could try listening to it and give it a chance instead of desperately clinging onto your collection of 98/99 trance anthems? I mean don't get me wrong, I still love trance and still listen to it. Binary Finary - 1998 is still my favourite track of all time. But, in my opinion anyway, that euro-trance phase is over and it really doesn't have anywhere left to go, without evolving into prog or some other genre. Too much of anything is a bad thing, and I think that trance has run its course. You can't flog a dead horse, and no matter how desperate you may be to keep the euro-trance genre going, I really don't think it has anything new to offer. Vive le musique de progressive. |
| quote: |
Fire&Ice - Souvenir de chine I dont know if Jan Johnston - Flesh (Tiesto mix) was released this year but that IS a classic and its different from other trax.... |
Jukx
so you choose to like techno and move away from epic/uplifting. good for you. i've had the ''open-mindness'' to look through other genres, and i clearly see that epic isn't dead, neither is uplifting. i also listen to a lot of progressive, and that is far from dead (we've already come to that conclusion)...i've listened to techno, progressive, goa, psy, house, hard house, etc....i like epic the best (imho)....""TO EACH HIS OWN""
Although I basically agree (on this subject) with Renegade & Jukx, I think this is turning into a slating of uplifting fans. True, the repeating posts whining about the lack of new classics/quality-tunes is tiring, but on the other hand I know (I'm an Amiga-fan) how frustrating it can be when your true love and devotion is wasting away and you can't do anything about it and how you start bothering everybody with the unfairness of the situation.
I'm not sure my attempt to explain my position will be more succesful but here goes:
The genre is, although it might have a classic or two left in it, apparently wearing thin and creative people (the producers) is starting to look elsewhere for opportunities for development. Face it! That doesn't mean that uplifting is gone but that only a select few will continue producing it and as such the number of great tunes per time unit will drop. Basically the same pattern as can be observed with other subgenres of music such as brit-pop, jungle, hard rock etc.
Finally, the focus on progressive trance as the opposite of uplifting in terms of electronica is really not adequate. There's heaps of genres that are experiencing hey-days (or at least evolution) right now: Technolectropop (Tok Tok, Lexy & K-Paul, Westbam etc.), Techno (Adam Beyer, Chris Liebing), hard trance, minimalistic and so on. Try listening to some of it, you might like it.
trancaholic, I appreciate your understanding of these problems, and I commend you for your insights. Very good post. In fact all your posts are interesting.
At least that's better than saying "it's over, move on." The lamers who say that, have never actually appreciated the beauty and power of epic/uplifting, they always have their noses out for the "next thing" and don't stop to think about the music and feel it. For THEM, it was nothing more than some synth-lines and breakdowns, maybe a little catchy but that's it. (That's why you see them refer to epic/uplifting with these exact cliches, synths and drum rolls.) But for ME, and many others, it was much more. It was emotional music.
I for one HAVE experienced the uniqueness, beauty, emotionality and magnificent power of epic/uplifting. Maybe I've heard some anthems that you haven't. That's why I'm extremely upset. 
Eugene i dont quite get what side Ur on?
Well well......Since i dont know the release dates of my trax i cant say that they are new....but they just keep coming and coming......
Some sound the same...some dont....I get alot from TA Single section and they are ussually all good.....arent they new?
Am i the only one to consider Flesh as a classic?
Uplifting trance wont die if ppl dont stop listening to it......
It seems like some ppl just think:
"No uplifting track will be produced cause they are all the same and they are out of ideas so i better move on to progressive"
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