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What is Trance?

I went to an industry exhibition today for DJ's and producers and labels and the sort and it's got me all confused.
I went round to all of the record labels giving away my CD of my tracks, and had a chat with most of them.
Most of the conversations went as such:

Label: "So what genre are you?"

Me: "Trance"

Label: "Oh we're not really doing trance any more, no one's buying it"

Me: "Oh"

It was at this point I got confused, as at one of these label stands there were 2 big Gabriel and Dresden posters, and at a couple of others they said they were more into stuff like Above and Beyond.

"Wait a sec" I was thinking... "I THOUGHT THAT WAS TRANCE?!?!"

So what I need someone to clarify for me is:
1) According to todays classifications, what is trance? (Artists/tracks??)
2)If Gabriel and Dresden/Above and Beyond arnt Trance what are they? They must be some subcatagory of trance surely?!?

N.B. I know Gabriel and Dresden are quite housey (do some call it Progressive???) but if I had two hats called House and Trance I'd put them in the Trance hat.

N.N.B. I personally don't understand when people say Gabriel and Dresden are House. Their remix os Adain's "Beautiful Things" is one of the most sublime trance tracks ever.....


Please help me....I thought I knew all these genres inside out...it feels like the goal posts have moved!!

Cheers..

Confuddelled Phil - Oh and if someone could tell me what genre my tunes are that would be helpful for approaching labels.....! www.myspace.com/philhiett

If A&B isnt trance, then nothing is

It's just that trance has become a dirty word. When they ask you what kind of music you make, never say trance. Always come up with some stupid and needlessly complicated name that sounds more marketable... like Dark Atmospheric Uplifting Hard Tribal-tech Progressive-Electro Techno-House

^^^^ lol

lol

id class some of my early work cheap hard trance lmao

quote:

Originally posted by Thois If A&B isnt trance, then nothing is

If by that you mean euro/pop-trance then I agree.

"Trance" is definitly too general.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trance_music

Just look at all the styles listed in that.

I think someone just went overboard trying to catogorize the different types and just made a headache...

LOL at the bottom..

quote:

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by Daft Punk Arguably one of their best songs ever.

Hahaha.. I'm fond of daft punk.. but LOL.

Anyone who knows anything knows daft punk is house. =)

Trance is not a general term. It is very specific. Think of what the word means and how you would go about inducing a trance.

Trance is repetitive by design, doesnt break for any significant length of time and usually consists of very fast 1/16ths and 1/32nds, usually in arpeggios. The point is that trance is like a weave of instruments and interlocking notes, usually played at short intervals. Beyond that anything else is stylistic. But at the root of it, it has to be repetitive. It has to be subliminal/hypnotic.

This will always be a niche market. It always was except for a brief moment in the late 90s when it was still sort of cool to appear on TV mashed off your face or completely out of it.

I dont see how Andain - Beautiful Things (G&D Remix) is trance. For a start it has a breakbeat and breaks down for half the track. And it has sung vocals which have never really been a part of trance music.

I dont especially like that tune but I can see why people do. It certainly has more massmarket appeal and more pop sensibility than trance does, at least these days anyway. Most of the people I know tend to think of us psytrancers as smelly hippies that like tripping on acid to repetitive bleepy music on our dad's allowance. That rep is undeserved but...it just aint cool.

quote:

Originally posted by Derivative For a start it has a breakbeat.

No it doesn't.

You have to admit the bass guitar is pretty cool

That song is more on the house side that trance, even the non Gabriel & Dresden mix.. (who are pretty much exclusivly undergorund house..)

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery No it doesn't.

It doesnt? I could swear it does :I

I think on beatport TRANCE has sub-genres!

but i think trance can be most edm that puts your mind in a trance!

quote:

Originally posted by Derivative It doesnt? I could swear it does :I

Nope

I was in an EDM IRC chatroom a while back, and was informed by several of the people there that Trance was dead. So Trance is dead I thought, well damn, I had just started producing trance. I didn't really believe them though. They were saying that nowadays it's all about D&B, breaks, and house. Well, something like that.

The most popular channel on Digitally Imported is the Trance channel, so that should tell you something. Anyway, I can't stand how Trance is broken up into a mind numbing array of sub genres, it's so ridiculous. I've never seen so many sub genres in any other style of music.

I think maybe the reason "trance" is now a dirty word is because it is associated with the Trance from the late 90's. They just want to put a new label on it to make it sound like something new and fresh. For a while "progressive" was the term I heard a lot, I don't hear it much anymore though.

Sorry to be a pain in the arse, but if you had asked the labels in the first place, you would have got a much better answer!

quote:

"trance" is now a dirty word is because it is associated with the Trance from the late 90's.

and cause of shit like Dj Sasha.

Ha I hear that

I'll agree that A&B is trance but don't you try and tell me that G&D is trance, they are more house that anything. Their mix of Beautiful things is definently not trance.

I'm just wondering what labels u were talking to. There are plenty of labels that push out trance, just do a litle digging, and if your track is dancefloor friendly all the better.

Is anything on my website trance? and if so, what style? and are there tracks that need to be in other categories?

Me soundclick page

as aquarian said.... trance is a dirty word. it was dirtied by acts like alice dj and ian van dahl. the year of trance was great however, these days it is like when people say 'trance', the stupid 'rockers/r+b homie' people automatically think of these dated sounds from 99/2000. i think even sending a demo with 'trance' on it to spinnin, armada etc would put them off before even listening. a better selection of words would be 'progressive, tech, melodic prog etc etc etc... because i think the work 'trance' brings to mind a dated sound that has lost its popularity. trance does exist in a more underground situation... but is a lot of the time mixed in with more 'commercial and electro/tech' sounding tracks..

examples would be svd.... he mixed on bbc radio 1 recently. now his sound will be big 'commercially' soon. house is now dieing down and rock/r+b are way past their peak.

i have never heared a+b djing but i will next friday. and i bet they will be tech based in their set. no one in the uk seams to dance to uplifing 'trance' anymore....

and trance will get back to big status. people thinking drum and bass will last much longer are in a dream world. it past its peak quite some time ago. i think the moment a genre gets to a place where people say it is big then it is already on a downward slope imo

quote:

Originally posted by richg101 i think the moment a genre gets to a place where people say it is big then it is already on a downward slope imo

Yea. Once you blow your load all you have left is dirty residue.

quote:

Originally posted by DJFreaq Yea. Once you blow your load all you have left is dirty residue.

thats so so true

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