There used to be a time when Trance was very rhythmically involved, with various styles of melodic accompaniement. But in the last few years, it seems that the rift between Trance and Hard Trance has gotten wider than the average American.

Out of the chasm, on the side of Trance, comes this ungodly simplified version of music, which seems like a step backwards in the evolution of music, back to when white music was white and black music was interesting. For most of you, you might be thinking "what the hell is he talking about?". Quite simply, the basis of all modern forms of music comes from a genre of black, african-american musicking called "Minstrelsy".

The Minstrelsy was a form of rough music produced by String bands - bands made up of a guitarist, fiddler, gut-bucket player and a Banjo-strummer. The more successful bands toured quite a lot and that bought the slaves economic freedom (but not legal freedom). The Mistrelsy was a way for White Americans to be entertained by Black Americans not stuck in the cotton field. After slavery was abolished, The Minstrelsy carried on, but eventually evolved into new forms of music. The influence of Black on White, produced what was called Hillbilly and the roots-true version became "Race". It should be noted that "Race" technically wasn't any specific kind of music, it was just music made by coloured people. It should also be noted that "Race" was not a racist term back in it's day. Ironically, Hillbilly would eventually be considered racist - but modern musicologists are still not sure why that came to be, seeing as how Hillbilly bands were guys that took their ideas from the earlier Minstrelsy String bands.

If there was anything that Race music had, it was more variety and much better syncopation. In fact, drumming and rhythm was pretty much non-existent in white music, with the exception of the Tympany in Orchestral arrangements. It was with early experiments in Race music that Jazz and Blues slowly developed. Both with eventual developments in Progressive styles, where the structure of the music was a developing effort where each instrument got progressively more complex in their part, adding more and more to the performance.

Jazz and Blues would eventually cross over from Black Performers to White Performers as the styles got more popular. But in either case, not with a little sanitization first, to make it "white", for it's white audience. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the first time.

Years would pass, and a new form of music called "Rhythm and Blues" would appear, once again, originally black. However, something was different this time around... black music was being played on the radio. White kids were really digging this new fresh sound. It was raw and primal, yet with moments of refinement. It was emotional, it was syncopated, it really pissed off the adults! It was Rhythm and Blues! But there was a catch. RnB could only get airplay originally on Black Radio stations. White kids began tuning into these radio stations to hear this fresh sound. Eventually white radio stations began to catch on and realize they had to change their playlists to include RnB, but not say so.
That aside, some of those white kids that were tuning in, would eventually take on the spotlight themselves. Kids like Johnathan Cash (better known as Johnny Cash), Carl Perkins, Jerry Lewis (BKA Jerry Lee Lewis) and... Elvis Presley. Once again, the sound they were putting out was rehashing of previous hits, but somewhat sanitized, just not as much as before.
The use of Drums was slowly creeping it's way into White Music, and Drum kits would become very prominent in the 1960's as Rock and Roll developed into Rock.


///fast forward through the 1960s///

The 1970's saw a new movement. Disco. Disco was where rhythm took a giant leap forward and came to the forefront of a musical genre. Racial Barriers at this point had been broken down, and music was entering a period of seemingly free enterprise. Disco was everything that previous forms of music wasn't - or at least, wasn't to the same degree. It was energetic, danceable and great to rollerskate to.

However, Disco wouldn't survive for long, as it eventually died out as Punk music became force majeure in the early 1980's. However, Disco had the last laugh. The 1980's saw a form of music rise up, to extend Disco's legacy. It was New Wave. New wave was the antithesis of Punk. It was energetic, danceable, radio-playable and contained time-tested themes of love and regret and all that other great stuff.
But it wasn't without it's truely darkside. New Wave also spawned off subforms that would become known as Synthpop, Aggro, and Industrial -- all of which gained their own prominence and subsequent movements.
However, it was New Wave that made the most ripples in the pond, as it eventually evolved into Dance Music (or better known now as Euro).

Out of the synthpop scene came new forms as well. There, we saw the early forms of Techno and House begin to formalize themselves. but one... one alone is what brings is back to the beginning. Trance. An early cross -breed of House and Techno, it encorporated the rhythms of techno, with the softer melodies of tribal-flavoured house.

Trance through the 90's started evolving and it evolved fast. Several forms began to appear: Trance itself, Acid, Goa, Psychedelic, and Hard.
Goa and Psychedelic retained much of their early tribal feel, however, Psychedelic would later lose it, in favour of much more futuristic sounds. Acid-trance merely continued what House achieved, only at a faster BPM, and with synths. Trance proper and Hard Trance, both featured a basic scheme - Hit them with rhythms and then hit them with melodies. Artists from both sides weren't without a goal. To produce better and better music. To push the envelope, to test the limits.

Trance slowly became more and more progressive, while HardTrance went with a formula based on "hit them hard and then hit them hard again". Hardtrance became more and more rhythmically charged, even borrowing occasionally from other genre's like Gabber.
Trance proper became rhythmically layered, with subtle changes through it's tracks. It's goal was not only to take the listener on the journey but to play as background to that journey.

However, something went wrong. Trance started to devolve... it began to lose it's rhythmic intensiveness. It started to become more and more melodic. It lost touch with it's rhythm. It became pretty much kick drum and super strings. It's producers began to fail at testing the limits of the music lover's ear, but they began to excel at creating musical pablum.

Meanwhile, HardTrance was developing it's melodies further, it was also developing it's kick drum rhythms to be even more punishing than before. But the kick drum wasn't the only thing being tweaked, the accompanying rhythmics continued to become more complex, or varied.

Trance, proper, as we knew it, evolved into a weak shadow of it's former self, and slowly became to be known as Progressive. It would gain prominence amongst what we can refer to as neophytes, however the music was heavily sanitized for that exact reason. It was sanitized to make electronic music more palpatable for those who didn't know better, and would be no worse off if they were subjected to a few hours of Elevator Music.













Recommended reads:
Rockin' in Time - David Szatmary
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life - Brewster and Broughton
Popular Music in Theory - Keith Negus


p.s. for those who know real music... see you at Kool Haus, for DuMonde.

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Be mindful of where you step. A trap always awaits for your ignorant foot.