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I'll give you some tips:
tip #1: Go to sites like this one (there are all sorts of them, like di.fm and trance.nu and trancecritic.com et. al.) and pour over what the DJs and trance lovers are listening to. Look especially at LISTS! Every amateur trance DJ on these forums LOVES to post his "top 10 records of the month". Look also at magazines like mixer, mixmag, etc....for their "top 10 trance tracks". Hell, google up "trance record charts" for other top 10s, top 20s, and top 40s. Hell, I think Billboard even has one, though I think they call it the "top dance records" or something.
Okay, after reading all these charts and top10s, you know what you do? DON'T BUY THESE RECORDS!!! Immediately make a blacklist, and put any record on it that shows up on at least three or more of these lists. You don't want these records, because remember: as you look up these lists, so are thousands of other DJs. By the time you get ahold of them, they will have been played out, left for dead, and your record collection will be subsumed into a mass of market conformity and boring averageness. You don't want that, unless you plan on playing for noobs and tweakers and bigname fanboys, in which case they won't care what you play, so long as it's by Tiesto (or it's something Tiesto played once).
tip #2: Trance is a huge genre. You have to decide what part of trance you want to play. I won't go into the 60 bazillion or so genres, but there are generally about 5 big styles that have crafted their own sub-niches. It's alright to change genres and styles in your set, but most trance listeners don't like that. They hate variety. If you're going to be a trance DJ, make sure your sets are all one style or feeling. The 5 sub-niches of trance are:
Euro
Prog
Psy
Industrial
Hard
Euro is the cheesiest of the scenes. In fact, in most cases, it's technically not even trance anymore, but rather an extension of eurodance and handbag eurohouse that dominated the club scene in the 90s. You could pretty much play Eiffel 65 in a set and no one would blink. This is marred by a horrendous formula whereas every track has a breakdown lasting 1-3 minutes (which usually starts at the 96th bar--yeah, this shit is that predictable), a huge snare roll, and then a crescending anthem. Without fail. It gets boring and tired really quickly, but the punters love it.
Prog is probably technically not trance either, but a mishmash of house with some dub-like reverb and heavy, layered instrumentation. It is essentially the anti-euro music, which instead of assaulting the masses with ridiculous bombastic fanfares and anthems, lulls them to sleep with a repetitive, monotonous groove and subtle changes. Only get into this if you like house as well.
Psy is the trippiest form of trance, and in some cases the only true form of trance left. Only play this if you don't mind the smell of pachouli, fractal art, blacklight, hindu and middle eastern mythology and other crap about consciousness expansion, psychedelic drugs and reaching up into the skygates. If you aren't into this now, don't bother.
Industrial trance is the poppy, more 4/4 side of the goth/industrial scene, almost exclusively relegated to rivethead shows, and the people all wear chain mail, black clothes, and have celtic rune tattoos. Harder and grislier. If you have no interest in the industrial scene, don't get into this either. Unless you don't mind music about five year plans and the failure of the system and how much of a fallen angel you've become.
Hard trance, otherwise known as Hard Dance, is a pounding, sonic force, great for jibtek warriors and perfect for raves. Barely sounds like trance either, is good for a song or two, but don't play it if you get headaches easily or bored quickly. Or if you don't like raves.
So there you go. if you want to know what most of the world enjoys, its the euro style. 99% of all the track recommendations on these boards will beof the euro style. If I may offer a tip, though: stay the fuck away from any track with vocals in it. *shudder*
Tip #3: There is one other sharp division in trance. This is more historic than sonic, but it's important distinction. I refer to this line as the "Children" line. It occurred around about late 95/early 96.
See, before this period, trance was an acquired taste, an unresponsive, weird, warped style of music marred by excessive creativity, craftsmanship, and expression. It could literally put you into a trance, hence its namesake. It brought forth the idea of the unresolved, infinite track, a harkening to its roots in minimalist theory spurned by Reich and Cage and the like. The people who listened to it were avant-gardists, people seeking to escape the modern album-oriented format, to seek a less packaged, less formal, less structured approach to music. They found it in trance.
After this line, named after the eponomous single by Robert Miles, trance became pop friendly. Soccer moms and grandmothers were listening to it. Trance was reformed into a series of pop jingles and sing-a-long melodies, as deep and involving as parental supervision would allow. In effect, after this point trance became the very antithesis that it was in the first place.
And it's basically been like that ever since. Not that you should care about this, anyhow. Just thought you'd like to know.
tip #4: you spin top40 and hip hop? Okay, that's going to be a bit of a problem. See, trance lovers don't like it when you do too good of a job DJing. Don't mix up or splice any of your tracks. And definitely don't beat juggle. They just like the standalone songs. So try and let each record play out, and only mix into the next one at the last bar. You're pretty much nothing more than a human jukebox. Don't play around with the levels on the mixer either. JUST. PLAY. SONGS. Back to back. Each 12" is about 6-8 minutes long, so you should only go through about 12-15 records tops in an average set. You might think this sounds a big boring, but trust me: trance lovers hate it when DJs mess up their favourite songs by playing them at a different pitch or mixed with something else. The crazy thing is they'll think you're a god for doing so!! If you get bored, just jump up and down and wave your arms in the air. They love that.
There's more, but I guess I'll stop now. This is long enough, and I gotta run.
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Trance Newbie
Anti-Purple Alliance.
