I've spoken to an A&R of major label some time ago ( he was at my university talking about mass media and stuff and you could ask him questions ).

He told me that dance music isn't a mysterium any more. Every one can just download some software ( public domain and wxrez )and start producing. Some people just send their very first tries or music maker arrangements to the labes, which get tons of crappy worse produced demos all the time.

There is an impressive quantity of electronic music in these days.
I guess there are about 5 - 15 new "productions" in the tranceaddict amateur section every day and this only one forum on the whole internet.

As time goes by production will become even more easily than now. Many amateur producers try to copy the style of famous artist, use the same and similar melodies and arrangements. The results is a music, which is not very original or well produced in general.

What do you think ? Is the new production culture involving now thousands of amateur producers ( from who 90% will stay on amateur level till they give up and change their hobby )responsible for the decline of dance / trance music ?

Trancevision

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I think trance is on the decline because "professional" producers are producing crap lately.

i think so. their are talented individuals out there, but there is a lot of crap being signed as well...a lot of that talent is wasted because people don't give a damn about the tune as long as its signed. i don't wanna point any fingers at anyone because that would be rude...but even a lot of the people that are considered professionals nowadays have really amatuerish sounding, unoriginal songs. people are falling into a certain sound and its just crippling. i mean, especially the prog trance sound and the big synth sound. people producing those soft atmospheric tracks really don't impress me. the sound has been beat to death by the over use of it. i mean when it first came out...it was awesome...but its really been destroyed. very seldomly does a track with that feel impress me anymore. the big trancers of today are so formulaic its laughable. i mean, basically you have a producer lay down some simple procussion and then throw this huge synth over it and make up a horrible melody...most of the time the melodies aren't even very enjoyable. its things like this that force people into different genres and towards bashing these genres. maybe if people were actual artists and could distinguish themselves from the crowd, they wouldn't catch so much flack.

music production is a form of art and like all kinds of art requires a talent - maybe some of those kids who downloaded the free or warezed software and tried their luck have the talent - officely most don't. you can't classify someone as a professional producer unless he did some production, in other words the case is that unless someone gets a chance to produce he can't be professional. now if the labels just get too many demos compared to what they got before its just a matter of choosing the best ones rather than publishing anything that comes on their way. we've seen a lot of newcomers in 2004, most of them are young without any background in music production who have managed to make some very interesting music which in par with some of the more "professional" productions if not better. are you suggesting these people should have never attempted to produce in the first place?

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Shoving all the responsibility on the producers is unfair. If the labels had kept up a decent quality control and filtered out all the shit they get sent instead of flooding the market with half baked crap, things wouldn't be as bad off as they are.

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I'm eagerly awaiting Laushinamee's reply to this

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no .. i think the reason for the decline is that the bar level to succeed is a little higher that usual, because of the mass success in the late 90's and early 2000's.. every major success has to have some kind of downnfall.. nothing can have major success forever..

it's all about how we feel about the music.. we expect the music to be a little better than the stuff we were addicted to before.. if the new music meets or is notch lower than our favs of the past, we consider it a bomb.. we should give dance music a chance to slide off for a bit while we settle our ears down, and then the music will come back to our ears..

also, it is our preferences in the type of music .. some may say it can be repetitive .. others say there is no beat to it .. we all have different tastes .. imo, dance music slid off a bit, but there are still some great songs out there.. doesn't bring the same type of energy as past classics, but still some good tracks out there..

quote:

Originally posted by Sand Leaper Shoving all the responsibility on the producers is unfair. If the labels had kept up a decent quality control and filtered out all the shit they get sent instead of flooding the market with half baked crap, things wouldn't be as bad off as they are.

+1

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