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| quote: | Originally posted by nefardec
base causes
- The rise of the internet/mass filesharing
- surburban white america influenced by tiesto/darude/oakenfold, etc
- loss of early 90s youth culture to culture of decadence and instant gratification and youtube
catalysts
- borders/chain store music sections/ commercial comps
- asot
- concert-style headliner events (summerstage, armin only, etc)
I would call it death as well, but maybe so everyone is on the same page it's better to call it a transformation.
This transformation can be looked at in many ways based on bias. For me the transformation of proper "trance" music into current "trance" music, is a sort of death indeed, the death of ideals, of culture, of sound, of musical values. What "trance" is currently is usually devoid of anything trance-inducing and more about the 'banger', the 'ch00n', and all of the melodrama that ensues... I have found seeing armin or pvd live a very unpleasant experience because I am always painfully aware of the reality of the concert/fist pump/fan boy orgy and the music doesn't let me lose myself.
What we are dealing with here I feel is more a result of a cultural change, and who is to blame is this new culture, and then the DJs and producers who began to sell their sound to this 'market'. It is a two way system of the transformation of the massive into the market and the iconoclast into the consumer.
Some of this new asot prog sound that comes out honestly has more to do with Target commercials and minivans than the counter-culture energy that permeated early trance clubs like e-werk and tresor, and of course things like love parade.
I believe you will understand that trance is essentially "dead", or let's say its children have eclipsed and effectively rubbed it out, if you watch these videos in sequence. Try to think about the "message" and the "meaning" in the videos and the music - they are directly related to cultural values.
[[ LINK REMOVED ]]
Major themes and imagery of video:
- Rotating computer-generated solids and landscape fly-overs
- Fall of the berlin wall
- Urban landscape/political landscape
- Community, cultural unity
- Empowerment of music as a force that embodies cultural ideas of unity, tolerance, futurism, and progressive values
- universal "tribal" ritual
particularly watch the mijk van dijk live part. god i would kill to have been a part of that
Trance?
Major themes and imagery of video:
- Scantily-clad women (objectified)
- Asses
- High Heels
- (s)Excess
- Objectifcation of music vis-a-vis "hit" radio track/anthem
Some things of course are still shared - PvD has always been melodic/anthemic, but the difference is when he was doing it in the early 90s it was not yet a commodity and also it was still more or less new. The vestiges of this culture still remain here today, but I hope you can realize that the ideals which shaped trance music are pretty much dead... |
^^^^For the record, this is not me, but it is EXACTLY what I would have said.
I actually blame Oakenfold. The first DJ who wanted to be a rockstar.
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