quote:

Originally posted by RebeL9 what you talk about is the usual Armada, Anjunabeat etc candies. It's not PROGRESSIVE MELODIC. its the usual uplifting trance. Not progressive in any way. some people clearly have no clue what the progressive term is refering to and uses it in every other genre to make it sound remarkable or so.

What I am refering to is music that shifts. I've been trying to make this point over and over but I don't think you understand. I tried to make the point in that post you quoted that the stuff with big breakdowns is the epic stuff, not all the prog, but there is a lot of prog that does have breakdowns. What I mean by break is a shift, and that is done by a breakdown often to ease tension and then shift in direction. I used to think progressive referred to really forward thinking stuff, and it does in other cases, but with progressive trance i've come to refer to it also as the songs that have noticeable shifts in melody, beat whatever.

Epic is the stuff with the big breakdowns, but prog has breakdowns too! not as big or dramatic. Those two sub-genres are often in the midst of each other, thrown in together in sets, djs like AvB, Tiesto, Corsten, PvD, all the big name trance jocks, they play both, so thats where the confusion comes in for many people. What really is your definition of progressive melodic then? To me it refers to stuff like Mark Otten, some of PvDs earlier stuff (and some newer stuff), Probspot, older BT, some of Oliver Lieb's stuff, some Solar Stone, Tilt, Peter McCowan/Alucard, Derek Howell, Cassino & Laben, Benz & MD, Blue Room Project, James Holden, Geert Huinik's stuff, Blue Haze and others (I know some of this is also bordering on breaks too but I couldn't list every prog producer(s). These guys certaintly don't produce super epic stuff. If thats not prog what is it? If trance is not to progress, shift..like as in progressive trance, then its not progressive trance! It's the other stuff...that simple. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what i'm saying.

Oh and I'm not a huge fan of the big name DJs anymore, but I still like "some" of the artists they play and the artists signed to their label(s). I'm not into the really old trance either, I got into it around 98 when the uplifting fluff you talk about was popular. I was only 13 then so I wasn't apart of the club scene, still am not. I just find magic in the melodies and textures and feel of this music that I don't always find in other music. So you really need to understand where I am coming from with this stuff.

I will admit to the breakdown formula as being a cheap or easy way to make a transition so if more artists used but subtle breakdowns but still kept the energy and melody and magic in the music i'de be happy. If they loose this and go all to really dark, techy and super deep or minimal stuff, then I and I am sure a lot of other people would not be happy. That's not what many people i've encountered like, they want to feel for the music. I could go on and on like I do in these certain threads I participate in, but I will say one thing, and you all can flame me or tell me I don't know sh*t, but I don't feel trance music is just dance music, so maybe that is why my defense of these certain elements is so important to me personally. Trance has the potential to be no different than what rock music became, more than just music for your feet, as rock music was originally mostly (in the 50s and early 60s). Same thing for jazz....I feel trance is ART not just BEATS and BASS as some people find so fascinating about it, can't stand it when someone is like "that is f**in good bass!" Bass doesn't just make trance, EMOTION does. This is just what I think of trance as, as I have said earlier, trance means something different to me than what it might be to someone else. That doesn't mean what someone else likes is not trance. Trance has different feelings, different emotions, different things that it does for people. It's a subjective style of music, no different than a lot of music.

Last edited by Spirit5 on Jan-04-2006 at 06:49

One last thing before I hit the sack, Chicane is a good example of an artist who HAD potential to bring trance out of just being dance floor...club music and into truly listenable, trancedent music that was designed more for chilling than dancing (sure some of his stuff was dancey but not all). He even had some live shows I understand. That is where I think trance COULD go, not completely but if it were to get into the direction that rock went with slower, more singer song writer or arty type stuff (minus the song writer stuff, but you never know??) rather than really hip "dance" music as it was, it *could* take off as being the new rock of the 21st Century.