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This "over-commercialisation of current trance" that people say is just stupid to me. Trance could always venture to the commercial side, with diva and poppy vocals and stuff e.g. some tracks by Jam and Spoon had pop vocals among many others. Also those "Van Buurenesque"(and Above and Beyond-esque) poppy trance tracks were made like from 1997 or something (and the whole 90s euro-trance stuff were very commercial), do you remember tracks like "Toca's Miracle" in '99 and many tracks released in Perfecto, Xtravaganza, Positiva etc.? Do you remember that many producers "re-mixed" some of the good instrumental tunes in order to get commercial appeal? "Synaesthesia", "Perception" are some of the countless examples that come to mind (and Toca's Miracle mentioned before).
Some years, like 2001, were terrible years for trance, with tracks like Ferry Corsten's remix of "Castles in The Sky" getting good reviews by the press (!). The quantity of the epic-trance tracks that had vocals in 2001 was probably almost equal to the purely instrumental tracks, not to mention that the number of the tracks produced was very small (i have to say that some excellent instrumental tracks were released in 2001-2002 though like "Reflections" by Firewall and "Open Your Eyes" by Insigma. It was just that they were relatively rare in comparison to the number of tracks released in 98-99 and the number of tracks released after epic-trance's "come-back" in 2004).
There are still intrumental epic-trance tracks released, listen to Aurosonic's and Daniel Kandi's productions (among many others). If you listen with an "objective ear" (whatever that means) You'll probably discover that the production quality and even the melodic complexity is higher in comparison to older epic-trance tracks coming from 98, 99 and even up to 2004 and 2005.
The problem as i see it today is not so about the music per se. True is that the music hasn't evolved a lot (if at all), but then which musical genre evolved that much? You still get the same deep house and detroit techno today, only with better, more polished production techniques (funny thing that some minimal techno sounds fresher because it is a relatively new(er) thing).
The problem is about YOU/ US people. We just don't like most of this music anymore, because we are bored of it, simple as that. Our ears have "habituated" to the saw sounds/arpeggios/pads and hence trance music doesn't sound "nice" anymore. Plus, our personalities and emotions have changed, and somehow, they don't "match" this sound. People are just bored by hearing the same tricks over and over again, the saw riffs, the breakdowns, the over-dramatic melodies (i don't have a problem with it and sometimes i would listen to some modern saw trance because,srangely enough, i find it relaxing lol). This ofcourse doesn't mean that those "tricks" "don't do it" for younger generations and young people could find this music "magical" (magic music? heh)and "refreshing".
All the older trance listeners who have got bored of the newer sound would usually not listen to older epic-trance as well. You could make an effort to listen to "El-Nino", "Gouryella" and "Universal Nation" and probably these tracks will do nothing for you today, except maybe for the usual nostalgia. Maybe some would even think something like... "what i was thinking listening to this music back then?". People change faster than the music.
True, all musical genres evolve, reach a peek and eventually die, and truth is that most of genres of EDM today are not at their peek. They are probably not at their ultimate decline either. They are at a stable state though, with some usual equally good and bad stuff getting released. Its just that people don't like it anymore and label everything as "bad".
Many people go through the "Trance-Prog-Techno/House" phase, they make "genre-jumps" and they always find the "newer" genre as "fresher" and generally "better" at everything.
It is simply because they were never exposed to the other genre. Never exposed until the time they discovered it. Truth it that this specific "newly discovered" genre is probably as stable and stale as trance is. I find almost all of todays progressive and techno (and house) in the same state (the State of Trance heh). They have the exact same bloody structure that they had years ago (some even from 94 or something)be it progressive or techno (or house). People just like the "newer" genres because it somehow matches their current psychological state in better ways than their previous ones. Some people even make "retro-genre-jumps" finding the ultimate genre in some old-now-dead 80s or 90s genre or something (one of my favorite genres is 80s new-wave and many people in here love their 90s classic trance and progressive house).Its not that those genres are necessarily more complex or musically better (the famous "they don't make them like that anymore" phrase), they just-for one reason or the other- match one's psychological state better than the newer genres (and this could happen for many reasons)and hence they sound mroe pleasurable.
Trance can be dead. Progressive can be dead. Techno can be dead. House can be dead. In our minds.
So, listen and play to anything you like and don't care what the others say about how "things change to the worst". Because it is most likely that their perceptions of things have changed to the worst, not the things themselves.
And this is a long reply, but, what the f*ck, this is not the CoR. Its good to read a bit from time to time lol.
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