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Common Criticisms of Trance Music.
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| oldskoolraver |
I often cop some real life flames when I tell people I'm a trance dj and its my favorite genre.
These are some of the usual comments:
1. Loads like it and that's cool but I find Trance really souless. Germany has a fine tradition of electronic music and was the first place outside of the US where Detroit Techno broke through. German labels such as Tresor have done brilliant things to further the cause but Trance, I dunno, it's ignores electronic music's history of funk, rhythm and soul expressed with machinery. It's just too damn WHITE!
2. But the music coming out before that in germany and later evolved the sub-genre trance, was very much techno, I mean it didnt have these long melodious crescendos and stuff like trance music. It was fast, banging beats and baselines, then you got "hardcore" 180 BPM stuff which established itself before trance.
I think that many people dont make the distinction between trance. Techno is the daddy of the trance that is around today.
3. True but it can be credited for taking music out of the "song" or "tune" frame of mind and into the idea of a "piece" again. I'm like u, Ijust find that trance, although it has expressed and pioneered a lot of new or resurected ideas is a little no entrenched in "variations on a theme" and not the soul or funk that initiated the movement.
Essentially many people seem to think that Trance is not an established genre of its own right, is tacky and cheesy in general, and steals off other genres to make its popular sounds.
Feel free to add any other criticisms you cop, and what you say back to these unmusically educated people. |
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| DJ Rat 187 |
| quote: | Originally posted by oldskoolraver
I often cop some real life flames when I tell people I'm a trance dj and its my favorite genre.
These are some of the usual comments:
1. Loads like it and that's cool but I find Trance really souless. Germany has a fine tradition of electronic music and was the first place outside of the US where Detroit Techno broke through. German labels such as Tresor have done brilliant things to further the cause but Trance, I dunno, it's ignores electronic music's history of funk, rhythm and soul expressed with machinery. It's just too damn WHITE!
2. But the music coming out before that in germany and later evolved the sub-genre trance, was very much techno, I mean it didnt have these long melodious crescendos and stuff like trance music. It was fast, banging beats and baselines, then you got "hardcore" 180 BPM stuff which established itself before trance.
I think that many people dont make the distinction between trance. Techno is the daddy of the trance that is around today.
3. True but it can be credited for taking music out of the "song" or "tune" frame of mind and into the idea of a "piece" again. I'm like u, Ijust find that trance, although it has expressed and pioneered a lot of new or resurected ideas is a little no entrenched in "variations on a theme" and not the soul or funk that initiated the movement.
Essentially many people seem to think that Trance is not an established genre of its own right, is tacky and cheesy in general, and steals off other genres to make its popular sounds.
Feel free to add any other criticisms you cop, and what you say back to these unmusically educated people. |
why does your sig say 'spec'? |
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| Audigy7 |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Rat 187
why does your sig say 'spec'? |
I'm assuming that used to be his TA nick. |
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| oldskoolraver |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Rat 187
why does your sig say 'spec'? |
Thats me, my former identity has posting restrictions, but I don't wish to hide behind this fact.
Can we just leave the past behind and talk about music?
Thats kinda why I joined this site. |
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| Subey |
Spec, you miss the point of the issue you describe.
Let's translate it to movies so that its easier to understand.
Two friends emerge from a theatre and discuss if the movie they just saw was good or not...
John Doe: That was some great action, the story was a little dumb, but the choreography to the fight sequences was amazing.
John Fawn: Who cared about the action? The story was so dumb that I could care less what happened during the fights.
My question to you Spec is this.
Who wins?
Its impossible to say. The only thing that can be said is that everyone will respond differently to different stimuli. Some stimuli we will appreciate, some we won't.
As long as we aren't hurting anyone else in appreciating a certain stimuli then really what does it matter?
So someone disses Trance cause they think its souless. What does that tell you about Trance? It tells you exactly that. That someone thinks its souless.
Is that the end of the debate? If 95% of the people on earth think its souless is that enough that the 5% who think it is soulfull should stop listening to it? Or should they say "well I can hear the soul in it, and its enough for me?" and should the 95% then say "Ya i'm cool with that, if you hear soul in that, then more power to you", or should they say "your a ing idiot there is no soul there! the soul of music lives and breathes in MY MUSIC, and only MY MUSIC"
Its all about ideologies. We see the universal soul manifest in Trance. Others do not. Their loss. Our Gain. Just as its my loss that I don't see it in Jazz. And even though I can't see it in Jazz, I respect that those who love Jazz can see the soul there, even if its invisible to me. |
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| TweeK |
| that pretty lame spec having "raver" in ur name:rolleyes: |
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| oldskoolraver |
| quote: | Originally posted by Subey
Spec, you miss the point of the issue you describe.
Let's translate it to movies so that its easier to understand.
Two friends emerge from a theatre and discuss if the movie they just saw was good or not...
John Doe: That was some great action, the story was a little dumb, but the choreography to the fight sequences was amazing.
John Fawn: Who cared about the action? The story was so dumb that I could care less what happened during the fights.
My question to you Spec is this.
Who wins?
Its impossible to say. The only thing that can be said is that everyone will respond differently to different stimuli. Some stimuli we will appreciate, some we won't.
As long as we aren't hurting anyone else in appreciating a certain stimuli then really what does it matter?
So someone disses Trance cause they think its souless. What does that tell you about Trance? It tells you exactly that. That someone thinks its souless.
Is that the end of the debate? If 95% of the people on earth think its souless is that enough that the 5% who think it is soulfull should stop listening to it? Or should they say "well I can hear the soul in it, and its enough for me?" and should the 95% then say "Ya i'm cool with that, if you hear soul in that, then more power to you", or should they say "your a ing idiot there is no soul there! the soul of music lives and breathes in MY MUSIC, and only MY MUSIC"
Its all about ideologies. We see the universal soul manifest in Trance. Others do not. Their loss. Our Gain. Just as its my loss that I don't see it in Jazz. And even though I can't see it in Jazz, I respect that those who love Jazz can see the soul there, even if its invisible to me. |
What has happened to the human race if we can't even argue the finer points of the things we love?
Please don't tell me the waves of conservative opinion and political correctness have brain washed you also. You don't need to be so nice to me when responding if you disagree with any of my statements, I'm not fussed.
Anyway, back to the discussion.
I like how another TA described Trance as being atmospheric, this is a new description for me, and one that fits well I thought.
I think that music needs to suit the occasion, playing trance for a bride walking down the isle is probably going to be wrong, no matter how good the trance, but most of the people I've found that don't like Trance don't like the scene it is usually associated with. |
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| oldskoolraver |
| quote: | Originally posted by TweeK
that pretty lame spec having "raver" in ur name:rolleyes: |
Should I have asked for your permission? |
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| TweeK |
| quote: | Originally posted by oldskoolraver
Should I have asked for your permission? |
no but is gay:stongue: |
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| oldskoolraver |
| quote: | Originally posted by TweeK
no but is gay:stongue: |
Oh , I was actually going to use TweeK2, but I don't think that I could have lived up to the responsibility attached to having such an imaginative and funky title, so I picked something gay instead. |
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| TweeK |
| quote: | Originally posted by oldskoolraver
Oh , I was actually going to use TweeK2, but I don't think that I could have lived up to the responsibility attached to having such an imaginative and funky title, so I picked something gay instead. |
its ok man,its ok:haha: |
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| aspergian |
Hmmm... I've heard these criticisms too. Sticking to the music and the context surrounding it, yes, things like these can be generally observed to be true. I always look for the exceptions that prove the rule, which please me greatly and have me smiling. Don't forget though, the melodic arpeggiated component of trance is also very indebted to the ambient flow of greats like the German Tangerine Dream. This would involve the aforementioned "atmosphere". There are no singular roots.
Also, "Trance" is such a big word. Add gate effects and repetitive patterns of 16th-notes in harmonic minor to most house tunes (sped up 10-20 BPM perhaps) or techno tracks (which often have the foundation of the groove and maybe some effected, percolating samples but not a catchy melody), and you've got a nice "Trance Starter Kit" baked in the oven right there. Add supersaw riff for bonus credit. ;) |
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