Now I don't take in or listen to as much trance as I used to but I've noticed this rebranding in later days.
Especially when I saw some promo sheet of this ep: https://www.junodownload.com/produc...-ep/4669745-02/ where it mentioned something about two melodic techno-tracks. But when I listen it is just bog ol' trance that you would have heard 20+ years ago except 10 bpm slower.
How long has this been going on?
Lews
A few years now. It started with people playing old techno and trance pitched way down, and now producers just make it at a lower bpm from the start. 'Trance' is reasonably big now, it's just shed that stigmatised name and called 'melodic techno' now.
Sykonee
I'd argue it's been going on since The Field and his ilk started that whole 'neo-trance' thing, but that didn't stick as a tag. It's definitely ramped up this past half-decade tho'.
Scoops
Tiesto is claiming his new track, 5 Seconds Before Sunrise is a trance track....
It is anything but trance!
Lews
This thread is not about Tiesto, Scoops; read the context.
SYSTEM-J
To be honest, I see Resident Advisor using the word "trance" quite openly now to describe new music, so I don't think it's even undercover anymore.
AlphaStarred
I wouldn't call melodic techno trance. It's still techno, albeit melodic, with occasional trance-like melodies - but not always. Trance is still for the most part dead, with very few releases (though perhaps somewhat more lately) that really fall under the trance genre.
An example of melodic techno and trance tracks, respectively:
Both are melodic, but fall under two different genres.
Lews
Right, so what is your definition of trance, then?
AlphaStarred
quote:
Originally posted by Lews
Right, so what is your definition of trance, then?
I'm not sure if I have one, but often what I hear is more instruments/synths, a faster bpm, and usually an underlying bassline throughout in trance. I don't think it's necessarily difficult to tell the difference between techno and trance when you actually hear the two side by side.
Teezdalien
It's definitely been going on for a while now.
I've found the lines between melodic techno and what gets classed as progressive house these days, even more blurry and pretty much interchangeable.
If I were to get nitpicky, differences in production techniques could be pointed out, but I dunno if it really warrants separate genre tags.
Probably comes down more to marketing, trance/prog sort of died for a while whereas techno never really went away.
montana
quote:
Originally posted by AlphaStarred
I wouldn't call melodic techno trance. It's still techno, albeit melodic, with occasional trance-like melodies - but not always. Trance is still for the most part dead, with very few releases (though perhaps somewhat more lately) that really fall under the trance genre.
An example of melodic techno and trance tracks, respectively:
Both are melodic, but fall under two different genres.
I get exactly what you mean but you also missed the point of what I wrote. There is actually quite a lot of techno that could be labeled or described as melodic techno. As there is quite a lot of detroitian and detroit-influenced techno that is full of melodies and starkly different to the drummier techno or the thing that is described as business techno.
What I meant was tracks that are straight-up trance/epic trance, or at least by the late '90s definition, but are labeled as and/or described as melodic techno as this is currently they are rebranding this malarkey.
AlphaStarred
quote:
Originally posted by montana
I get exactly what you mean but you also missed the point of what I wrote. There is actually quite a lot of techno that could be labeled or described as melodic techno. As there is quite a lot of detroitian and detroit-influenced techno that is full of melodies and starkly different to the drummier techno or the thing that is described as business techno.
What I meant was tracks that are straight-up trance/epic trance, or at least by the late '90s definition, but are labeled as and/or described as melodic techno as this is currently they are rebranding this malarkey.
I see what you mean, my apologies. I'm not keen on Juno/Beatport labeling, as some music tends to be mislabeled, from my experience. Discogs is usually more spot-on in terms of labeling the style(s) of a release, if it's even in the database.
