| Trance | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins | Late 1980s to early 1990s, India and Europe |
| Typical instruments | |
| Derivatives | |
| Hardstyle | |
| Subgenres | |
| 138, Acid Trance, Deep Trance, Dream Trance, Euro Trance, Future Rave, Goa Trance, Ibiza Trance, Hard Trance, Melodic Trance, Meltrance, Minimalist Trance, Neotrance, Progressive Trance, Psychedelic Trance, Symphonic Trance, Uplifting Trance, Vocal Trance | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Electro Trance, Freeform, Future Trance, Tech Trance, Trancestep | |
A subgenre of electronica that combines steady, mono-temporal beats with more atmospheric, layered sounds such as pads, strings, repetitive vocal or percussion sounds, and experimental noises. Generally, an entire trance song is based around a single chord but with quite a bit of melodic variation around the theme. The general goal of trance music is, as the name suggests, to put the listener into a trance-like, consciousness-altered state. Much trance music is suitable not only for dancing to but also for non-dancing critical listening; this somewhat sets it apart from most other electronica subgenres. (See IDM.) In fact, many trance enthusiasts find that listening to the music is quite relaxing, despite the steady beat.
Trance also employs dynamics to a greater extent than most other forms of electronica. A characteristic of many trance songs is the mid-song break in which the rhythm tracks fade out, leaving the melody and/or atmospherics to stand alone for a few moments. If one counts out the bars during this time, it will usually be found that the track is still on tempo, but it isn't obvious since there is no instrument carrying the beat at this point (a trick enabled by sequencers). The break adds some dynamics to the song, makes it more interesting to the ear, and provides dancers with a few moments in which they can improvise if they wish. Other trance songs may fade in to begin the song, or end the song with atmospherics or odd noises rathenr than the usual rhythm "tail". Fashion tends to go back and forth between vocal and instrumental pieces every few years; usually, when vocals are present, they are sung by a female singer with a soaring, operatic-type voice.
Origins[]
India[]
South Asian music was traditionally known for having trance-inducing effects, such as Qawwali Sufi music and Indian classical music, which in turn influenced the raga rock and psychedelia trends in the 1960s. While distinct from the electronic genre now known as trance, these earlier trends had an influence on trance music.
After disco music was introduced to India in the late 1970s, early trance-like songs began appearing in India during the 1980s. Several Indian musicians combined 4/4 disco beats and Roland electronic instruments (such as the TB-303 and TR-808) with trance-like Indian music.
Examples of Indian acid house and/or trance in the 1980s:
- Babla's "Man Dole Mera Tan Dole" (1980)[1]
- Charanjit Singh's Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982)
- Asha Bhosle's "Koi Lutera" (1983) produced by Bappi Lahiri
- "Pee Pee Pee Pyare Dil Laga Ke" (1984) by Babla & Kanchan
- "Chill Space" from Ark of the Arqans (1985) by Suns of Arqa
- Biddu Orchestra's "Dance of Shiva" (1985) produced by Biddu
- Sapna's "Pyar Do Pyar Lo" (1986) composed by Kalyanji–Anandji
- Bappi Lahiri's "Habiba" (1988)
The Goa Trance style can be traced back to Bappi Lahiri's "Habiba" (1988), which blended acid house with hypnotic Indian and Arabic music to create an electronic style now known as Goa Trance. "Habiba" was also the first mainstream trance hit, when a music video featuring a breakdancing performance by Jaaved Jaaferi was aired on Indian national TV for New Years Eve in December 1988.
Goa Trance originates in India and was defined in Goa, where a sort of continuation of 1960s San Francisco psychedelic culture existed in the 1980s and 1990s. As one might expect from that description, Goa trance employs elements of Indian music and '60s psychedelic and "swirl" music.
Europe[]
In the United Kingdom, The KLF's "What Time Is Love? (1988) was one of the earliest tracks with an electronic style now considered to be trance and it is credited with coining the "Trance" genre label. Two years later, the track became a hit on the European charts in 1990.
DJ George Acosta, who studies the history of trance, compiled a CD of essential early trance records on which he placed Brian Transau's "Anomaly Calling Your Name", released in 1995, as an early trance song. The genre enjoyed a boom in popularity right away, dominating the electronica scene in the late '90s before fading away somewhat at the millenium. However, a resurgence has taken place since about 2005.
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s. It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm, repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track. It is a combination of many forms of sound such as techno, house, industrial, new age, synth-pop, chill-out, ambient, electronic art music, classical music, and film music. It is usually more melodic than techno, and the harder styles usually have harder beats than house. The origin of the term is uncertain, with some suggesting that the term is derived from the Klaus Schulze album Trancefer (1981) or the early trance act Dance 2 Trance. Others, though, argue the name may refer to an induced emotional feeling, high, euphoria, chills, or uplifting rush listeners claim to experience. Yet others trace the name to the actual trance-like states that the earliest forms of the music attempted to generate in the 1990s before the genre's focus changed.
Trance also employs dynamics to a greater extent than most other forms of electronic music. A characteristic of many trance songs is the mid-song break in which the rhythm tracks fade out, leaving the melody and/or atmospherics to stand alone for a few moments. The break adds some dynamics to the song, makes it more interesting to the ear, and provides dancers with a few moments in which they can improvise if they wish. Fashion tends to go back and forth between vocal and instrumental pieces every few years; usually, when vocals are present, they are sung by a female singer with a soaring, operatic-type voice.
Some trace trance's antecedents back to Klaus Schulze, a German experimental electronic music artist who concentrated on blending minimalist music with repetitive rhythms and arpeggiated sounds. In France, Jean Michel Jarre, an early electronic musician, released two albums in the late 1970s: Oxygène in 1976 and Equinoxe in 1978. Also, a possible antecedent, Neil Young's 1982 electronic album, Trans, bears a resemblance to the trance music genre.
Popularity[]
Historically, the most popular DJs in the world often played Trance music; in 12 of the last 13 years, such DJs always ranked #1 in the world in the DJ Mag ranking: Paul Oakenfold (1998–1999), Sasha (2000), John Digweed (2001), Tiësto (2002–2004), Paul van Dyk (2005–2006), Armin van Buuren (2007–2010).
Meanwhile, a different type of trance, generally called uplifting trance, became popular. Uplifting trance had buildups and breakdowns that were longer and more exaggerated, being more direct and less subtle than progressive, with more easily identifiable tunes and anthems. Many such trance tracks follow a set form, featuring an introduction, steady build, a breakdown, and then an anthem, a form aptly called the "build-breakdown-anthem" form. Uplifting vocals, usually female, were also becoming more and more prevalent, adding to trance's popular appeal.[citation needed]
Artists like Tiësto, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Brian Transeau, Robert Miles, Above & Beyond, Darren Tate, Ferry Corsten, Johan Gielen, ATB, and Paul Oakenfold became popular as producers and remixers.[citation needed] Many of these producers also DJ'd in clubs, playing their own productions as well as those by other trance DJs. By the end of the 1990s, trance maintained a healthy following in most of the world's key dance markets.
Post-popularity[]
As an alternative evolution, some artists have attempted to fuse trance with other genres such as Drum & Bass. Others have experimented with more minimalist sounds.
Trance elements were often introduced into other genres, such as acid techno and nu-style gabber, resulting in the post-trance genres hard trance and hardstyle, respectively. Nu-NRG has been the core element of hardstyle since 2007, thus making hardstyle much more melodical in nature, resulting in many artists of the genre ditching its hard trance elements in favor of a more bouncy, techno-like sound.
Trance has retained popularity on the internet with the abundance of legal music download sites, including Juno Download and Beatport, enabling enthusiasts to avoid tracking down hard-to-find vinyl by downloading mp3s and uncompressed wavs. As a result, both commercial and progressive trance now have a much more global, if not chart-bound, presence, with big-draw artists such as Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Above & Beyond, Paul van Dyk, Tiësto, ATB, Markus Schulz, Rank 1, Gareth Emery, Dash Berlin, Paul Oakenfold, and the US's Christopher Lawrence and George Acosta able to maintain their esteemed positions while upcoming producers and DJs can also breakthrough into the public domain.