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"Trance is a style of electronic dance music developed in Germany and the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between approximately 128 and 150 BPM, melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that is progressive as it builds up and down throughout a track. Trance is a combination of many forms of electronic music, such as ambient, techno, and house."

History of trance:

Trance is the most emotional genre. It can make you cry, make you shout, make you cheer, and make you celebrate absolutely nothing of substance except pure, ecstatic bliss. This is interesting, when at one time it was very repetitive and hypnotic (hence its label 'trance') and was very easy to get lost in whilst divulging in aforementioned emotions. But now it's quite difficult to get entranced due mostly to the fact that the genre has devolved into such trite, derivative junk that even the biggest culprits of it are having trouble lying about how interesting it is. If you ignore the cliched, breakdown-build-anthem template side of the genre that is so canned and predictable you can set your watch to it, trance is still pretty fun. Unless you're trying to be a Sasha worshipping pretentious snob not partaking in that, in which case you don't even want to admit you're listening to trance anymore.

- Classic - Not a genre (that I know of) yet, but it might as well be. Trance is old enough to have one now, like House and Techno are. And the reason why is because this music encapsulates what I think of when I hear the word trance. Music that rewards paying attention and looking inward, on a meditative level. Music that you can get lost in. Parties that last several days, and songs that last 8 hours. You don't hear that anymore. Today Trance is either a sequence of disjointed, disaffected, unrelated predictable anthems laid out one after the other (hardly entrancing), or is completely overshadowed and drowned out by the posturing and hero-worship of people who really do nothing more than operate a glorified stereo.

- Acid - This, along with Classic Trance (they both pretty much came out about the same time, and are interchangeable, as Classic Trance was mostly acid anyway), best represents what REAL Trance is supposed to feel like. Trippy. Fluent. Hypnotic. Very long and repetitive. Once trance got ahold of the 303, dinner was served. The squiggly rhythm box is tailor-made for sci-fi soundscapes and oscillating patterns, and it's a shame to think that the Acid Trance churned out a decade ago was more thoughtful and interesting than the canned sounds coming out today. Not drug music, but best appreciated by drugs. If Retro trends have anything to say about it, Acid Trance will once again be cool to listen to in about.....7 years. One can only hope.

- EBM - Ah yes, here we go: Electronic Body Music. Almost like proto-goa, in its straight-ahead, buzzing synth aesthete. Industrial's true connection to trance, which is why the rest of the genres kinda got dragged with it in this mangled mess of a music genre node. In its raw form here, it's pretty mean, impersonal stuff. I'm not sure how some people can insist that trance is peaceful, euphoric angel music. That's like saying Charles Manson is the next Mother Teresa. Machines don't have feelings, and neither does trance.

- Progressive - is a pretty pretentious word to begin with, so if you're bold enough to actually call your genre anything like that you better have something pretty fucking impressive, groundbreaking and forward-thinking to call it that. Like, music that will make you fly or breathe underwater or something. Since that's the case, Progressive Trance is easily the most misnamed genre in the history of music. In the annals of trance, it made huge leaps backwards. Most oldskool trance enthusiasts admit that they stopped listening to trance right after Progressive Trance came around (legend states around 96 or so). The genre doesn't actually do anything new or inventive. But what it DID do was codify--that is, write in literal stone--the trance template of breakdown-build-anthem, an infused pop gimmick that all of a sudden made this strange, space-age music suddenly acceptable to the sonically docile masses. No longer long, unwieldy, repetitive and unresponsive, trance became a familiarity, an image, associating itself (and its artists) with all the trappings that keep the pop music world intact. It all went downhill from here.

- Goa - For what it's worth, the only trance genre that still has some integrity left. Goa is just too complicated, too dark, too brooding, and too ominous to ever have popular appeal, and it's doubtful that it ever will....and that's just the way hippies like it. Imported from India, duty free, where it is so hot the DJs don't even bother mixing or else their faces melt off (and that's BEFORE you drop acid). There are a million and one splinter genres to this too (hard goa, progressive goa, psyfunk, ambient goa, etc...), but I'm only putting down the most prevalent. As for the rest, it's terrific stuff, if all the annoying, superficial hindu and buddhist iconography doesn't annoy the hell out of you. Goa would be the best genre ever, if it weren't for the fucking hippies.


- Psytrance - The difference between Psychedelic and Goa Trance is really negligible, and if you ask anyone involved they'll readily say that there is no difference, much the same way that junglists will say there is no difference between Jungle and Drum n Bass (even though there is). To put it succinctly, Psychedelic Trance removes the hindu/middle-eastern influences and melodies and full-on blasts you with mindfuck music...teleport zappers, star trek tweeps, nintendo twerps, theremin squeels, feedback hums and radio antennae frequency squelches. Well...Goa might have all that stuff too. Hmmmm. Let's say this instead: Goa is more organic, and Psy is more cybernetic. But they're both futuristic sci-fi music. Okay, fine: they are the same damn thing. But there's just so much good music here to only squeeze in one genre. And if you think I'm done here, wait until you check out Psytekk. It's like HR Giger on acid.

- Ibiza - This is the only genre I would trust with any uplifting, euphoric melodies. There's a stark contrast between this and the forced-upon, pompous schlock that seeps out of the Epic Trance. I'm not sure why, but without ever having been there this music seems to capture the mood of a soft, Mediterranean sunset perfectly. Soft and wistful music without being trite and limp. It's probably because of its use of string instruments, like spanish guitars and mandolins and other Mediterraneany things, like oceans, birds, and other things borrowed from Ambient Trance. This genre is actually much, much older. It came out of Balearic House in the 80s, and named after the Spanish island that is now an expensive, overcrowded trashy tourist trap.

- Anthem - Progressive Trance actually had a pretty good idea. There's nothing wrong with some tension and release in your song. That's what people listen to music for. To bring the music down to a crawl before exploding out with a crescending climax is one of the best tricks in music. And besides, if the DJ's too stupid and inept to figure out how to provide adequate tension and release during his sets through careful track selection and record management, why not do it for him, essentially removing any skill he thought he might've needed to have in order to be a good DJ. Breakdowns, builds, and memorable melodies are not a new thing in trance. But what Anthem Trance did was completely and totally abuse and pervert them. Where Progressive Trance used them to somewhate accentuate the moment (like say a lull before the main synth kicks back in), Anthem Trance used them for the track's entire purpose. This cookie cutter, by-the-numbers formula dominated the english club scene and trance, once the quirky kind of music with only a niche market, reformed itself into a neverending series of pop jingles and by doing so supplaunted house as the most popular dance music in the world.

- Dutch - If I roll my eyes any harder, they're going to fall right out of their sockets. As a good friend of mine once said: "Come on. Get on with it already. I can only hold my arms in the air for so long." Let it be said that electronic music NEVER learns how to 'leave the audience wanting more'. Instead, like a spoiled, immature little child, it shamelessly and greedily exploits any whiff of success it sees, to cartoonish extremes. Which is why we have this. Yeah, I know. It sounds like a really bad and corny Hollywood love scene, doesn't it? Somehow, a mutant form of trance evolved from Epic drenched itself in the breakdown-build-anthem formula and senselessly driven it to new, insane levels of assinine. In doing so, it stopped becoming trance. Some songs have ridiculously long and drawn out breakdowns, lasting well over 3 minutes or almost half the length of the entire fucking track. Each new release tries to outdo last week's hit anthem, reaching higher and higher, making the genre louder, fuller, and more exalted and grandiose. Good god, does this ever suck. The way megatrance producers shamelessly cash in on a particular sound is insulting sometimes. How can anyone take this trite, derivative garbage seriously? What the hell is this, anyway? It's bombastic melodrama; a pompous, over-the-top, monstrously grotesque caricature of what trance used to be. The final betrayal. Trance is dead. Ferry Corsten killed it.

to be continued ...

Kto według was - internautów - powinien trafić do czołówki ?? Kto zasługuje na wynagrodzenie za całokształt swojej twórczości ?? Czy po 3 miesiącach można już oceniać ??

Ja osobiście uważam że można, a nawet należało by już zgrubnie ocenić pracę DJ'ów z całego świata. Większość czeka na ostatnią chwilę żeby czymś zabłysnąć - taki hit lata, i przeważnie dzięki temu trafiaja na pierwsze miejsca. Są też DJ którzy wywiązują się z obowiązku i "tworzą" muzykę której tak potrzebujemy. Według mnie 3 pierwsze miejsca powinni otrzymać - tak jak w zeszłym roku - 01.Armin van Buuren 02.Tiësto 03.Paul van Dyk z możliwą mieszaną obsadą. Natomiast nad kolejnymi miejscami należało by się głęboko zastanowić, gdyż zauważyłem, że DJ'ie których zawsze wysoko typowałem zajęli kolne miejsca 22. Kyau & Albert, 31. Aly & Fila, 60. John O'Callaghan i 65. Gabriel & Dresden. Miejmy nadzieje że w tym roku dzięki wam zajma wyższe miejsca.
Mam również nadzieję że Armin van Buuren i Tiesto nie zawiodą mnie w tym roku i nie zmuszą mnie do zmienienia zdania na ich temat. Dzięki ich setom zasługują na pierwsze miejsca przez jeszcze dłuuugie lata.