Progressive electronic dance music

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Progressive electronic dance music (often referred to as just progressive) usually refers to differentiate various offshoot styles of electronic dance music from their parent styles, which include trance music, house music, breakbeat and GRP fusion.

Most electronic dance music tracks released today contain features that are relatively easy for DJs to beatmatch records together, partly for that reason. Unlike the song structures of genres like hard house or Hi-NRG, the peaks and troughs in a progressive dance track tend to be more complex. Layering different sounds on top of each other and slowly bringing them in and out is key to the progressive movement.

While the term "progressive" had been used to describe jazz and rock artists such as Pink Floyd, Return to Forever or King Crimson since the late 1960s, it only started to be applied to dance music in the early- to mid- 1980s during the rise of the Chicago house and Detroit techno movements to describe what was believed to be the future of pop.

Today, the term "progressive" in dance music has come to refer to the structure of a track with more gradual changes, though there are other uses for the term: progressive trance usually refers to a type of trance music that features a less prominent lead melody and focuses more on atmosphere, and in the case of progressive house, the term "progressive" can also refer to the style's willingness to bring in new elements to the genre. These elements can be a variety of sounds, such as a guitar loop, computer generated noises, or other elements typical of other genres.

[edit] Progressive house

Progressive house is a style of house music that is noted for musical progression within melodies and basslines. The term was coined by Mixmag editor Dom Phillips. It has similar elements to both electro-house and trance. It has its origins in Great Britain in the early 1990s, with the output of Guerilla Records and Leftfield's first singles (particularly "Song of Life"). The music itself was produced with the 4-to-4 beat of house music and deeper dub-influenced basslines, with greater emphasis on emotion before structural considerations. Often, it featured elements from many different genres mixed together. Song of Life, for instance, has a trip-hop like down-pitched breakbeat and a high-energy Roland TB-303 riff at various stages.

In 1992, the dance club Renaissance opened in Mansfield where DJs Sasha and John Digweed were instrumental in popularizing its early sound. Other notable Progressive House DJs include: Dave Seaman, Nick Warren, Jason Jollins, Hernan Cattaneo and Anthony Pappa.

[edit] Progressive trance

	"Xpander" (1999) Sasha's progressive trance track "Xpander" from the Xpander EP.
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Progressive trance is a popular sub-genre in trance music and contains elements of house, techno, and ambient music. By the late 1990s, trance became more focused on the anthemic qualities and melodies, moving away from arpeggiated analog synth patterns. Acoustic elements and spacey pads became popular with compositions leaned towards incremental changes à la progressive structures. Progressive trance contains distinctive sounds in many tracks, such as unusual basslines or original synthesized sounds, which generally makes it more "catchy". Phrases are usually a power of two number of bars in most typical progressive trance tracks. Phrases usually begin with the introduction of a new or different melody or rhythm.

Compared to trance, the progressive wing is usually deeper and more abstract, featuring a lower average bpm (around 125-135 instead of 130-160) and a recurrent melodic structure. This structure is intuitively described as consisting of three major structural elements: (1) build-up; (2) breakdown ; (3) climax. These three structural elements are expressed either temporally or in their intensity, if not both. A 'build-up' sequence can sometimes last up to 3 or even 4 minutes. Subtle incremental/decremental acoustic variations (i.e., gradual addition/subtraction of instruments) anticipate the transition to each subsequent structural element of the track. The initial build-up and the final break-down are generally very similar, adding a feel of symmetry to the general structure of the melody. Furthermore, a progressive trance track is usually longer than a regular trance track, ranging in length from 5-6 to even 12-13 minutes.

Although there is a general and increasing tendency to associate progressive trance with progressive house (or vice-versa), virtually rendering these two sub-genres identical, there are however distinctive characteristics apart from the strong similitudes between them: progressive trance inherits from its parent genre (trance) a wider melodic flexibility, while progressive house is usually darker and more minimal.

Some of the most representative names that currently work in this sub-genre are Laurent Veronnez, Sasha , Mike Dierickx, Matt Darey, Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, Vibrasphere, Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Brian Transeau (aka BT), and more recently, Markus Schulz.

[edit] Progressive breaks

Progressive breaks essentially grew out of nu skool breaks and progressive house. Due to its origins in those genres, progressive breakbeat typically features atmospheric pads and melodies. Most artists working in this genre also work in other closely related genres such as breakbeats and progressive house. Hybrid is one of the most popular artists in this genre. Other popular breaks artists include Digital Witchcraft, Luke Chable, Momu, and Way Out West.

[edit] Progressive drum & bass

There are a few forms of drum & bass which are considered progressive. Neurofunk, a variant of the techstep subgenre incorporates elements of jazz and funk along with multiple electronic influences including techno and house. The style also follows the progressive form as found in other genres. Drumfunk, a relatively new subgenre, can also be considered progressive. Contemporary atmospheric drum'n'bass have also been described as progressive.

[edit] Similarities in progressive genres

Since about 2000, progressive house and progressive trance have mostly converged. While the faster (130-140bpm) records are usually described as progressive trance, most producers from both styles have moved towards a slower (110-130bpm) tempo and are thus typically classified as progressive house.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of electronic music genres

v • d • e House Associated genres Rave • Nu jazz • Madchester • US garage • Acid • Baleric • Dark • Deep • Diva • Funky • Micro • Progressive • Electro • Fidget • Dream • Tribal • Disco • Vocal • Hardbag • Grind • Ambient • Ghetto • Hip • Latin • Tech • Skacid • Hard Regional genres Chicago • French • Italo Related topics Discoteque · Disco · DJ · Nightclub