Trance music

Trance
Stylistic origins	House Techno:15,17 Balearic Beat Ambient Industrial Electronic art music New age Pop music:16 Chill-out:17 Classical music:16:35 Film music:35
Cultural origins	Late 1980s to Early 1990s, UK Acid House movement , Germany:251:15, global rave scenes
Typical instruments	Synthesizer, Keyboard, Drum machine, Sequencer, Sampler, Personal computer
Subgenres
Acid, Balearic, Classic, Euro, Goa, Hard, Progressive, Psychedelic, Tech, Uplifting, Vocal, (Full list of trance genres) (complete list)
Fusion genres
Trancestep, Trancecore
Other topics
Raves, glowsticking

Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s;^:251 generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,^:252 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 music such as techno,^:15,17 house, industrial, new age, pop^:16, chill-out,^:17 ambient, electronic art music, classical music,^:16:35 and film music.^:35 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.^:252

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 are faded 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.

History

Origin

Early Trance music recordings emerged out of the british acid house movement as early as 1988, including but not limited to The KLF 12" Single What Time Is Love? (Pure Trance 1). Germany is often cited as a birthplace of trance music,^:251 with the original melodic sound first appearing around 1993 in Frankfurt.^:15

Some trace trance's antecedents back to Klaus Schulze, a German experimental electronic music artist whom 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.

Examples of early Trance releases include but are not limited to: 1990 Belgium 12" Single The Age Of Love by Bruno Sanchioni & Giuseppe Chierchia , German duo Jam & Spoon's 1992 12" Single remix of The Age Of Love.^:15, German duo Dance 2 Trance's 1990 track "We Came in Peace",^:251 Also, Hi-NRG is also often regarded as the origin of the earlier forms of vocal trance music.

As for the roots of contemporary trance, some trace it to Paul van Dyk's 1993 remix of Humate's 'Love Stimulation'.^:15. In subsequent years, one genre, vocal trance, arose as the combination of progressive elements and pop music, and the development of another subgenre, epic trance, had some of its origins in classical music.^:15, with film music also being influential.^:35

Popular

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), Tiësto (2002–2004), Paul van Dyk (2005–2006), and Armin van Buuren (2007–2010).

By 1995 trance emerged as a popular genre of dance music.

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.

Artists like Tiësto, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Brian Transeau, Robert Miles, Above & Beyond, Darren Tate, Ferry Corsten, Johan Gielen, ATB, Paul Oakenfold, Pulser, and Third Element became popular as producers and remixers. 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-popular

As an alternative evolution, some artists have attempted to fuse trance with other genres such as drum'n'bass. Others have experimented with more minimalist sounds. Frustrated, extreme versions of trance have mutated through gabber into fringe genres of "hard trance" or "hardstyle" overlapping with hardcore and terrorcore.

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 break through into the public domain.

Production

Roland JP-8000, a synthesizer famous for its incorporation of the supersaw waveform

Classic trance usually employs a "four-to-the-floor" time signature, a tempo of 125 to 150 BPM, 32 beat phrases,^:252 and is somewhat faster than house music^:35, with the 'harder' styles of trance (such as psytrance) generally being a higher BPM. Occasionally, trance may be faster and slower. A kick drum is usually placed on every downbeat and a regular open hi-hat is often placed on the upbeat or every 1/8th division of the bar,^:253 though trance featuring breakbeats is not uncommon. Extra percussive elements are usually added, and major transitions, builds or climaxes are often foreshadowed by lengthy "snare rolls"—a quick succession of snare drum hits that build in velocity, frequency, and volume towards the end of a measure or phrase.^:266

Synthesizers form the central elements of most trance tracks. As with other genres of electronic music, important synthesizers are the Roland TR-808, TR-909, and TB-303, which is the source of the "acid" sound. There are also several synthesizer sounds that are almost completely unique to its genre. One of these sounds is the supersaw, a waveform made famous by such classic trance synthesizers as the Roland JP-8000, the Novation Supernova, and the Korg MS2000. A technique called "gating" is often employed in creating lead sounds (turning the volume up and down rapidly in rhythm with the piece to create a stuttered, chopped sound). Rapid arpeggios and minor scales are common features. Trance tracks often use one central "hook," or melody which runs through almost the entire song, repeating at intervals anywhere between 2 beats and several bars, in addition to harmonies and motifs in different timbres from the central melody.^:266

While many trance tracks contain no vocals at all, other tracks rely heavily on vocals, and thus a sub-genre has developed. The sound and quality of the production relies to a large degree upon the technology available. Vintage analog equipment is still in common use, with names such as Moog, Roland, and Oberheim staples in the trance sound palette. However, the mainstream availability of digital technology has allowed a whole new group of producers to emerge. While top shelf digital (or analog modeling) synthesizers cost thousands of US dollars, high demand and a small supply of clean vintage analog synthesizers causes them to be extremely expensive.

Trance records are often heavily loaded with reverb and delay effects on the synthesizer sounds, vocals and often parts of the percussion section. This provides the tracks with the sense of vast space that trance producers tend to look for in order to achieve the genre's quality. Flangers, phasers, and other effects are also commonly used at extreme settings; in trance there is no mandatory requirement for sounds to resemble any real-world instrument, although real-world insteuments or synthesizer sounds which replicate them are not uncommon.

As is the case with many dance music tracks, trance tracks are usually built with sparser intros and outros in order to enable DJs to blend them together more readily.^:19 Records that adhere to this "build up, strip down" arrangement during intros and outros are referred as being "DJ friendly". As trance is more melodic and harmonic than much dance music, the construction of trance tracks in such a way is particularly important in order to avoid dissonant (or "key clashing," i.e., out of tune with one another) mixes by DJs who do not mix harmonically.

Sub-genres

Main articles: List of trance genres and List of electronic music genres

Trance music is broken into a large number of sub-genres. Chronologically, the major sub-genres are Classic trance, Acid trance, Progressive trance, and Uplifting Trance. Uplifting Trance is also known as "Anthem trance", "Epic trance", "Stadium trance", or "Euphoric trance", and has been strongly influenced by classical music both in the 1990s and at present with the development of the sub-genre "Orchestral uplifting trance" or "Uplifting trance with symphonic orchestra" by such artists as Andy Blueman, Soundlift, and Arctic Moon. Closely related to Uplifting Trance is Euro-trance, which has become a general term for a wide variety of highly commercialized European dance music. Several subgenres are crossovers with other major genres of electronic music. For instance, tech trance is a mixture of trance and techno, Vocal Trance adds vocals and a pop-like structure to the songs, and Ambient trance is a mixture of ambient and trance. Balearic beat, which is associated with the laid back vacation lifestyle of Ibiza, Spain, is often called "Ibiza trance". Similarly, Dream trance is sometimes called "Dream House", and is a subgenre of relaxing trance pioneered by Robert Miles in the mid 90s. In recent years, trance has been blended with elements of heavy metal music (mostly melodic death metal). This fusion genre is often termed "trance metal".

Chinese trance is a subgenre of trance music that originated in China in 2000. It features accelerated tempo, between 160 and 190 bpm. It derives from House, Techno, Psy and Indian Goa Trance.

Another important distinction is between European trance and Goa trance which originated in Goa, India around the same time trance was evolving in Europe. Goa trance was influential in the formation of Psychedelic Trance, which features the use of harmonic minor keys in its composition. Psytrance is also very popular in Israel, with psychedelic trance producers such as Infected Mushroom, Astrix, and Yahel Sherman achieving world wide fame.

Electronic Dance Music Festivals

Electronic Dance Music Festivals often attract large crowds and usually feature sophisticated lighting, laser and pyrotechnic displays. Many of these festivals showcase Trance music; most of the large festivals that focus on Trance are held in Europe.

The Netherlands

Electronic Dance Music festivals in the Netherlands are mainly organized by four companies ALDA Events, ID&T, UDC and Q-Dance:

• Armin Only, Jaarbeurs Utrecht, Utrecht: the only DJ to mix at this event is Armin van Buuren. Organized by ALDA Events. Armin Only 2005 was held in Ahoy, Rotterdam. The 2008 and 2010 editions were held in Jaarbeurs Utrecht.
• Tiësto In Concert is a gig whose only performance is by Tiësto. Organized by ID&T. It is held in the Gelredome Arnhem.
• Full On Ferry, Ahoy Rotterdam: Ferry Corsten plays back to back with DJs who cover various styles of dance music such as Trance, House, and Techno.
• Mystery Land, Floriade Park Haarlemmermeer: an outdoor festival organized by ID&T.
• Dance Valley, Spaarnwoude: an outdoor festival organized by UDC.
• Qlimax, Gelredome, Arnhem (25,000 visitors): a Hardstyle & Hard Trance event.
• Sensation, Amsterdam Arena. Many genres of EDM such as House, Trance, and Hardstyle are showcased. Famous for the venue (a football stadium) and the light show. Organized by ID&T.
• Energy, (Formerly Trance Energy) Jaarbeurs, Utrecht (30,000 visitors): a festival that historically featured Trance only. The event was re-named to Energy in 2011 and has adjusted it's programming to include other genres such as Electro House & Tech House. Many well-received DJs have played sets at this event, helping to create its fame. Organized by ID&T.

United Kingdom

Clubbers at Gatecrasher

• Global Gathering festival, promoted by the Angel Music Group. The weekend long Global Gathering held every summer features the Godskitchen arena as its centerpiece, showcasing the best trance and techno acts in the world and attracting 45,000 people between a Friday afternoon and a Sunday morning. The organization promotes other stadium trance events under the Godskitchen brand, the largest being Godskitchen: A Gift From The Gods which brought 12,000 revelers to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham UK back in April 2003.
• Cream's annual Creamfields festival has also showcased an 10,000 capacity trance arena for the last 8 years at various venues across the United Kingdom.
• Gatecrasher also promote sporadic events and have in the past also used venues such as Birmingham N.E.C. Gatecrasher is currently on hiatus until further notice due to fire damage.
• South West Four held every summer has come a long way since beginning as a backyard party it found its home on Clapham Common, London.
• PlanetLove, Northern Ireland also has had a thriving trance scene since the early 90s, at the Kelly's Complex in Portrush, shooting local trance pioneers such as DJs X-ray & Si into the Northern Ireland Dance Music Hall of Fame. PlanetLove holds a yearly festival in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, and numerous other events on a smaller scale. Major DJs have performed at PlanetLove events such as Judge Jules, Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk and Tiesto.

North America

Electronic Dance Music festivals in North America feature various genres such as Trance, House, Techno, and Drum & Bass:

• Electric Daisy Carnival, by Insomniac Events in Los Angeles (but also held in Denver, Dallas, and Puerto Rico), combines Exposition Park with the Olympic-sized Los Angeles Coliseum on the last weekend of June annually. In 2009 the festival was split into a two-day event, the latter of which drew in estimated crowds of 90,000. EDC 2010 gathered approximately 185,000 over the two days, making it the largest electronic music festival in North America.
• Monster Massive, a Los Angeles Sports Arena event held once a year around the night of Halloween. Typically an audience of 15,000+ is present and in 2008 the event was reported to have an attendance of over 65,000.
• Together As One, an annual New Year's Eve festival held at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Credited as being the largest new year's dance music event in North America it usually brings in crowds of over 40,000.
• Nocturnal Festival, an annual southern California massive, held at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino in either August or September. Typically bringing in crowds of over 50,000 although this number has been steadily growing.
• Ultra Music Festival, Miami, Florida, U.S.: (100,000 visitors): A three day-long event with eleven stages playing various genres of electronic dance music. Famous for their lineup of many relatively well-known DJs along with pyrotechnics and light/laser shows.
• Electric Zoo Festival, by Made Event in New York
• DEMF Detroit Electronic Music Festival (Movement), organized by Paxahau, is an annual three day event during the Memorial Day weekend held at Hart Plaza, downtown Detroit. Performances include a variety of prominent international DJ's as well as local talent and original acts, celebrating the city as a birthplace of techno music. The festival usually features about 6 stages. Movement 09 drew 83,000 people.
• World Electronic Music Festival: held annually in Canada, this three-day-long outdoor event, consisting mainly of Trance, Hard Dance and Jungle (also featuring happy hardcore) has been held for the past thirteen years. The 2008 festival will be the final one in its current form. It is also known as WEMF.
• Winter Music Conference: held annually toward the end of Northern Hemisphere winter in Miami, WMC is a week-long conference and festival featuring many of the hottest DJs in the world each year.
• Love Fest: Held Annually in San Francisco, CA. Formerly known as the Love Parade. Typically an audience of 60,000+ watch the elaborate parade of famous DJs down Market Street to end at San Francisco City Hall for an impromptu dance party. Love Fest is followed by the Official Love Fest afterparty held at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium right next to the San Francisco City Hall. The event normally lasts from 12:00 pm noon until 4:00 am the next day. Many other events lead up to the main event throughout the week with guest DJs playing at many of the clubs.
• USC: Held annually in Seattle, WA (typically 7,000–10,000 attendees). USC is the American northwest's biggest trance/electronic music event. 2007's event featured three stages with Paul van Dyk as the headliner. 2008's event featured DJs Tiesto, BT, DJ Dan, and Donald Glaude. The event is typically a summer event that lasts from 9 pm – 10 am with the last six hours dedicated to an after party. The event also showcases the top local DJs.
• Global Dance Festival: Held annually at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver, CO. Typically 10,000+ attendees watch approximately 7 hour event featuring many well-known DJ's. Headliners in past years have included Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, and Ferry Corsten. Sasha and John Digweed headlined the 2009 show.
• Bal en Blanc: is a huge rave party that is hosted annually, in April during Easter holiday weekend, in Montreal, Canada. It features headliner DJs from all over the world and attracts over 15,000 attendees. This event usually has two separate rooms, one catering to house music and the other to trance music. It usually lasts for more than 14 hours. April 2009 15th anniversary line up: Insomnia, Markus Schulz, Above and Beyond, Armin Van Buuren, Roger Shah, King Louis, Uppercut, Offer Nissim, Ana Paula, Axwell, Deadmau5, Victor Calderone.

Other

• Morocco: Transahara Festival has been going since 2006 and is held over Easter in the dunes of the Sahara Desert. This year it will be held from April 22–26, 2011. An international gathering of people for a 4 day event. Artists include: Emok, Sensient, Absolum, and Maelstrom.
• Portugal: Boom Festival (the last edition was in Idanha-a-Nova) since 1997. This event is an outdoor festival running every two years with a duration of several days, focusing in psychedelic goa trance. The festival also features workshops, presentations, and cinema.
• Romania: Transylvania Calling – This event is an open-air electronic dance festival that takes place in the beautiful forests of Sibiu, Romania. The festival takes place every two years. In 2011, it will be held from 8–15 August.
• Germany: Full Moon Trance Festival This event is held during July 7-12th between the cities of Wittstock and Roebel, Germany. This festival celebrates psychedelic trance. In the year 2006 trance artists such as: Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Astrix, Space Tribe, 1200 Mics, GMS, Etnica, Oforia, Atomic Pulse, Electric Universe and Parasense plus many others were lined up to play. VuuV Festival is an international gathering for trance music lovers from all over the world held in Germany. Its primary focus is Goa trance making it the mother of all Goa festivals.
• Switzerland: Street Parade – The world's biggest electronic music festival (more than one million visitors attend this event year by year).
• Australia: Ultraworld and Universe Kryal Castle, Ballarat, Victoria, a 12 hour long event, comprising mainly Hardstyle, Hard Dance and Hard Trance (also featuring happy hardcore) event held in a replicated medieval castle. (no longer Running)
• Belgium: Tomorrowland – The largest Belgian open-air electronic music festival. 2010 had more than 120.000 visitors. Tomorrowland in 2011 will have a capacity of up to 180.000 visitors. DJs such as David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren, Bob Sinclar, Roger Sanchez, Felix The Housecat and many more.
• Belgium: Eargasm Festival – The biggest Belgian open-air gathering with resident artists Yannick Thiry, PsyVader, Caspar
• Jordan – Middle East Prana Petra Festival A majestical setting for a trance event in the ancient city of Petra, took place 2 years ago with DJ TIESTO Elements of Life with several thousands of ravers attending this massive event, celebrating Petra as one of the new world wonders.
• Jordan – Middle East Distant Heat Festival An annual electronic dance festival that takes place in the majestic Wadi Rum and the seaside resort town of Aqaba. It takes place on July 31 and August 1 for two whole days of partying. DJs from Jordan, the Middle East and around the world participate in this unique dance festival. Some famous artists who participate in the festival are Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Above & Beyond, and Josh Gabriel.
• India: Sunburn Festival launched in December 2007 as South Asia's first electronic music festival, and featured heavyweights like Carl Cox and John '00' Fleming. Located seaside in Goa, on India's west coast, the festival has its roots in Goa trance. Sunburn treated more than 5,000 electro revelers to a three-day party by the beach in December 2008. At the 2009 festival, heavyweights such as Armin Van Buuren, Roger Sanchez, and Sander van Doorn participated with audience numbers running between 15,000 to 18,000 making it the biggest edition yet.As of the 2010 festival, it showed the likes of Paul Van Dyk and many other DJ's with estimated crowds of 30,000 people.
• Thailand: Full Moon Party Held each month on the island of Koh Phangan. Thousands of people from across the world gather on Haad Rin Nok (Sunrise Beach) to dance under the moonlight.
• Bulgaria: Solar Summer Festival. For seven years now the best summer festival in Bulgaria. Every year thousands of tourist visit the black sea coast and enjoy the amazing parties with internationally pronounced DJ's like Armin van Buuren, Victor Calderone, Fatboy Slim, Tarkan, Paul Oakenfold and many others.
• Croatia: Future Nature Festival, City: Pula, Hosted by Marsroom. Some of the artists performed: Tristan, Hoodwink and others. VA – Future Nature 2010—released under Tesseract studio label mixed and compiled by DJ Nesho.
• South Africa: Rezonace, Cape Town. A 3day new years party where a host of national and international DJs play.

Many other countries lack festivals due to legal restrictions. Public prosecution departments in many countries — notably France — have been reluctant to give permits for techno and trance events, due to perceived drug issues.

In the past, ID&T has been expanding operations and begun to organize festivals in Belgium and Germany which have become popular in these countries. More recently (2008), ID&T is planning the Sensation World Tour in Chile, China, Poland, Czech Republic, Dubai & more to follow. Sensation white is more about the show and the performances surrounding the event where as ID&T's Trance Energy is about the DJ's. Trance Elements discusses details about Sensation White & Black and the future planning of this global phenomena.

External links

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