I really enjoyed reading Ishkur's hyper-precise, super narrowly focused description of the
trance genre, posted again yesterday (
https://music.ishkur.com/).
I wanted to share it in to see how others react to it.
genre: Trance
also: Trance
scene: Trance
emergence: early 90s
Trance is the second most misattributed genre in all of electronic music (after Techno). If I asked you to give me a list of the best Trance DJs, all of them would be wrong. Because 1) You shouldn't have a concept of "best Trance DJs" and 2) Unless you have a copy of Harthouse or Eye Q's early catalogue on vinyl you probably don't know any actual Trance DJs. You probably don't know what Trance is either.
So what, exactly, is Trance and where did it come from?
As direct as I can put it: Trance was an offshoot of German EBM in the late 80s and early 90s and was probably coined in 1991 by Mark Reeder of MFS Records (although the word had been bandied about for several years before then). And we know this because he tells us as such in this 1993 documentary about the early Trance scene:
That first literal needle drop is Secret Knowledge - Sugar Daddy -- a "fine example of trance music".
Trance proper is a term that only applies to this short-lived style of music in Germany and the UK (and to a lesser extent the US) before it got ripped apart and pulled in different directions for different reasons, mangling its reputation beyond recognition. And that is all Trance should refer to and nothing else.
The principle behind Trance was the unresolved, infinite track, with interweaving elements and layers and a ceaseless beat carrying it along like a metronome.
Like a lot of early electronic music (and like all good electronic music), Trance borrowed heavily from the aesthetics of Minimalism and it disdained the usage of the dull verse-bridge-chorus format of pop songcraft. In the hands of a competent DJ Trance sounds like one long song, unceasing and unwavering, all night long. A single arpeggiating synth lead with phaser sweeps is all it really needs.
That's not to say that Trance does not have hooks or melodies, or even anthems of the next-day-washing-the-dishes-whistling-to-yourself variety, or that it should not have breakdowns. They're just not supposed to dominate Trance to an insufferable extent.
Trance is best when it lives up to its namesake: It entrances you. Anything else it tries to do (like make you cheer on the douche jockey or put your arms in the air) is fucking offensive.
Unfortunately there is a common tendency among critics and historians to find a number of similar attributes in a specific media, group them into a genre, and then go back in time and retcon other things with those attributes as the same genre despite the fact that the people in those eras did not and would not have called it that.
This happens a lot in things like books and movies (for instance: the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope coined in 2007 and then retconned to include Audrey Hepburn movies from 50 years ago) and it also happens in music.
And in electronic music's case it has happened most often with Trance.
There are a lot of things in the past that have been called proto-Trance or indicated as having a great influence on Trance, from Giorgio Moroder's galloping synths to the electric body buzz of Liaisons Dangereuses to the experimental minimalism of Pink Floyd - On The Run to even some Trance forerunners like Psychic TV or The KLF. But none of those are really Trance.
There is also a tendency among music magazines and fans to continuously call something that someone made Trance because they previously made Trance even though it's clearly evident that they have long since moved on from the sound and have no interest in returning to it, like Ferry Corsten's Electrohouse dumbassery, or whatever stupid shit Armin is trying to do, or Tiesto's pitiful attempts at trying to make Trouse happen. But none of those are really Trance either.
This is also why you should stop following these dipshits like they're rock stars. Listen to Trance because you like Trance, not because you hero worship Dutch superdorks.
And then there are the watered down pop offshoots of Trance (including Eurotrance and Vocal Trance) that you often hear in clothing stores at the mall. None of that is Trance either. That's not what this genre is. Ferry, Armin, and Tiesto are not here.
Listen to what real Trance should sound like.
Trance as a concept was so fragile it obviously could not and did not last. As with most things in electronic music, things go to shit when the Dutch get hold of it. The descendents of Trance -- Progressive Trance, Hard Dance, Psy Trance, Eurotrance -- all sold it down the river in their own unique way.
When I think of pure Trance music, I really don't think of anything past 1994. There are some exceptions but generally all Trance music has been commercial pop drivel since the late 90s. I blame Oakenfold.
Ish.