Petition to Rename "A State of Trance" to Reflect its Shift from Traditional Trance Music

[nightslapper]

I don't think I'm being unreasonable here. Let's be honest, it deviates significantly from what trance music traditionally represented. It feels more like mindless noise, contradicting the essence of the genre. If we start labelling every Euro dance and electro house track as trance, we dilute the genre's identity. My disagreement doesn't stem from hate or snobbery. When have I recently demonstrated such behaviour? The tracks featured on ASOT often lean more towards commercialism and vocal dance, formulaic edm and uplifting trance catering to a broader audience rather than staying true to the core elements of trance.

see, you strongly believe that your vision of the 'right' or as you call it traditional trance music can be applied globally to the entire genre, especially considering that there's no holy stone with the rules what is trance and what is not, what's traditional trance and what's 'deviated mindless noise'. you sure there's no hate? some producers might put their emotions in these tracks and some fans enjoy em and just because you dislike it, you think you have right to label it differently just to make trance scene your comfort zone?

just take it easy, don't try to 'fix' it, it's not how it works anyways

 

[Archon]

see, you strongly believe that your vision of the 'right' or as you call it traditional trance music can be applied globally to the entire genre, especially considering that there's no holy stone with the rules what is trance and what is not, what's traditional trance and what's 'deviated mindless noise'. you sure there's no hate? some producers might put their emotions in these tracks and some fans enjoy em and just because you dislike it, you think you have right to label it differently just to make trance scene your comfort zone?

just take it easy, don't try to 'fix' it, it's not how it works anyways

Common sense on TranceFix??? Are you trying to get yourself banned???

 

[Jetflag]

I can understand your sentiment @Progrez

but from a pro-active perspective I agree with @nightslapper

“Hating” or seeking to distance yourself from what Armin is pushing forward is perfectly fine.

but this type of “tranceSJW” esq petitions are besides pragmatically useless also just spiteful, who are you to lay claim on what another person makes or spins and calls?

if you want to pro-actively do something for the music you love and “against the music you despise”, do what you currently do. And with “metta” promote that which you find beautiful.

 

[Redrot]

at best it's a highly exclusive, faux-positive-wannabe-influencer pretentious bag of templated white noise and arpeggiated supersaws (in its most popular form at least). it's really not high art and all the fun has been sucked out of it, by and large all we wanna do is pander to our other beard stroking underground chums.

tl:dr - stop being so up yourselves and just learn how to enjoy all music again. not everything needs to be so clearly black and white. I'll be in my office vibing to taylor swift and maybe a little bit of k-pop

Cue the image!

I posted this set somewhere else but trance fans need to pull the cacti out of their asses and listen to more off the wall silly shit like this: https://soundcloud.com/djkitsch%2Fkitsch-rave-ghost

 

[dmgtz96]

Cue the image!

I posted this set somewhere else but trance fans need to pull the cacti out of their asses and listen to more off the wall silly shit like this: https://soundcloud.com/djkitsch%2Fkitsch-rave-ghost

This is the same playlist that you posted in the neo-trance thread, no?

I agree, sometimes it feels that trance fans stagnated in their music taste

 

[facade1984]

Cue the image!

I posted this set somewhere else but trance fans need to pull the cacti out of their asses and listen to more off the wall silly shit like this: https://soundcloud.com/djkitsch%2Fkitsch-rave-ghost

hahahaaaaa that's bonkers dude, not my thing at all but I'm definitely not gonna hate on it. that meme is timeless too and I felt it in my soul

 

[Redrot]

This is the same playlist that you posted in the neo-trance thread, no?

Yeah, I just thought it fit here. That whole night (basically an entire night of music like that) gave me a solid reminder that music doesn't need to be serious or refined to be a great time.

 

[Progrez]

About 43 people have signed the petition. That's way more than I was expecting.

 

[nightslapper]

About 43 people have signed the petition. That's way more than I was expecting.

halfway done changing the trance scene

 

[Progrez]

halfway done changing the trance scene

Spare me your sarcasm.

 

[Pokkryshkin]

In the modern ASOT radio show, there is quite a lot of trance music and it cannot be said that this is no longer a trance show. Yes, Armin himself no longer releases trance under his own name and plays more edm music at festivals. But it has to be so if he wants to stay on top. Now is not the time for trance music for the main scene, unfortunately. If you want a trance radio show without too much edm , you can listen to Solarstone pres Pure Trance Radio

 

[facade1984]

y'all still listen to asot huh

 

[Archon]

y'all still listen to asot huh

But they don't like it!

 

[Gijs]

As much as I understand the sentiment and your disapproval of how ASOT has changed over the past decade (even more radically over the past 3 years, I've noticed that as well), I don't see how and why we as fans of the "original" genre can and should have any input on how he does and names his show. It's his show, after all.

As others have mentioned before, even if trance isn't explicitly played on the show, people are made aware of the existence of the genre. I myself for example discovered Armin back in 2014 when I heard Save My Night on the radio and ASOT2015 was the first compilation I've listened to. When Armin started streaming the episodes on YouTube in Spring of 2016, I started to listen to the show itself as well causing me to become even more of a fan than I already was. Despite both the compilations and the show being filled with mostly big room and progressive house tunes at the time, I've still come to appreciate the older trance songs from the times before he tried to appeal to a more mainstream audience. I've distanced myself from the show itself since 2018 or so, only keeping up with the compilations, but I would not have discovered the "original" genre if Armin had chosen not to refer to his music as trance music. Therefore, I still believe that his current influence on the genre as a whole is pretty good at best and neutral at worst.

Having said that, I understand why you'd want to see the name change to reflect the shift to him playing (melodic) techno and progressive house and such on the show. As I see it however, we'd lose our biggest step-in to trance if he actually decided to stop calling his music trance; he is the biggest trance artist around at the moment after all, even if he doesn't always make or play it. If you're not interested in whatever it is he plays, there are thousands of other trance artists, labels and platforms around who could satisfy your needs: as mentioned, he himself recommends some of them as well.

So to summarise: no, I do not believe Armin needs to change the name of his show. I'd even say that it'd be detrimental to the genre if he did.

We need ASOT to acknowledge this shift away from traditional trance music by changing its name accordingly - perhaps something like "A State of Turd". This may seem harsh but it reflects our disappointment with how far ASOT has strayed from its roots.​

I would also like to advise you to remove this from the petition, as I personally think the goal in general is already unattainable in and of itself. Wishing to change the name to this or whatever other derogatory phrase you can think of makes the entire petition nothing more than your average internet meme (unless you're truly serious about this, then I'd call it an above average internet meme).

[Edit: rephrased some sentences.]