Only five Trance or Trance-related DJs left on the DJ Mag DJs list now

Jul 20, 2020
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Out of curiosity, I've decided to check out this year's DJ Mag Top 100 DJs list and I noticed that as of this year only five Trance or Trance-related DJs remain on the list which are:

5. Armin van Buuren
30. Above & Beyond
38. Paul van Dyk
42. ATB
87. Ferry Corsten

I'm not really surprised at Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond and even Ferry Corsten, after all, Armin is popular and poppy enough to satisfy pretty much everyone even if most of the music he promotes there is highly questionable.
Above & Beyond on the other hand became their own thing and really popular at it, they are only Trance by association at this point, though.
Ferry Corsten became a monthly resident DJ at the ASOT Radioshow since 2020 so no surprises here.
Paul van Dyk is somewhat suprising since I haven't seen him being that much popular or even releasing something extremely remarkable as of late but since he has quite a legacy at this point it still doesn't come off as a full surprise to me.
The biggest surprise is ATB, seriously, I'm often astonished at how popular he apparently still is despite the fact that he has never really been a high-profile DJ in the scene itself, after all, Armin would barely play his tracks even during his golden years, he doesn't have a radioshow of his own, yet here is, once again on the list, I mean, sure last year it had a tremendous hit with his own remake of "9PM" but that was just one hit, I highly doubt he any other extremely successful tracks after that one.

With all this being said and done, I think there is one thing we can take from this list: Trance is no longer the relevant music genre it used to be, it has been surpassed by a considerable amount of music genres at this point, in fact, Techno is way more popular than Trance at this point, judging by the number of Techno DJs compared to the number of Trance ones, it's quite clear that even Techno is way more popular than Trance, the only genre which has clearly died at this point is Hardstyle, along with Hardcore/Gabber, the only ones who still remain on that list from those genres are Angerfist, Brennan Heart and Miss Kate, so, yeah, we can call those have-been genres at this point.
 

dmgtz96

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Jul 13, 2020
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I hate to be "that guy," but it's been like that for a while ever since the dubstep and EDM DJs reached mainstream success. Outside of certain European countries, trance has not been relevant for more than a decade.
 

Recharge

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Sep 26, 2020
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The biggest surprise is ATB, seriously, I'm often astonished at how popular he apparently still is despite the fact that he has never really been a high-profile DJ in the scene itself, after all, Armin would barely play his tracks even during his golden years, he doesn't have a radioshow of his own, yet here is, once again on the list, I mean, sure last year it had a tremendous hit with his own remake of "9PM" but that was just one hit, I highly doubt he any other extremely successful tracks after that one.

Btw as one of Andre's biggest fans in this reality, I would not count him as trance, unless you add Tiesto too. With that said he has a very massive and loyal fan base and he manages to rally the troops every year. I used to vote him at least a few years in a row myself.

Btw that one hit song will hit around 150mln views counting all bigger uploads on Youtube. Even Armin can only dream about that numbers from 1 song atm.

And to add Andre has a very loyal fan base because he has always been great towards his fans, amazing even. I even have my own story about him.

I imagine that sickly motherfucker Giuseppe is seething. Vanity mirror lobbed across the studio floor. His eyebrow strips manifesting slowly and demonically into a summoning circle.
LOl thank you for that
 
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Jul 20, 2020
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Portugal
I imagine that sickly motherfucker Giuseppe is seething. Vanity mirror lobbed across the studio floor. His eyebrow strips manifesting slowly and demonically into a summoning circle.
Yeah, I honestly don't understand how all of a sudden Giuseppe Ottaviani became such a phenomenon to the point of even his past being retconned as being something bigger than what it really was.
Btw as one of Andre's biggest fans in this reality, I would not count him as trance, unless you add Tiesto too. With that said he has a very massive and loyal fan base and he manages to rally the troops every year. I used to vote him at least a few years in a row myself.

Btw that one hit song will hit around 150mln views counting all bigger uploads on Youtube. Even Armin can only dream about that numbers from 1 song atm.

And to add Andre has a very loyal fan base because he has always been great towards his fans, amazing even. I even have my own story about him.
Well, he did produce a Trance track last year but yeah, ever since he released that remake of "9PM" he's been getting poppier and poppier almost at a Tiësto level at this point.
The rest I can believe, yes, I remember him being very dedicated to the fans in the past, yeah, what I noticed is that he appears to be extremely popular in Poland, pretty much all his studio albums since Addicted To Music charted there, most of them even reaching top 10, actually.
 

Progrez

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Jun 17, 2022
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All of them have moved onto genres you can hear it in their tracks.
 

Bobby Summa

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I imagine that sickly motherfucker Giuseppe is seething. Vanity mirror lobbed across the studio floor. His eyebrow strips manifesting slowly and demonically into a summoning circle.
I think I remember once liking a Giusepoe Ottiavani track i have on a compilation. I read and hear about him a lot and I expect some of his music is great, but i cant prove that as I don’t actually know the name of any of his tracks or actually remember any. This may mean on the other hand they aren’t particularly remarkable and that if this is the case I put his fame down to having a great name. The way his name sounds is very catchy and somewhat beautiful.
you can call me naïve or even crazy, but if his music is nothing special, then il bet my last £ on it being his actual name that catches the eye and ears making you think he’s something special. Just say it out loud.
Because im pretty sure if hes ever made any remarkable trance, surely id remember it. Id love to be wrong.
 

Bobby Summa

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Seems to be a sad ‘State’ that trance is in. Perhaps Armin should reflect on that seeing as his compilations and radio shows are called A ‘State’ of Trance.
i remember seeing a series of interviews with Tiesto paul van dtk and Armin van buuren. All saying their music will never be commercial and they would never team up with rappers or whatever those people are who love money fame Lamborghini’s and women, and probably smoking that Jelato. Anyway, they all as far as i know ( maybe not Paul) went and teamed up with musicians or whatever who have absolutely nothing to do with Trance or anything terribly talented. Looks a bit as if the stars bent the scene and let it go. All i see on armada tv youtube thing is 4 min songs. Occasionally i think. Christ if this was 8 mins i could trance to it. But unfortunately a ‘State’ of trance takes a lot more than 4 mins to truly fulfill ones hynotic needs.
It would be good to change this terrible fashion.

So….

As Tiesto once said…. “Let’s get down to business”

I believe that house music originated from a night club in chicago where back then gay black people didnt have any type of freedom to truly be themselves. DJ’s like farley jackmaster etc bought records made with 2 synths a drum machine and a sampler from guys in Chicago who found it a great form of expression of their what was then seen as a difference by many.

Although completely different circumstances. Perhaps a future project for Trancefix.nl and TF-R could be the acquisition of a small venue to run nights where beautiful ’Trance music’ is played both by DJ’s and perhaps live performers. ( it is possible to do trance live, ive done it myself at open mic nights). A problem would be that we all live in different countries so traveling would be involved. Perhaps then a ‘movement’ that trancefix.nl create which runs nights at various venues with only beautiful or affective trance played. Not sub par stuff.
@Hensmon @Gagi and crew. If TF-R takes off i think this could be a possibility, a mammoth idea and probably totally unrealistic but we all have connections right?
 
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Recharge

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In and out of love has 267M views...armin has many more plays than ATB.
That's why I said atm. Even if he remixes is it now will he get even 100mln, doubtful...

I am not shitting on Armin, but Andre has such a loyal fan base for a reason.
 

SaltAcidFatHeatAcid

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Jul 19, 2022
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I think I remember once liking a Giusepoe Ottiavani track i have on a compilation. I read and hear about him a lot and I expect some of his music is great, but i cant prove that as I don’t actually know the name of any of his tracks or actually remember any. This may mean on the other hand they aren’t particularly remarkable and that if this is the case I put his fame down to having a great name. The way his name sounds is very catchy and somewhat beautiful.
you can call me naïve or even crazy, but if his music is nothing special, then il bet my last £ on it being his actual name that catches the eye and ears making you think he’s something special. Just say it out loud.
Because im pretty sure if hes ever made any remarkable trance, surely id remember it. Id love to be wrong.
You guys cray cray hehe. His later stuff didn't quite get the magic of the beginnings, but good lord, nothing memorable from GO?

NU NRG - Le Mirage
Active Sight - Tears of Joy (NU NRG Remix)
Jose Eternal - The Eternal (NU NRG Remix)
Giuseppe Ottaviani - Linking People
 
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Bobby Summa

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You guys cray cray hehe. His later stuff didn't quite get the magic of the beginnings, but good lord, nothing memorable from GO?

NU NRG - Le Mirage
Active Sight - Tears of Joy (NU NRG Remix)
Jose Eternal - The Eternal (NU NRG Remix)
Giuseppe Ottaviani - Linking People
Cheers Mr Acid. I will check these out. Ive always been into a diverse range of music and pretty passionate about it all. So its hard to know all great pieces of music from one genre. Those track names do seem familiar tho. I keep thinking, I should learn to shut up, but im learning so much stuff that its being learned slowly. I think i just need a slap. But not today, i had a tooth extracted 2 days ago. OooucccH! 😆

Update: ive just listened to the tracks. Im actually hanging my head in shame. Some classics there indeed.

( im giving myself a knockout virtual slap) 🤦‍♂️
 
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Quethas

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Jul 15, 2020
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Paul van Dyk is somewhat suprising since I haven't seen him being that much popular or even releasing something extremely remarkable as of late but since he has quite a legacy at this point it still doesn't come off as a full surprise to me.
Actually I got the reminder that this vote still exists through Paul van Dyk's newsletter or something similar. So I guess he is still "rallying the troops" so to say. That is probably one of the reasons why he is so high in the list still.

I haven't voted for years and the last time I did was basically for the free download in Beatport. It is a popularity contest of sorts and I lost interest already when trance was still somewhat relevant.

Trance is a small genre these days and even if the list is utter crap, it just highlights where trance currently is at the food chain.
 

SaltAcidFatHeatAcid

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Jul 19, 2022
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Cheers Mr Acid. I will check these out. Ive always been into a diverse range of music and pretty passionate about it all. So its hard to know all great pieces of music from one genre. Those track names do seem familiar tho. I keep thinking, I should learn to shut up, but im learning so much stuff that its being learned slowly. I think i just need a slap. But not today, i had a tooth extracted 2 days ago. OooucccH! 😆

Update: ive just listened to the tracks. Im actually hanging my head in shame. Some classics there indeed.

( im giving myself a knockout virtual slap) 🤦‍♂️

Haha no worries mate. GO w/Ribeca as NU NRG did some amazing things. Neither has made music that live up to what they did together back in the day in my opinion! GO these days makes technically great stuff that just lacks that special sauce. Ribeca's stuff is really not for me at all.

If you want a bit more of a taste, here's an ode to NU NRG, producer's set. PVD/NU NRG really killed it in the early 00's.
https://soundcloud.com/user-948052372%2Fnu-nrg-live-at-orgasmatron-123104