So every new trance track is basically the same as EVERY new pop music track??
I never said 138-trance sounds like pop songs. So I don't understand what point you are trying to make. My statements
"they sound the same" are
not similar to what your grandma would say
"this is boem boem boem music, it's all the same". I am making an 100% objective analysis of the product. I will show you why it's objective.
Let's look at
only the kickdrum (to begin with), to
objectively decide on the artistic value of above track:
THE KICK
In all these tracks, where I recently said "they sound alike", the kicks are roughly the same. With that I mean: the "style" of those kicks is the same.
And because of that: You could take the kick from the Alex MORPH track, and implement it in Billy's track. And literally nobody would hear any difference. You could then take the kick from Billy's track and implement that into the Carian O'Something guy's track. And still, nobody would notice anything. And you can take thát kick and use it in.... ETCETERA. You can swap all these kicks from dozens of artists and no fucks would be given.
Why? Because all those kicks are of the exact same style >> The famous big thumping kick with a big "midhigh-frequency tick". Straight out of an Activa sample pack or whatever.
So. Conclusion so far: The
artistic value of the kickdrums used by ALL these artists:
extremely LOW. The kicks give their tracks zero identity. Nothing tells me "Ah yeah, this is the artist ALEX Morph speaking to me". No. It's just pure generic.
HOW IT USED TO BE
So... Maybe you think:
Stop it, it's just a kickdrum. That's just a "boom" sound, and that's it. What are they else going to use. No drums? No. You are wrong.
Twenty years ago artists DID use many other types of kickdrums. So many different ones that artists even had their "own" type of kick.
Listen to any Ferry Corsten track, or Svenson, or Rank 1, or Dumonde, Tiesto, Cosmic Gate, etc. Those artsts used their "own" type of kicks. You can tell just by the kick it's from them. It's their
identity.
To praise them even more: It's not like Sven or Ferry used the "exact same kick" sample over and over and over again. No, they used different ones, but "within the range of their identity". So if you take Sven, you can listen to Twisted, Beauty of Silence, l"Esperanza, Silence (Remix).... 4 different kicks, yet all "his signature sound kick". Same for the other artists.
(To compare with 2021: For example take Allen & Envy. Praised a LOT within the 138-scene. But they don't just use a generic kick. That's already bad. But they use the exact
same sample in lots of tracks. Literally the exact same one!!!)
So. Conclusion: The artistic value of the kickdrums used back then was way higher. Simply because back then, they were trying to have their own identity. Their own sounds. And not by re-using stuff, but actual creating new ones "yet still within their identity'. And succeeded! So it's very possible.
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Now, so far, a lot of words, but I have still only judged the above track based on the kickdrum.
I will tell you in short how this analysis continues: not good. Because all, or at least most, aspects of the track will end up this way:
- bassline: lack of identity, the sounds are used by everyone, and also it's always kick-bass-bass-bass-kick "rolling" rhythm... you can swap them and nobody would care. Was it different in the past? Yes, back then artists were capabable of it... so why not now? Conclusion, bassline artisic value: Very low.
- Percussion: lack of identity. These clicky meaningless loops are used in all these tracks. You can swap these loops with the ones from the other tracks, and the track would be still the same to you. But wait, in the past artists were capabable of it... why not now? Percs: artisic value Low.
- Synts: all similar "plucks", no identity, but wait, in the past artists were
very capable of "own" synth sounds, why not now? Synths now: artistic value: Low.
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So..... a 100%
objective analysis of this track, and all other recent 138-uplifters: They are bad.
Therefor I cannot understand why the Freezers of this world rate all these tracks 8/10 one after another. Because with my story here, I objectively showed why such a track can never get a high score, even when the melodies in it are nice. The artistic value of the whole production is simply way too low for a high score.