Ferry Corsten.. controversial? I guess that Punk was pretty controversial at its release lmao.
Oliver Lieb is awesome and was the best trance producer for a while, but in a 2020 context that's not true. He switched over to minimal/deep techno a while ago.
It's either Airwave or Ferry. Both have their pros and cons and a wide range of styles. Airwave stayed true to his sound and rarely produced something commercial (except for his Fire & Ice project). Ferry from the beginning was more commercial-friendly - just look at Galaxia. However, Ferry pioneered "electro-trance" and supported many artists with his label Flashover recordings. Ferry then revived the Gouryella project, which whether you like it or not is truer to the original anthem trance sound than many of Airwave's post-Atlas Winds productions.
I know it sounds like a stretch, but from a 2020 context it's safe to say that Ferry is the best trance producer. Airwave is close enough, but his deep intellectual Egyptian cinematic dark progressive trance leaves a lot to be desired IMO. Also, many of his post-Atlas Winds productions have little variation among one another.
Now, you could claim Ferry appealed to nostalgia... but isn't that what everyone raves about, and why many people like trance in the first place?
For what it's worth I am not a Ferry fanboy. Far from it - my favorite trance track of all time, after all, is L.S.G.'s Netherworld. I just think Ferry is a great candidate for the best trance producer in a 2020 context.
Yes, of course Ferry Corsten is controversial, the moment someone claims that he was downright responsible for the somewhat dumbification or even death of Trance Music as a whole, of course he is controversial and this are not even my words and no, "Punk" was not the problem, om the contrary, it was actually a nice idea, in general, the problem is that when he led Epic Trance to its golden era boom in the late 90s, he was also largely responsible for pretty much giving a stereotype of what Trance Music should be, leading many to boycott the genre as a whole and others to try to make something different out of it like the Tech and the Neo-Micro Trance stuff.
Yes, it's true that the Gouryella revival is truer to the original Epic Trance sound than the Airwave post-Atlas stuff but that's because Airwave has a whole wants to go as further as possible with the genre and if you actually go by the actual sense of the word
Trance, you will actually notice that Airwave's most recent material is in fact, way Trancier than anything Ferry Corsten has ever released. You also claim that many of his post-Atlas releases have little variation among on another and that they leave a lot to be desired but to be honest, Ferry Corsten is in no way different, just because he revived an old project and a somewhat oldschoolish sound, doesn't mean that all of a sudden he's some sort of King of Trance music, the problem is that you're weren't even talking from a 2020 context, you were single-handedly considering him the best producer of all-time when that's pretty much far from the truth, at least, in my opinion.
Yes, it's also true that Oliver Lieb left the scene and Airwave's most recent material may not be as exciting as his earlier material but their legacy is sufficiently large and undeniable that yes, they will forever be seen as two of the most influential and quintessential Trance producers that any Trance fan should know and should be able to appreciate their tunes, way more than Ferry will ever be, if you ask me.
As for the whole nostalgia thing, actually no, I mean, I won't deny, Epic Trance was, for the most part, what really got me into Trance and I still have a lot of good memories with so many tracks coming out of that subgenre in particular but at this point, the whole genre is stale and out of ideas and its formula has become so trite that not even I can take that seriously anymore, plus, even though his most recent material is trying to sound as oldschoolish as possible, the fact is that it really isn't because the production values have change massively over the years and this kind of stuff really differs a lot soundwise than what it was released along the same lines back in the late 90s/early 00s.
Oliver Lieb, Airwave, Push, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk are all better then Ferry.
None of these producers apart from Airwave has done anything good since 2005.
I wouldnt put Ferry even on my top 10, most of his tracks were to cheese.
Oliver Lieb has given up on Trance as a whole so it's not really fair to say he hasn't done anything good since 2005 since he's no longer on the scene, although he did produce some Trancy releases recently, check out L.S.G. - Whiteout, for example, released in 2017, that's quite Trancy, in my books, way more than the whole Epic Trance subgenre, if you ask me.
Oliver Lieb and Airwave: see above
Push: great producer, quality went down significantly around 2010-2011 and never really recovered
Tiesto: You can't be serious
PvD: another great producer, but the breadth of his skill is lacking. Many tracks even during his most productive years sounded very much the same.
The problem with Tiësto is that he was never really a producer in his own merits, maybe in his Hardcore years but that was way too many years ago. But even excluding the whole "fake-producer" thing, most of his post-2002 material was actually rather questionable and I'm not even going to go further with this except that his version of "Adagio" is easily one of worse things Trance Music has ever seen and an actual offense to the original Samuel Barber's composition which was never really meant to be a club track in the first place, it was meant to be a funeral track which makes any Trance version, including Ferry's remix of Orbit's version quite ridiculous but Tiësto's version took it to a new level of stupid, that's for sure.
M.I.K.E. Push used to be better, yes but he still has it from time.
Paul van Dyk is just as overrated as Ferry, in my opinion, although he is somewhat forgiven for creating one of the biggest and most quintessential masterpieces Trance Music has ever seen, which is his "Love Stimulation" remix from 1993, now, that's a track that will never really age no matter how much time will pass by.