Petition - Big DJs like Armin van Buuren should stop labelling themselves as "Trance Djs"

[Progrez]

Sign the Petition

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

www.change.org

What do you guys think? I think it's fair to say that he should stop calling himself as a trance producer and a trance dj. It's not an opinion either stuff like this is no different from the stuff guetta and Steve Aioki and Afrojack and Hardwell produces. This is not a question of tastes nor is it a questions of mixing styles as well either it's principles.

 

[TRANCEBLASTER]

why should I/or anybody else care for mr. Buuren? he makes mostly super cringe music for 20 years

 

[Hoplite]

Petitions like these are more of a meme than anything else. But I can understand the sentiment. If Armin finally caved in and just renamed his show to A State Of Dance, it would actually feel much less bullshit than now. Not that I care what he does anyway

 

[Archon]

I don't see what's the goal here. How does this help?

 

[Julian Del Agranda]

Best to just leave him behind in your mind. Armin is simply a marketing-machine with another new radio-song every week. He was already 50/50 with being trance and radio-pop a decade ago. And now the balance has shifted to like 95% radio-pop and the odd 5% mediocre trance release.

Focus on guys like Solarstone, Activa. And producers like Enigma State, or whoever you like. Invest time and thoughts into those

 

[Archon]

Moreover, where do we see he declares himself a trance DJ?

I've checked his sites and socials, nowhere is it stated he is a trance DJ. He brags about DJ Mag, and there is some mention of dance music in general. I've checked Beatport as well, very little of his recent stuff is labelled as trance - and if it is, it's main room.

He has a radio show with "trance" in its name, I get that. I haven't checked it for a while, but I bet he still plays (what most consider as) trance, at least in the 2nd hour. OK, maybe it would be good if he renamed it, but ASOT is a brand now, and you don't really let that go if it still has some popularity. Just like the show itself. It's generating him money.

I don't get the obsession over his choices and career path. I just realized he released a 3-part album recently, I didn't even know that. Who cares?

 

[Jetflag]

he should stop

No..He shouldn't stop or start doing anything by means of a dogpile-petition. Art/Music or one's own labeling for that matter.. is not a democracy.

He can do whatever the hell wants creativly and I'll do whatever the hell I want in terms of listening or buying or cringing for that matter.

 

[Enlusion]

Just stop caring about things you don't care about. Follow the Trance DJs and producers you like and support them.

 

[Daysleeper]

Can we pleeease stop posting about armin & co /mainstream scene instead. Better to ignore and promote something better/alternative. Im baffled people still promote it.

 

[LostLegend]

What on Earth…

 

[Magdelayna]

Who cares.

 

[Spacetime]

He still plays Trance in his show, just not Trance I like or respect. He’s still having a good time by the looks of it anyway. As a big Armin fan growing up, and him being one of the reasons I discovered and loved this genre, I have nothing but love for this guy honestly. Let him make all the money he wants, he gave us so many good years.

 

[juracid]

He still plays Trance in his show, just not Trance I like or respect. He’s still having a good time by the looks of it anyway. As a big Armin fan growing up, and him being one of the reasons I discovered and loved this genre, I have nothing but love for this guy honestly. Let him make all the money he wants, he gave us so many good years.

i grew up with him too but cannot agree with your opinion.

yes, he has produced some well tracks in his early years (like blue fear, communication). he then went better with his Gaia and Perpetuous Dreamer alias. All solid to sometimes good, but nothing more. Comparing to his producing skills he is and was just one of many trance producers from The Netherlands back in the day. If you compare his skills with Ferry Corsten's early work until ....like mid-2000s, well.... you can check by yourself. Of course, Ferry is also crap nowadays like all the other old 'heroes' but he is (or was) a better producer of trance music than Armin will ever be.

The difference is that he went SUPERSTARDOM very quickly and killed the whole scene in the next ~15 years because he still calls his fucked up radio show 'A State Of Trance' as of 2025. That's the main difference. For example, I am not a fan of Tiesto, I never liked his (pop) music but he officially retired from the trance scene around 2006/2007 and do not want to be called a 'trance' producer any longer. ...Which is absolutely okay. But Armin still thinks he IS the trance god which he never was or will be.

He should finally retire from the scene or call his radioshow 'A State Of Dancy Pop' or something like this because he is responsible that people all over the world still think that his music and dj sets are trance music. And yes, I hate him for this. It's way worse as what he 'did' for the scene back in the 90s or early 2000s. Sorry for these harsh words but this immediately comes to my mind when I think about Armin Van Buuren.

 

[Parysatis]

 

[Subspace Jet Witch]

Personally, I feel there's a lot of good music we're all missing out on, simply because so much effort that'd could've otherwise gone to making and/or promoting it, instead goes to making pissy complaints on the internet about how nobody makes good music any longer. This type of nonsense just reminds me of the type of songs desperate musicians write that go like "I care so little about what the haters think of me, that I wrote a whole song about how little I care about them"

Listen to some vocaloid music instead

 

[JohnnyBarefoot1992]

i grew up with him too but cannot agree with your opinion.

yes, he has produced some well tracks in his early years (like blue fear, communication). he then went better with his Gaia and Perpetuous Dreamer alias. All solid to sometimes good, but nothing more. Comparing to his producing skills he is and was just one of many trance producers from The Netherlands back in the day. If you compare his skills with Ferry Corsten's early work until ....like mid-2000s, well.... you can check by yourself. Of course, Ferry is also crap nowadays like all the other old 'heroes' but he is (or was) a better producer of trance music than Armin will ever be.

The difference is that he went SUPERSTARDOM very quickly and killed the whole scene in the next ~15 years because he still calls his fucked up radio show 'A State Of Trance' as of 2025. That's the main difference. For example, I am not a fan of Tiesto, I never liked his (pop) music but he officially retired from the trance scene around 2006/2007 and do not want to be called a 'trance' producer any longer. ...Which is absolutely okay. But Armin still thinks he IS the trance god which he never was or will be.

He should finally retire from the scene or call his radioshow 'A State Of Dancy Pop' or something like this because he is responsible that people all over the world still think that his music and dj sets are trance music. And yes, I hate him for this. It's way worse as what he 'did' for the scene back in the 90s or early 2000s. Sorry for these harsh words but this immediately comes to my mind when I think about Armin Van Buuren.

I wouldn't say he's "crap", but yeah, musically speaking his music is definitely not as spectacular as it used to be back in the late 90's to early 2000's.

As for Armin still thinking he's the "Trance God", I personally think this was one of the main reasons why Trance Music took a turn for the worse already in the mid 2000's. Reducing a whole music genre with a lot to offer to a complete cult of personality in which the DJ is revered as if he was some sort of God was the biggest mistake Trance did, in my very honest opinion, as it reduces a music genre with lots of different musicians, styles, sounds, labels and subgenres to only a handful of people and their labels, and, in my very personal opinion, I don't think that's in any way positive to the genre and it's completely anti-ethos when it comes to the genre itself.

To be absolutely honest, the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen in the Trance Music scene is the way people worshipped both Tiësto and Armin van Buuren as if they were some sort of "gods" and almost as if Trance would be nothing without them, for me, this is the kind of attitude that has turned this genre into a massive joke. Trance shouldn't ever be a cult-like thing where DJ's are worshipped as if they were gods, Trance should be about the music, the emotions, the journey, all that, not about vapid celebrity worship, for that we already have mainstream pop music.