Trance really is dead. (At least in the mainstream)

[Quethas]

Just a few thoughts which randomly popped out into my head.

- I mean, trance (at least in it's more "underground" form) was really popular only a short period of time. However trance was the biggest or the second biggest genre of electronic music for many years. Electronic music itself was not that popular but trance was pretty much around immediately when you started to dig out for electronic music. It was like the gateway genre to electronic music up until the late 00's or so.
- I think Imagine-era (well perhaps Mirage/Intense if we are really pushing this) Armin van Buuren was the last time where you can say trance had any kind of real commercial success.
- Trance was declared uncool somewhere around 2005 and after that, the scene started it's slow but ever continued decline. Big room claimed the space as the popular genre for the more melodic side of electronic music somewhere around 2013 and it just pushed trance further away from the core electronic genres.
- Because trance is still considered quite uncool, a lot of "almost trance" is now in different subgenres. Once upon a time a lot of stuff from progressive house, melodic house or melodic techno would have been classified as trance.
- I just went to Ferry Corsten's gig and it was very pleasant three hours. And there were also younger people in the audience.
- Parts of trance probably will pop up here and there more and more since enough time has passed since the peak days for it to become cool and retro again.

 

[Pokkryshkin]

The trance sound I’m most into is gone, like Probsbot or Emphased Reality. I guess I’m left listening to the classics or digging for new gems in old mixes.

 

[Jetflag]

But we are really clutching at straws here...we are still talking about 20 years ago. My point is about the thread title...Trance has been nowhere near mainstream for a long time.

on that we agree yes,

personal note: I don't think that is a bad thing at all by the way. Ask yourself: do we really want trance to be mainstream?

 

[Magdelayna]

on that we agree yes,

personal note: I don't think that is a bad thing at all by the way. Ask yourself: do we really want trance to be mainstream?

No,not really - it doesnt bother me. It had its time in the 'Mainstream' as every other genre - something like what Dubstep had a few years later.

We can look at other styles of music as an example - take 90s/2000's indie/rock - did that ever come back in the mainstream?

 

[Julian Del Agranda]

do we really want trance to be mainstream?

Sure, why not?

When it became mainstream in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 (apart from the holy UK charts)...

This was also the period that sooooooooo many huge classics were made. The biggest and most important dance events were based around trance. Innercity, Trance Energy, Sensation... Tiesto's own concerts in 2003-2004... Dance Valley and Mysteryland had lots of room for trance.

It lures in a lot of possible talents. And in a healthy scene there is enough money to earn, that you can invest into proper gear, proper studio monitors, proper acoustic treatment, etc. Now we create trance on our medicore equipment, in a spare room at home, mastered by another hobbyist. Supported by a handful hobbyist-dj's with an online show, receiving 5 "thanks for support" comments from those he played. And Daysleeper probably disses you on here. That's our scene.

Plus... I personally loved the cheesy "trance", coming from acts like Dance Nation and G-Spott. Sylver, Milk Inc, Lasgo. Great time.

///

You can say "it doesnt bother me" but the result of our small scene is that you experience a lot less new great music in the genre that you say you love.

 

[Exodom]

Trances mainstream pinnacle was when Tiesto performed at the Athens Olympics in 2004. This to me is always an amazing thing. I was very young at the time, and still it had an impression me, and in retrospect I find it cool that we had amazing Trance music as the feature of the worlds biggest event. How awesome is that!

I think what it means to be in the mainstream has changed drastically. Back then, it was a reflection of something very good, today it is a reflection of something very bad. Its the same word, but not the same thing.

 

[Magdelayna]

Trances mainstream pinnacle was when Tiesto performed at the Athens Olympics in 2004. This to me is always an amazing thing. I was very young at the time, and still it had an impression me, and in retrospect I find it cool that we had amazing Trance music as the feature of the worlds biggest event. How awesome is that!

I think what it means to be in the mainstream has changed drastically. Back then, it was a reflection of something very good, today it is a reflection of something very bad. Its the same word, but not the same thing.

Thats true about the olympics,i forgot about that. But quickly after that i feel Trance went back underground and never came back into the mainstream. Guys like Tiesto left to EDM.

But this isnt a bad thing...the Trance scene has still thrived without it ever being mainsteam again...its not an important factor for me...youll always get good producers coming through. And theres still great events being put on aswell.

 

[Julian Del Agranda]

youll always get good producers coming through. And theres still great events being put on aswell.

"There will always be". Although so far the graph goes like this:

\

 

[SleepyBuddah]

I'm in doubt about the fact if Trance should become Mainstream again.

It will maybe give new opportunities for aspiring producers to get there break through as well for new future classics. So that's a good thing.
But on the other hand wouldn't it be better if it grows but remains under that Mainstream threshold?

 

[Jetflag]

Sure, why not?

When it became mainstream in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 (apart from the holy UK charts)...

This was also the period that sooooooooo many huge classics were made. The biggest and most important dance events were based around trance. Innercity, Trance Energy, Sensation... Tiesto's own concerts in 2003-2004... Dance Valley and Mysteryland had lots of room for trance.

It lures in a lot of possible talents. And in a healthy scene there is enough money to earn, that you can invest into proper gear, proper studio monitors, proper acoustic treatment, etc. Now we create trance on our medicore equipment, in a spare room at home, mastered by another hobbyist. Supported by a handful hobbyist-dj's with an online show, receiving 5 "thanks for support" comments from those he played. And Daysleeper probably disses you on here. That's our scene.

Plus... I personally loved the cheesy "trance", coming from acts like Dance Nation and G-Spott. Sylver, Milk Inc, Lasgo. Great time.

///

You can say "it doesnt bother me" but the result of our small scene is that you experience a lot less new great music in the genre that you say you love.

well, the question was more " why do" but fair enough.

One issue I have (and i'm saying this as a leaning libertarian) with it is that the quality of the music, as you aptly pointed out, is completely financially/market driven. And i'm actually of the opinion that this, especially in the long run, doesn't create " new great music" but leads to precisely the shitty mediocrity problem we've seen with trance over the last couple of years namely:

- attempts at being " cool" by sailing along every trend (kids like hard? -> hardstlye, kids like electro? -> fartbasses, kids like house? -> trouse etc.)

- dogmatic formulaic templates driven by whatever is the then most popular vengeance sample.

- copy catting galore, see for further details the: shocking stuff that once destroyed our scene, thread,

financially its beneficial i grant you, but artistically? there's a very good reason why near everbody on this forum complaints the likes of Tijs and Armin " sold out" and that those financial incentives it didn't particularly elevate the quality of their music.

 

[Bobby Summa]

on that we agree yes,

personal note: I don't think that is a bad thing at all by the way. Ask yourself: do we really want trance to be

I didn't know that DJ Mag still has an influence on the scene. I stopped voting at it after Armin became #1 and then sold out. Also, how much in ASOT is still trance? Topics like this don't really help the genre as well. #Trance is Dead #Trance sucks now etc etc.

Who is accountable for all of this downfall of a beautiful genre the best genre ever created?

I doubt it’s Who. Although as I stated. The wish for EDM tribally for the US didn’t help.

- my thoughts are that popular and to an extent less popular music reflects society ( and perhaps the state of the world… / or maybe what’s just in the news). . Not necassarily just the content (say if it’s vocal) but the quality of the music. How it makes you feel.
I might be well wrong but I think too much distraction that society has through poor use of modern technology - ie- lots of blind social media use or TikTok / insta stuff , but also all these products coming out every day…. With technology we (almost) can’t avoid. It never used to be that way. We were used to one thing and knew how to use it and updates weren’t a thing. It had no or little software.


Basically the quality of things looses its point when in 6 months an almost new product is in your hands… an iPhone update or whatever. Or just Bluetooth 5 million or 5000G zapping your brain.
Most agree ( even kids who hear their parents) popular music was better years ago. Guess what… people had less distraction. The lack of value people have on things might just be reflected in popular music being less quality and hence trance went shit too.

isn’t it ironic that there are a thousand different categories for everything these days. Whether it’s music or people or anything of any type.
I won’t go on, I could but you’ve probably all switched off already.



Some of this can change though guys, but it’s up to people…….….I’m an optimist at heart.
And yes. I’m old

 

[Recharge]

Are you sure about GO? He has remixed David Guetta and has a made and plays a lot of edm shit. Paul van Dyk has always mentioned he is a electronic music performer more along the lines of Schiller.

While you are technically right they still mostly play trance, especially compared to the others in the list. Even Ferry does not play as much trance as he did in the past. That why trance is almost non existent DJ Mag...

 

[JohnnyBarefoot1992]

How can the DJ Mag Top 100 have any bearing on the popularity of a genre? Ever since they let anyone vote, people with money can buy all the votes they want.

Trance doesn't have to be mainstream, and the one moment that it was could only have been a one time thing. Tiësto was the first superstar DJ of any genre; no one had played to an entire stadium's worth of people before. He pioneered that business model and did it with the genre that was the most popular at the time he began to blow up, but once you get to that level you have to follow trends to stay relevant, so everyone moves on. He jumped ship, and while Armin tried to push the evolution of trance to keep its sound relevant he eventually became another pop EDM DJ. But the overall ethos of trance - melodic, anthemic, emotional, progressive - keeps evolving and showing up in new places and genres, and that's enough for me. And that aside, can we discount the fact that Calvin Harris' Miracle stayed atop the UK charts for weeks? The classic trance (or at least eurodance) sound still has enough purchase to be relevant now and again.

That's somewhat debatable as Paul Oakenfold, Sasha and John Digweed were quite popular a bit before Tiësto became popular.

 

[JohnnyBarefoot1992]

To add salt to injury Tiesto is always around.

Armin - rarely plays proper trance

Paul van Dyk at number 37.
ATB at number 47. - watched him this year, he played 90% EDM stuff
Above & Beyond at number 53. - lets face they don't even play trance anymore, even if I love progressive
Ferry Corsten at number 80.
And Giuseppe Ottaviani at number 98, apparently being the first time ever on the list.

So that leaves - PVD, Ferry and GO as the only proper trance djs

Nothing new trance had been slowly fading away from the mainstream for 20+ years. Hoping once its done we can hit a reset button like DnB did...

Even Giuseppe Ottaviani only got this success now because he started playing and producing Techno, so, even his name is debatable as "proper Trance".

 

[Hensmon]

Does any good music make it to the mainstream anymore, bar some very rare instances?

In the past the mainstream included a culmination of many different listener cohorts, ranging from very casual pop-lovers to more serious underground heads. It had a diverse make-up. This is why Top of The Pops in the UK was so good, because it reflected a range of needs, and had the mechanisms in place for quality to rise to top. Tracks had to be catchy, but also sometimes serious too. Prodigy is such a good example. Known names and unknown newcomers shared the same platform.

It's completely different today. Globalization allows only one listener cohort to be targeted - the casual, throw-away, brand-name focused one. It has such overwhelming volume that the other cohorts are not needed, giving us the situation we are in today, where mainstream separates itself further and further from all other scenes.

 

[JohnnyBarefoot1992]

Just a few thoughts which randomly popped out into my head.

- I mean, trance (at least in it's more "underground" form) was really popular only a short period of time. However trance was the biggest or the second biggest genre of electronic music for many years. Electronic music itself was not that popular but trance was pretty much around immediately when you started to dig out for electronic music. It was like the gateway genre to electronic music up until the late 00's or so.
- I think Imagine-era (well perhaps Mirage/Intense if we are really pushing this) Armin van Buuren was the last time where you can say trance had any kind of real commercial success.
- Trance was declared uncool somewhere around 2005 and after that, the scene started it's slow but ever continued decline. Big room claimed the space as the popular genre for the more melodic side of electronic music somewhere around 2013 and it just pushed trance further away from the core electronic genres.
- Because trance is still considered quite uncool, a lot of "almost trance" is now in different subgenres. Once upon a time a lot of stuff from progressive house, melodic house or melodic techno would have been classified as trance.
- I just went to Ferry Corsten's gig and it was very pleasant three hours. And there were also younger people in the audience.
- Parts of trance probably will pop up here and there more and more since enough time has passed since the peak days for it to become cool and retro again.

I think the original sound of Trance was popular especially in Germany from 1992 to 1994, then that sound started to fade away by the mid-90's being effectively replaced by many different sounds, the more proggy one in the U.K., the Dream one in most of Europe and fast-paced Hard one especially in central Europe, then in the late 90's, more especifically in 1998 a new Epic form of Trance became extremely popular, especially in Central Europe, but also in the U.K., and dominated the scene for as long as 2004, more or less. Then other sounds started to become more popular like Electro-House in the mid-2000's and even Minimal had its time in the spotlight in the late 2000's/early 10's, until Big Room/Mainstream EDM completely took over by 2012/2013.

I think by 2008-'09, there was this idea, mostly thanks to the success of Armin's imagine but not exclusively, that Trance was experiencing somewhat of a comeback, but it was rather reduced, the only real hits Trance was having were mostly Vocal Pop Trance tunes like "In And Out Of Love", "Going Wrong", "Made Of Love", "Waiting", "Not Giving Up On Love", "Sanctuary" and very little besides that, a far cry from the golden era of Epic Trance that lasted from 1999 to 2004, more or less. And with the sadly huge success of producers like David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia and all those extremely poppy DJ's, Trance just couldn't resist much longer, by that time it was time for Trance to go back to the underground instead of trying desperately to remain "cool" and "relevant" but that simply didn't happen because Armin wanted to remain at the top of the game and that's why we're here now.

 

[JohnnyBarefoot1992]

on that we agree yes,

personal note: I don't think that is a bad thing at all by the way. Ask yourself: do we really want trance to be mainstream?

If the music is good, I don't mind.

 

[JohnnyBarefoot1992]

Trance's mainstream pinnacle was when Tiesto performed at the Athens Olympics in 2004. This to me is always an amazing thing. I was very young at the time, and still it had an impression me, and in retrospect I find it cool that we had amazing Trance music as the feature of the worlds biggest event. How awesome is that!

I think what it means to be in the mainstream has changed drastically. Back then, it was a reflection of something very good, today it is a reflection of something very bad. Its the same word, but not the same thing.

Not really. I think Trance was more or less dying in the mainstream back then.

 

[Jetflag]

If the music is good, I don't mind.

Assume it’s neutral for a sec,

because assigning “good” to it pre-hoc sort of defeats the purpose of the question.

what is, quality aside, the benefit of something you hold dear being
“Mainstream” as opposed to say “underground” or better yet “exclusive”

 

[TRANCEBLASTER]

all late 90's and early 00's popular 'Trance' tracks were released by 'Universal Music', 'Sony Music' or 'EMI Publishing'! you are all old enough, so don't be so naive!) normal independent labels had no power to pay any rotations in radio or TV. its always PAID

If those monstrous major labels were still interested in 'Trance', believe me, there would be 'Trance' everywhere in the mainstream