Unpopular trance/electronic music opinions

[dmgtz96]

Thread for random unpopular opinions about trance or electronic music in general that you have, and that don't necessarily need their own thread!

I'll get us started.

When an artist suddenly switches music styles/genres and gets criticized for it (like Tiesto going from trance to big room/EDM), it's not the other genre's fault. There's nothing inherently wrong with the other genre, whether that is big room EDM, mcprog, steroid trance, or anything else. More often than not, when changes like that happen, the producer goes from being good at creating trance to bad/okay at creating the other genre. That's why the music from that producer decreased in quality. It's not because the other genre is "worse" than trance, but because the producer sucks at making good music in that other genre.

 

[Recharge]

Dude you literally opened the gates of hell. I will kind of continue...

As to replay and agreeing with the first opinion I wouldn't say sucking at producing that new style. More like fans not being to move on. Which leads me to my opinion that a lot of trance fans are being stuck in the past not being able to move on. And I would give example. I am a huge fan of ATB (maybe one of his biggest fans even) as he was the main reason I really got into trance. Not that I wasn't before, but he changed a lot of things for me. Many people will say his music went downhill from around 2010, but I would argue he just moved on. Last year seeing him top club charts again after 20 years was really beautiful, even if it wasn't a trance song. The remake of 9pm has 4 videos with 105+mln views combined in youtube (a lot of other videos with 5-10 mln extra views combined). Which other trance artist did that last year on one song?

Here is my unpopular opinion:




There is a myth out there that trance fans are the most welcoming music fans. Reality is way different, just like trance the communities are really toxic mostly filled with toxic fanboys who mark anything they don't like as garbage.

 

[Redrot]

There is a myth out there that trance fans are the most welcoming music fans. Reality is way different, just like trance the communities are really toxic mostly filled with toxic fanboys who mark anything they don't like as garbage.

I like to think that this notion came from seeing people rolling at trance festivals and assuming everyone who listens to trance is just like that

To go along with that though, trance fans seem to hold a belief that trance is a "higher" form of music than other forms of EDM or music in general, that it's more "pure" somehow. This is complete horseshit - trance was derived from making techno slightly more accessible by adding more melody, and was largely influenced from top 40 music after bit into its inception. See the following diagram:

Not sure how unpopular this would be here but modern-day vocal and uplifting trance is the most derivative, cookie-cutter form of trance available and is generally quite unhealthy for the scene. Trance vocals have regressed from occasionally having interesting and unique lyrics to almost entirely being about Disney-esque love stories sung by the most vanilla, soulless-sounding vocalists you can find. And 2-minute breakdowns that mostly consist of only a vocalist going acapella until the build is just lazy songwriting.

 

[dmgtz96]

Not sure how unpopular this would be here but modern-day vocal and uplifting trance is the most derivative, cookie-cutter form of trance available and is generally quite unhealthy for the scene. Trance vocals have regressed from occasionally having interesting and unique lyrics to almost entirely being about Disney-esque love stories sung by the most vanilla, soulless-sounding vocalists you can find. And 2-minute breakdowns that mostly consist of only a vocalist going acapella until the build is just lazy songwriting.

I feel like it's been that way since ~2010ish. "Vocal trance" as featured on Youtube playlists is just bad. I can count on one hand the number of great vocal tracks post-Armin Mirage or A&B Group Therapy. For the record, Concrete Angel and any of its iterations/remixes are not great.
That's a popular opinion on this forum, by the way. Most here prefer their trance without vocals.

The sawtooth arpeggio bit is so true.

 

[dmgtz96]

A lot of minimal techno is actually really bad, pretentious, and lazy.

 

[Archon]

I've said this before and I'll keep saying it until it becomes a popular opinion: Sandstorm is NOT trance.

 

[Jetflag]

I find that a lot of self-proclaimed "true" trance fans have over-saturated themselves over time with their "drug" upto a point where they can only enjoy one or two horrendously specific connoisseur pieces. Like a cocaine addict unable to get a regular high on a single sniff anymore.

This leads in some cases to an overly critical attitude on pieces that are just ok or fairly decentwhere (I think) such an attitude isn't deserved. Whats more is that it often comes with a sense of entitlement towards x artist, as if he/she has been put on this earth to please you and your demands.

there's a difference between you being constantly bored of everything because of your own constant self inflicted musical overdose, and something being genuinely bad/ over generic. (which is a point I equally symphathize with)

Now to be clear, this isn't a dunk on passionate trance fans in the scene, a lot of them engaging in gem-digging and constructive criticism, but if you're reading this and thinking to yourself: "hm....you know, I do seem to not get any kick out of the music I used to love and have been doing nothing but blaming the outside world or the scene for that"

Perhaps its time to, at the very least for a while, kick down a little bit, try some other genre for a year. broaden your horizon and then see if after a while you can enjoy your favorite genre again with a sense of belonging instead of constant boredom.

 

[Jetflag]

A lot of minimal techno is actually really bad, pretentious, and lazy.

 

[Br8k L3gnd]

The fans ruin music not artists

 

[Archon]

We all (fans and artists) ruin it in our own way, for ourselves and others.

 

[Archon]

Artists should stop expecting anything out of music, fans should stop expecting anything from artists.

 

[Peenuts]

Whats more is that it often comes with a sense of entitlement towards x artist, as if he/she has been put on this earth to please you and your demands

Agree with this!

Whilst sometimes i can get disappointed when artists switch to a style of music i enjoy less, ultimately it's still their choice - they are free to make whatever music they want. People who berate artists for not making music the way they like it are just self-centered.

 

[Jetflag]

Artists should stop expecting anything out of music, fans should stop expecting anything from artists.

^ this

 

[dmgtz96]

Lady Waks - Minimal (Breaks)

loved it lol

I've said this before and I'll keep saying it until it becomes a popular opinion: Sandstorm is NOT trance.

I disagree, but upvoted because unpopular!

 

[IXM]

horny

 

[Archon]

2010-2012 were great years for trance.

 

[dmgtz96]

2010-2012 were great years for trance.

Adding onto this:

Electro-trance, square-synth tech-trance, Anjunabeats-style progressive trance, and the early forms of steroid trance were good styles. Andy Blueman's orchestral uplifting style was in fact one of the weakest forms from the 2006-2013ish era.

 

[Redrot]

The brief experiments of combining electro house and trance (before things got too over the top and started becoming a glorified version of big room house) were really fun times! Stuff like


slaps, I love the dirty groove it has (The Fusion, as overplayed as it was is 100% a guilty pleasure), and stuff that's really out there like


is good for the scene. As long has the song has a strong flow from start to finish, isn't relying on festival tropes, and isn't cheeseballs galore, I'm likely game for it.

Andy Blueman's orchestral uplifting style was in fact one of the weakest forms from the 2006-2013ish era.

The ultimate form of musical stagnation, and nobody wants to hear synthetic strings for 2 minutes in any live scenario.

 

[Progrez]

Trance is Alive and better than ever. (I hate this one)

House is better than Trance (Bullshit)

 

[dmgtz96]

The brief experiments of combining electro house and trance (before things got too over the top and started becoming a glorified version of big room house) were really fun times! Stuff like

Heatbeat - Rocker Monster

slaps, I love the dirty groove it has (The Fusion, as overplayed as it was is 100% a guilty pleasure), and stuff that's really out there like

Nhato - Revenge

is good for the scene. As long has the song has a strong flow from start to finish, isn't relying on festival tropes, and isn't cheeseballs galore, I'm likely game for it.

Those plus most of Flashover Recordings. Everything from when Ferry first released Punk/Rock Your Body Rock is fine. People hated on it just because it sounded farty and electro-ish.