I strongly disagree. Trance has so much left to give. I don’t see it going anywhere even for another 50 years. With Ai it might survive for enternity, it god knows what form and brilliance. Genres should only die when the fans stop.
let’s say we stopped at 2005 as you suggested and we loose 100-300 great tracks from the last 20 years. Is that a good thing? A good thing to never hear what Enigma State made for us in the last few years? All the amazing parties that took place and made people happy. There is no good reason it should die prematurely as you are suggesting. It is an amazing genre and we should keep celebrating it and encouraging new generations to give it a try.
Better to burn out than fade away, eh? The quality issues and lack of interest have definitely led to more of fade. I think of it more like paper being stained and wet, until its no longer of value. That's trance in 2023 for me, a soggy wet unintelligible piece of paper ready to be flushed.
I'm not one to regret though, so I appreciate the good stuff that did come out in the tougher years. But. The pandemic really put the nail in the trance coffin for me. It put a damper on fan attendance at the few shows major cities were getting, in the US anyway. There were visa and visa fee changes as well (>>>$$). This means that you won't be seeing lower to mid-tier artists outside of a small same-continental geography anymore. Just your headliners most of us are very sick of or can't relate to. I don't think most people understand how small the trance fanbase is, and how little money it generates compared to other genres. It's deeply unpopular and has only become moreso. Just take a look at any multi-genre fest lineup. Trance is mostly gone outside of the remaining events that focus on the genre.
I do think it is rebirthing, subtly, indirectly. In this early stage though, artists actively avoid their productions sounding 'too trancey', from my own observations. Lots of us on here are following this underground sound very closely. Some on here don't ever really see trance in the music. But I suspect there will be offshoots of forward thinking more traditionally trancey releases on the way, if the sound continues to appeal to fans and grow. Or maybe it dies too, who knows. I hope not.
One last thought. I played a very small event a few weeks ago, with a minimal/techno/prog DJ who's got a good fanbase and plays lots in Cali. A great DJ too. On the flyer, me and another were labeled as trance. He said he was planning to sleep through our sets but stuck around to see what was up. We both played the modern underground stuff and this DJ was very surprised to find something he could relate to and really enjoy. That's my hope, this not-quite-trance-but-very-trance-sounding underground sound will slowly build its fanbase, and branch out. It's way more fun to mix with other genres but it still hits me in similar ways to the best of the mid 90s sound. If we can just inject more progression and more melody, we'll be nearly there.
