Uplifting trance? The most misnamed trance subgenre?

Bluemoon

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Jul 8, 2020
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Not sure what happend with your first post but i never felt uplifting trance was a misnamed genre but i understand what u mean.

Many call whatever is 138 bpm and faster uplifting and thats not always the case.


Songs like this is uplifting because of the melody. Its not the fastest song, but its uplifting just because of the positive feel of the song itself.


And then you have this kind of uplifting that is faster paced, energetic, still melodic but a different beast than the ferry corsten remix. This is the kind of song that many people will call uplifting but is it really? To me this is just trance. But on the the other side i dont have a problem with calling it uplifting because it is very energetic.

In all honesty i think what is uplifting is somewhat up to the ears of the person who is listening.
 
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dmgtz96

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Some speculations, so don't take this necessarily as a fact:

I think in the past people wanted to differentiate between "uplifting trance" (like that Ferry track) and "anthem trance" (think anything by Transa). A lot of the big trance hits from the golden age are in fact anthem trance, and uplifting was reserved for tracks with longer breakdowns. In the early 2000s, when Black Hole and Coldharbor reigned, both subgenres sort of fell through. In fact, I would argue that the original form of "uplifting trance" died around this time, and the only one keeping it alive were... A&B, who had a vastly different (more modern) sound than the originals. Uplifting resurfaced in the mid-to-late-2000s thanks to Anjuna, producers like Nitrous Oxide, Andy Blueman, and youtubers that liked to make compilations of melodic/uplifting trance.
p.s. am I the only one whose forum is glitching? When I write stuff, the font is in black somehow
 

Archon

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p.s. am I the only one whose forum is glitching? When I write stuff, the font is in black somehow

Nope, these are some issues we encountered when we tried to update the forum software. We will resolve this ASAP.
 

KrissO

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Jul 21, 2020
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These different trance style definitions make me crazy sometimes
Uplifting, euphoric, melodic, pure

Let's not forget "138". What's 138 again? Tech-trance? Tech/Uplifting trance? Trance that isn't trouse? Or all trance that is 138 bpm or faster? Can I call a banging track at 136 bpm a "138" track? I'm still not sure 😂🤣
 

Archon

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These different trance style definitions make me crazy sometimes
Uplifting, euphoric, melodic, pure

Let's not forget "138". What's 138 again? Tech-trance? Tech/Uplifting trance? Trance that isn't trouse? Or all trance that is 138 bpm or faster? Can I call a banging track at 136 bpm a "138" track? I'm still not sure 😂🤣

Haha it's all the same, it's just marketing nonsense nowadays.
 
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dmgtz96

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Jul 13, 2020
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These different trance style definitions make me crazy sometimes
Uplifting, euphoric, melodic, pure

Let's not forget "138". What's 138 again? Tech-trance? Tech/Uplifting trance? Trance that isn't trouse? Or all trance that is 138 bpm or faster? Can I call a banging track at 136 bpm a "138" track? I'm still not sure 😂🤣

Of the 4 style definitions, the only actual subgenre is uplifting. "Euphoric" and "melodic" are just additional descriptors for better detail. "Pure" was coined by Solarstone for his label, and frankly it sounds pretentious even if the content itself is good.
138 was Armin's ASOT response to the decreasing BPMs in trance when trouse started getting popular in the late 2000s and 2010s. Pretty much all of it falls under "tech-trance," though many tracks have uplifting elements. They are not the same kind of "uplifting" from the early to late 2000s.
In theory you wouldn't call a 136 bpm banger a "138." Then again, nobody produces trance at 136 BPM anymore. I think you could get away with a 140 BPM track, but then again those are less common than 138 BPM productions.
 

Hensmon

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If anything, Uplifting Trance as a sub-genre is the most obvious and well labelled in all of Trance. Progressive is the true etymological nightmare (across all genres), there are a million different interpretations and sub-sub-genres within it. Tech trance can be confusing too, right? Is it Alex Di Stefano 2014 stuff like Kidnap Your Soul i.e Techno heavy track with big Trance rushes and melodies, or is it banging Trance tracks with more of an edge/stripped back approach, like some Askew Stuff? Joint Operation Centre maybe? I still don't really know personally.

Uplifting though seems like the easy one for me!
 
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Archon

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I still have an internal debate whether or not progressive means that it's not traditional, it's better, more evolved, OR because the tracks progress (but all do!). I strongly believe it's the first.

The problems occurred when someone put a label on the first couple of (uplifting/progressive/etc) tracks and, as the time went, the words and structures stuck, rather than the essence of the words in the tracks. The more the genre evolved, the more it was pronounced, they became almost like brands/marketing words, categories to differ between the styles. So I kinda understand the point of this thread.

But nowadays, I agree with you Hens, it is quite easy to make a distinction, even instinctively.
 

dmgtz96

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Progressive at first was used for tracks that had slight melodies but didn't absolutely rely on them (unlike anthem trance which was a continuous up and down, up and down with a melody), and that were different from "classic trance" (early 90s stuff). Then it was used for tracks that had more of a progressive house arrangement. In general, it suggests a lower BPM than anthem/uplifting/tech trance.
 

freewave

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Well there was Progressive House first in the 90's which was both "progressing" beyond standard house (like rock and then progressive rock) and also changed over the track time like a journey. By 1995 those track times started getting ridiculously long, the music became even more "epic", and Epic House became short lived scene thanks to Sasha+BT and a few others. By then Global Underground Series became as synonymous with Progressive House but also blurred into Trance by the second disc of most of its releases. By the millennium turn Progressive Trance further blurred the line between Prog House and Trance, both in techniques (an evolving track) AND bpm (lower end of ~130 being ideal). It just sucks that Big Room and Electro House had to take over Progressive House in name in the 10's as well to further mess up the definition and sound.

Regarding Uplifting Trance, I did our best to investigate what it was and where it came from in our list. Back in the day i didn't notice the differences at all happening and saw all a bit of this being Trance is various flavors but not necessarily names. Now everyone uses uplifting for 138+ and prog for the lesser bpm when there's more to it then that.....
 
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