Do you guys think that the digital revolution has had an impact on the genre? I think it has, I mean the trance track seem to sound worse now than they did over 2 decades ago when it used to sound crisp and warm and mellow, addictive, melodic, and nostalgic as well and it seems that music especially trance music has become worthless and even releasing on vinyls the sound quality and shelf life are not up to par from the classics.
Nah, not really. I sort of get your point but the digital revolution was well underway when for instance Intuition recordings was still a thing. Sure, hardware synths where omnipresent but so where VSTi's and thats the case today. Most mastering happened digital, platforms like audiojelly & trackitdown where booming aswell as the loudness war in the entire audio industry so I don’t think its accurate to pin it down to that specifically.
I think its more the fact that that, like any genre, There's a certain bloom period after its initial inception in which everything sort of gets tested and tried out, leading to small revolutionairy spikes once every so often eventually sparking the so called “classics”.
After a while however the genre crystalizes into a more substantial formula (based on the traits óf those recognizable classics) after which and within time everything within that spectrum gets sort of already done and tried, or at the very least it becomes increasingly difficult to do something Novel whilst still fitting the genre label. Eventually bleeding out the genre, at least in terms of popularity.
You can also add to that a very human quirck that especially applies to the real Connoisseurs of said genre, and that’s over-saturation. Like a junky getting a constant dose, you become increasingly less susceptible to “good stuff” since you’ve been fed a constant diet of it for an extensive period. Eventually your brain will fall back to its hedonistic default point and all you’re left with is “the memory of the good days” when you first discovered the music. I noticed I have at least.
And well, that’s just the way it works.
No musical genre is meant to be eternally great and constantly pumping out “classics”. Which is part of the reason why classics áre classics. Ask yourself for instance if the mona lisa would retain its current value if Da Vinci pumped out one every week?
and its not just trance or this age by any stretch of the imagination. You can practically make the “everything used to be better” argument for every musical genre.
when was the last time you’ve noticed an actual contemporary Drum& bass classic? Or a Hardstyle classic? Or a Country classic or a Classic/classic or what have you? Recent genre’s like brostep however have just had their “classic” period and whatever’s up and coming now will see its halcyon days in the near future. After which another, and another etc.
