I wouldn't say there are no new ideas. We had new ideas and most have been failures. New ideas doesn't always mean a good thing, we should be careful what we wish for. Looking at the past 10 years here is how I see it....
Trouse & Trance 2.0 (2012-2016)
Labels:
Anjunabeats, Enhanced
Tracks: Andrew Bayer -
Nobody Told Me, Above & Beyond - Sticky Fingers, Andrew Rayel - Zeus etc
Thoughts:
The genres no-one asked for, that could not get as removed from the roots of Trance if it tried harder. Sometimes original on the Anjuna side, but when you're compressing fart noises that aggressively you always run the risk of them becoming a solid.
Rating:
4/10
"Underground" Trance (2012-2018)
Labels:
JOOF, LCD
Tracks:
Airwave - Gaijin/Tigris Euphrates/Atlas Winds, Simon Templar - Wasteland pt 2, Digital Blonde - M, JOOF - Imperial Echoes of Devestation
Thoughts:
It blended darker and serious tones of trance, psy and prog together into something not seen before. Unfortunately not enough artists tuned in to GTG and caught on. As time went on the style descended into various forms of monotonous and unremarkable prog and techno. RIP
Rating:
7.5/10
Commercial Trance (2015-Today)
Labels:
Armada, Spinnin etc
Tracks:
Dont make me search for it
Thoughts:
Sometimes pure pop with heavy breakdown, sometimes blends with steroid or commercial psy. Through association it unfortunately remains part of the Trance scenes identity. Today this is what most people think Trance is I honestly believe.
Rating:
2/10
Commercial Psy-Trance (2016-Today?)
Labels:
Fuck knows
Tracks:
Anything by Vini Vici or Highlight Tribe
Thoughts:
Shocking, classless genre, assembled in minutes from the most generic sample packs around, for a guaranteed blow your socks off experience tailored for the Gen-Z cosmonaught. Check Armins recent EDC set opening tracks, for what is an eye opener, both in the pure capitulation of the genre and the abundance of scantly dressed Californian asian women.
Rating:
4/10
Steroid/Modern Uplifting (2015-Today)
Labels:
FSOE, Always Alive, PURE Trance Neon, Nocturnal Knights, Skullduggery, Armada, Subculture (EVERYONE)
Tracks: Photographer - Airport, Harmonic Rush - Were Ghosts
Thoughts:
Kick helplines around the world at breaking point due to the rising levels of abuse. Kids pushing white-noise in backdoor sample packs. Almost every label penetrated, in the unhealthiest relationship Trance has had since Euro-dance. The harder it tries the more generic and louder it becomes. RIP my ears.
Rating
: 3/10
Revival (2020 - Today)
Labels:
Bandcamp and Soundcloud minnows
Tracks:
Niles Cooper - In My Mind, Aguila - La Luz, Steve Marie - Trancier, Bliss Inc - Pangea, Energy Breakthrough (Adam Pits' Lightspeed Mix)
Thoughts:
Trance stopped being cool, but due its undeniable allure, producers found a hack where they just take pieces of the genre and add it to their house and techno tracks, thus maintaining their edgey disposition whilst also summoning the unicorns from within. I'm just happy to have enjoyable music outside of Activa in all honesty.
Rating:
Too early to tell (but I predict 7/10)
Did I miss anything
This is a very good post and it really touches on many of the pretty bad ideas Trance has been having in the last ten to twelve years or so, although, I feel that I have to correct you in some cases:
Both Steroidlifting and Pop Trance, or Commercial Trance like you call it are actually older than you mention them to be.
Steroidlifting, for example, traces its origins to as early as 2006 when Sean Tyas rose to prominence with "Lift" and many remixes of his own, it started to become more prominent in 2007 when Aly & Fila first became extremely popular and by 2009 pretty much all uplifting was steroid, it only got much worse from then on with releases like Photographer - Airport, of course but the ultimate disgrace for this genre was when it started to effectively mix itself with Pop Trance creating the current ASOT TOTY formula the show is still majorly victim of.
As for Pop Trance, or Commercial Trance, as you mention it, just like Steroidlifting is older than you think it is, in fact, I can trace one track from 2007 as pure commercially-driven Pop Trance which is Filo & Peri feat. Eric Lumiere - Anthem, that track for me was already way too poppy and commercial-sounding than most Vocal Trance being released back in the days and things only got worse from then on, 2008 saw the release of at that time one of the poppiest Trance albums which was "Imagine" by Armin van Buuren with "Going Wrong" being the biggest offender in that remark. Then 2009 Dash Berlin released one of the cheesiest Trance albums of that time called "The New Dayglight" which included incredibly cheesy hits like "Man On The Run", "Never Cry Again" and the god-forsaken "Waiting" feat. Emma Hewitt, one of the poppiest vocalists ever to appear in the Trance scene, and to make matters worse, from 2010 on Gareth Emery decided to become to new ambassador of Pop Trance after the release of tracks such as "Sanctuary" and "Fight The Sunrise", but the major offense would finally crystalize itself in 2014 when Pop Trance and Steroidlifting decided to finally join forces in what would become the ASOT TOTY of that year, Gareth Emery feat. Bo Bruce - U (Bryan Kearney Remix), the absolute definition of laziness and the absolute proof that the Trance scene no longer cared about actual quality, it only really cared about the same freaking formula over and over again, that track in particular epitomizes everything that has been wrong in the Trance scene for the last ten years or so, basically, nowadays, you don't even need to be that much creative to be rewarded, all you need is to hire some generic Pop-Trance vocalist, if it's Emma Hewitt, Susana, Christina Novelli or Roxanne Emery you gain extra points because for some weird reason these ones are heralded as "the best" by the #trancefamily and Armin stans, use generic 138/140 Steroidlifting presets, make them sing about how Trance music is so great even though I can hardly call their music Trance or make them sing about how love is amazing or an absolute mess depending on how well it goes for you or any typical silly topic to sing in a song and that's it, you have your ASOT TOTY, in fact, last year these people had the ultimate chance to prove that Trance was way more than that when they had the opportunity to vote for one of the best ASOT-supported tracks released in years, Ferry Corsten & Ruben de Ronde - Bloodstream, as their TOTY but no, instead they gave such prize as yet another boring generic cheeselifting
vocal pop trance tune just because Armin and Aly & Fila produced it perpetuating even more the really annoying and unbearable stereotype of the "ideal Trance track" which is exactly the reason why Trance is seen by many people as a genre for pretty dumb idiots who idolize some wacky retarted puppet who likes to pretend he's some sort of rock-star when he really isn't.
As for your comment about Eurodance having been a bad influence on Trance Music, I assume you're talking about the also incredibly poppyfied form of Epic/Vocal Trance that used to be extremely popular in most Western Europe and even a bit in the U.S. fronted by acts such as Ian van Dahl, Lasgo, DJ Sammy, Sylver, Alice Deejay, Milk inc, Kate Ryan and many others, right? If it is so, I have to say one thing about this: I would much rather have that kind of music back than any of the post-2014 steroidlifting pop trance any day of the year, in fact, I would even take it over most post-2007 Armin/Dash Berlin/Gareth Emery kind of Pop-Trance, if you ask me.
Also Trouse started to infest the Trance scene a bit earlier, people were already massively complaining about it in several forum posts back in 2011 and Armin started playing Swedish Cheese Mafia and Avicii already back in 2010, unfortunately.
