Are YOU in a Trance?

This is about the popular dance music genre called "Trance".

There are many genres in modern dance music. I'm talking about the dance music played at clubs; electronic music. Electronic music is constantly evolving, and has many, many, sub-genres. One of them is trance.


"The best way to truly understand trance is to dance to it. The next best way is just to listen...."
-extremis.psykotraz.com


Trance first started in the late eighty's under the sway of electronic new wave/industrial music, electronic disco of Detroit and the wild music of the seventies.

Today's main form of trance known as Goa Trance or Progressive Trance was also helped by the re-introduced drug called MDMP (methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine)or more commonly known as Ecstasy.

Many thoeries have emerged about who and what influenced the different types of dance music, but culture, drugs and music have been closely related.


Most trance music revolves around the 4/4 beat. For example: boom boom boom boom. It can sound very uplifting, which brings us back to the drug. Trance uses rifts in the music to take you up or down.

I find the sound can be so melodic, it sends me into a trance; hence the name.


There's a pushing bass beat, techy rifts and alot of "oinkity-wobbly-bouncy-swirly-poingy-spacy-trippy-blobby-scifi-head spinning noises!" - ClubDjForum.com


People don't often want to catagorize their music and there are very few rules. Trance itself has so mant sub-genres , its often hard to tell the difference. There are however, a few terms. Thery 're used to describe the similarities in the music and as generalizations, rather than definitions.


Euro/ Hard Trance

- Probably easiest to know and understand. Its known to be very uplifting and has a lot of big rifts. It has a very solid bass beat, around 140-145bpm (beats per minute), and is often accompanied by a female vocal. It's a "happy" form of music which gets a lot of people in a feeling good mood.


Progressive Trance

- Its more relaxed than Euro Trance and is much deeper into the music. Its different from Euro because Euro has its songs building up and dropping from song to song. Progressive on the other hand, relies more on the DJ to interpret the rises and drops.

This can make it seem like a song can go on forever.


Goa and Psyhcadelic

- These two are very similer and has all the techy noises. Spiritual for many, this form of trance is very deep. Its made up of many, many differents sounds and the beat can be cool and slow or super fast. The decorations at Goa parties are very meticulous, very psycadelic.


Acid Trance

- It can be anywhere between Euro, Progressive or Goa, though Acid trance has a dirty, grinding, driving, heavy form of trance.


And last but not least...


Trancecore/Freeform

- One word. FAST! For those new to the electronic music scene, this form of dance maybe frightning for some. Its a very, VERY fast genre of music; over 160bpm! It has a pushing bass which comes out loud and clear. Tranceore will often combine Euro with Acid to creating a very uplifting form of trance.


MOBY, a famous music artist, has the record for the fastest song in the world. It has 1000bpm! The song is hence named, "Thousand".


The Dictionary defines Trance as:

a hypnotic state resembling sleep; a state of ecstasy or mystic absoroption so intense as to cause temporary loss of consciousness at the earthly level.

- The New Collins Concise English Dictionary


A few Thesaurus Words:

- abstraction, daze, dream, ecstasy, musc, rapture, reveria, spell, stupon, unconsciousness - The Collins Thesaurus



Trance Music Definition

Trance Music: Trance is an evolution from progressive house and techno. Trance is designed to take the listener on an inner journey and so features extended journey motifs with repeating and cyclic hypnotic elements. Trance also tends to be more densely layered and intense than techno.

- exerpt from Rave Culture: an Insiders Overview


When you dance to trance, your mesmerized. You dance for a good, long, hard time. Your mind says stop, but you keep going. And you don't feel any pain. Your just "high" off the music. This is why trance is such a special genre of music. It has the ability to set crowds dancing. Its a very popular form of beat-kicking, floor pound'n music.


To only truly understand the music however, you should:

� #1 Dance to it &

� #2 Listen to it!

You can listen to some midi samples of trance in my music section


ClubDJForum

DanceMusic @ About.com

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