Introduction

Trance music is a form of dance music characterised by synths and house style electronic 4/4 beats. Trance tracks are usually based around synth melodies, heavily quantised, with a hypnotic and often repetitive feel (hence the name). Common sounds in trance can be arpeggios and gated synth riffs, which often mix with sweeping pads, strings and piano. Often large, unrealistic amounts of delay and reverb are used, adding to the emotional, uplifting quality of the genre.

Early Days

The first forms of trance music emerged in the early 1990s as the dance revolution gripped the UK and mainland Europe. House music had already taken hold, and techno had also become popular in Europe by this time. Most of the dance music being produced at the start of the decade was sampler-based; sampling technology was relatively new at the time, and had become affordable enough for it to be mainstream. By the middle of the decade, however, dance pioneers were looking to take their sounds in a new direction; this led to the reappearance of the synthesizer, which had been rather overlooked since the dance music revolution of the late 1980s.

One particularly influential track, certainly to UK producers, was Future Sound Of London's "Papua New Guinea". Released in 1991, it was basically a breakbeat track. Where it differed to others in its genre is that, instead of fast piano chord riffs or searing stab samples, it featured lush, sweeping melodic pads and haunting, echoing tribal vocals. In the UK, following the transition from huge outdoor raves to the luxury of indoor superclubs, rave music gave way to piano house; in countries such as Germany, however, the dance music of choice was techno, and some producers started to add interesting melodies to the techno sound. Gradually, this led to the earliest forms of trance music. Early tracks included "Age of Love" (by Age of Love) and "Stella" by Jam and Spoon, as well as "Dreams" by Quench (1993).

Trance Takes Hold

As the sound developed, it moved away from its early influences to become a fully fledged genre in its own right. By 1996, the trance sound had started to creep into UK clubland, edging in on the piano house sound which had monopolised the country's clubs for the previous two or three years. By 1997, trance style synthesizer riffs were starting to appear on commercial dance records, with artists such as Sash! and DJ Quicksilver pushing a euro-house sound heavily influenced by the genre. Artists such as BT (Brian Transeau), Moonman (a.k.a. Ferry Corsten), Armin Van Buuren and John "00" Fleming, meanwhile, pushed a harder, edgier, melodic trance.

By 1998 - 1999, trance had become the big sound in UK clubland. Tracks such as "1998" by Binary Finary, "Ayla" by Ayla, "Carte Blanche" by Veracocha, "Cafe Del Mar" by Energy 52 and others defined the synth-rich melodic trance sound of the millennium.

During 1999 and 2000, many trance tunes which had started life as dancefloor fillers became UK top 40 chart hits. By this time, however, the sound had crossed over into the mainstream. As the more commercial DJs were playing ATB's "9pm", others were starting to move away from the sound. By the end of the millennium year, previously mainstream trance had started to split into three distinct styles - hard trance, progressive trance and commercial.

Commercial Trance

As trance artists graced the charts, it was almost guaranteed that before long, others would jump on the bandwagon - and by 2000, this indeed was already happening. The commercial form of the music began to include more vocals, and more obviously melodic synths in major rather than minor keys. By 2002 and 2003, this change was complete, and the inevitable backlash against this style of music was happening by the beginning of 2005.

Hard Trance

Today's hard trance developed through the fusion of hard house and trance music. By 2000, hard house had become a popular sound in the UK - at the time, most tracks featured old skool samples influenced by rave and hardcore. During late 2000 and 2001, some hard house DJs and labels started to push a more trance influenced sound. At the same time some trance producers, sensing that trance was becoming more commercial, started to push a harder, more minimal sound. These came together and by 2003, hard trance was one of the most exciting sounds on the dancefloor. Pioneers of hard trance include Guyver, Lee Haslam, Stimulant DJs, BK and Andy Farley - key labels are Tidy Trax (check out the "Resonate" mix album series) and Nukleuz.

Progressive Trance

The rise of progressive trance was probably again a reaction to commercial trance, and happened at a similar time to the rise of hard trance. Progressive trance, however, slows down rather than speeds up its parent music. Born from a combination of the fusion of deep house with basic trance elements, such as arpeggios, gated synths, delays and heavy reverb, progressive trance generally has more subtle melodies than its commercial variant. By 2000, the Slinky label was already pushing progressive trance in the UK, and arguably the Hooj Choons label had been pushing early variants of the genre before this. By 2003 and 2004, progressive trance was starting to merge with funky house and breakbeat to form one a new underground dance music sound, evident in the music of DJs such as Hernan Cattaneo.

Tech Trance

By 2006, the most widespread variant of trance was the growing genre of tech trance, pioneered by the likes of producers such as Tiesto and Marcel Woods. Tech trance is played at a pace slightly faster than the commercial trance of the millennium, but still significantly slower than hard house or hard trance. The defining features of tech trance are complex, electronic rhythms, heavily quantised and usually driven by a loud kick drum, with filtered, dirty or slightly distorted hi-hat sounds and claps; harder synth sounds, usually with a large amount of resonance or delay; minimal pads, often with sidechaining to increase the volume off the beat. While earlier variants of trance often featured piano, strings or acoustic guitar, tech trance almost exclusively features synthesized sound, though electric guitar sounds occasionally feature.

© John M. Dalling, 2006

While every attempt is made to ensure the information on this page is correct, the author cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided.