Trance Out
Leave this tired genre to the trendy and aim for real innovation
I’ve been avoiding it for some time, hiding this festering hatred behind my general love for all God’s genres. But I have to come out of the closet: I’m an anti-trancite.
In the beginning, I was wooed by the cyclone energy of early-’90s post-techno trance (namely that of Sven Väth and his Harthouse label). Then I was taken by the romantic, ivory strokes of BT and Robert Miles. (Who could deny the elegant innocence of the artists’ Ima and “Children,” respectively?) Then, West Coast trance acts such as Sandra Collins, Deepsky, and Christopher Lawrence added driving, aggressive, straight-line momentum to the loopy, synthetic sound. It was hard not to be uplifted by this California wave.
But by the millennium, trance had melted down into an ecstasy-fueled orgy of synth arpeggios-gone-wild. If there’s good trance out there today, I’d like to know where to find it. It certainly isn’t in the super-clubs, where Armani Exchange-adorned dorks with glow sticks and bottle-service tables have turned the trance scene into a satire about the shallowness of contemporary capitalism.
Trance has come to embody the prog-rock-like excesses of the global club scene. While the image of overpaid DJs playing other people’s music for legions of glow-stickers is an old joke, it’s still a reality in trance. Nearly three years after the British indie film It’s All Gone Pete Tong sent up superstar-DJ culture for the vacuous farce it usually is, hands-in-the-air trance jocks are still dominating dance culture. Dutch trance icons vied once again for supreme position in the annual DJ Magazine Top 100 DJs poll – Armin van Buuren beat Tiesto – and Billboard dubiously dubbed Tiesto the dance-music story of 2007. Billboard was dead wrong. Daft Punk’s resurrection, the indie-kid invasion, and the hip-hop/dance reunion (via Kanye West’s sampling of Daft Punk on “Stronger”) overshadowed trance by far last year. The trade publication’s proclamation was, however, classically human, embracing the familiar, cash-register-ringing genre of trance over a fresh flood of indie hipsters who invaded clubland in search of the new. The fact that the millennial-generation kids were drawn to the dance-punk side of things – Justice, LCD Soundsystem, Simian Mobile Disco – should foreshadow the impending demise of trance.
Much in the way Sasha Frere-Jones describes the white flight of indie rock in his fall New Yorker essay “A Paler Shade of White,” trance represents an ultra-white, soulless faction of clubland, far removed from the black rhapsody of core dance music. Just as most contemporary rock has abandoned its black roots, ultra-synthetic trance is miles away from its daddy – Detroit techno. Trance long ago made it safe for white, suburban kids with spiky hair and momma-bought gear to indulge a once-ghetto pursuit: DJing. While there’s nothing wrong with embracing white audiences, trance has done so to an unhealthy extreme. Point out the black guy at a trance show, and I’ll buy him a drink. It’s a cheesy scene, one abandoned long ago by the American dance-music trade magazines, ranging from URB to BPM to XLR8R. L.A.’s leading super-club, Avalon, went so far as to quietly close its doors to trance for its recent “Fall Winter Series” of DJ performances. Good looking out.
Perhaps worse than the wannabe rock-star spinners and ecstasy-fueled audiences trance attracts, however, is the music itself. If electronic dance music is a beacon for the future path of pop music, trance has become an anchor of same-old sounds. In recent years even its leading men – Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, and Ferry Corsten – have eschewed the typical trance sound for more muted, approachable tones on their artist albums. BT long ago left the genre he helped to define; onetime Madonna producer William Orbit, likewise, left trance for more quasi-classical leanings. They know: The ultra-arpeggiated sound of trance hasn’t much evolved in the decade since it first appeared. And still, at their mega-hyped DJ shows, stars such as Tiesto, van Buuren, and van Dyk spin trance at its most audacious and grating – all victory signs, sky-high strings, and thin, jack-rabbit kick drums. If you’re not on ecstasy, you won’t get it.
It’s un-e-music-like to embrace the staid. It’s 2008. Time to face the (new) music, and move on.
Published: 01/03/2008
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Congratulations man, I'm from Brazil and I agree with every single word you wrote above. The funny thing is that the exact same thing happens over here. The city where I live, Sao Paulo, has got plenty of attractions related to electronic music of premier quality, but there are also several trance parties (We also have a stinky Pacha over here) taking place and the people who attend it is composed by complete idiots, to say the least. These dorks go out (and pay a lot) to see Tiesto, Van Buuren and similar crap, but they make sure they are taking enough E pills to make them enjoy the night as they know the sound won't be enough to make them have a good time. And what surprised me the most in your text is that over here Armani Exchange uses to be the uniform of this people too! But LA has an advantage though. You don't have a brand called Sergio K, AX's bastard brazilian son.
And as this guy Justin Jay has said, I also stopped listening to trance around 98, maybe 99!
Cow Molester
Although I understand many of your points and frustration about the Trance phenomenon, I respectfully disagree on many points. As a trance music producer myself, I've come to realise how over-saturated the scene is. In order to do good trance music (or any music) the producer must understand music theory concepts well enough and spend a lot of time in the music composition part. The problem nowadays is that there are a lot of musically untalented producers who think with just a few arpeggiated sounds they got great trance music. Unfortunately, it does not work that way.
When I produce a trance song it takes me almost six months or more to complete. There is a lot of time spent on the melodies, the harmonies, and the production in general.
I invite you to check out my music, and let me know what you think...
http://ww.myspace.com/nektariosmusic
Best regards,
-Nektarios
Sorry, there was a mistype on the above url. Here you go again:
http://www.myspace.com/nektariosmusic
Thank you,
-Nektarios
I was on this trance bandwagon too. Now I've realized how crappy the genre is, and I'm lost in the world of edm searching for some good music.
I listen to classic trance, progressive, and a little goa. Progressive is the only modern music I'm into...
What genres did you move on to, Dennis?
It is pretty easy to dismiss trance music. It doesn't have much artistic value. As you say, it's long gone from it's roots and now has no intriguing or hip source. It can easily be very bland, and it's always bland if you have a special interest in music as art.
The thing is however, if you put trance to the background in your thoughts it is really capable of tapping into your subconscious. And that is the power of trance, like it or not. It's not there to stand and listen and admire the "artist" for his skills. It's there for a genuine feeling, a psychological effect.
The clichéd "let go of yourself" is necessary to properly experience trance. Drugs help with that, but are no prerequisite. You have to lower your social inhibitions and just respond to the music. It's called "trance" for a reason.
Trance is really like shoppingmall music. It's not there for the artistic value, it's there for the experience. The difference ofcourse is that shoppingmall music is there to remove silence and not annoy people, while trance is to relax and forget little insecurities and worries.
So yeah, your right: Trance sucks as music. But you can discredit the DJ's for that. DJ's are there for the crowd, not the other way around. The crowd is there for the experience, not the artistry. Although to properly create such an experience does require significant skills. Which is why those DJ's may really be called superstars.
Just another note on the drugs. You can easily get trance without "E". If you go with some friends your comfortable with and you have the self-confidence to not be afraid to be looked upon, or you have the awareness to realize you're doing nothing strange, it will be awesome and better then with drugs! Because if you can let go without drugs, it can change you ias a person. Be more confident, be less status aware, be more aware of deeper feelings.
Your post also digs into racial differences. Why is trance white? It simply isn't. Trance is popular all over the world, Asia, Latin America.. But blacks in the US have a very strong music culture of themselves, a lot of which is also very status aware. It doesn't rhyme with the ideas of trance.
Rutger Prins, Delft, The Netherlands
I never understood how Tiesto and Armin got so big. Part of trance’s appeal that it was a once-in-every-two-hour uplift from the more nervous beats of hard house and garage. These trance dj’s play one fluff cheesy poop record after the other, the uplifting effect is lost. The same can be said of the circuit gay house sound. Victor Calderone did it right and put in a vocal anthem after two hours of wayward tribal beats. These circuit only guys on the West Coast mix Cher into Madonna into Britney… Meanwhile, the DJs mixing different styles of dance music are getting the flack for being commercial sell-outs.
Thank you, thank you and again thank you for this wonderful article. I just don't understand why people pay too much money to go see Tiesto anymore? I never understood the hype around him and I never will. I stopped listening to trance around.. oh.. 1998!!! Your article is fantastic!! I will point several people to this page. Much respect!!!
Justin Jay
May trance die a horrible death!!!!