List of trance genres
A list of trance music subgenres. Several crossover with other major forms of electronic music.
| Subgenre | Origin | Description | Notable artists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acid trance | Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and United Kingdom | The prevalent early '90s style, sometimes called "first-wave" trance. Characterized by the use of a Roland TB-303 bass machine as the lead synthesizer. | Art of Trance, Union Jack, Eternal Basement, Emmanuel Top, Hardfloor, Kai Tracid, Solar Quest, Oliver Lieb, Alex Shelley, Scot Project |
| Classic trance | Germany | Original form of trance music, said to have originated in the very late '80s or very early '90s. Characterized by less percussion than techno, more melody, arpeggiated melody, and repetitive melodic chords/arpeggios. | Age of Love, Binary Finary, Cygnus X, Dance 2 Trance, Jam & Spoon, Sven Väth, Oliver Lieb, The KLF |
| Dream trance | Italy | A variety of epic trance popularized by Robert Miles in the mid-'90s which is highly melodic. Very often it features soothing piano riffs and deep/progressive house music vibes. | DJ Dado, Robert Miles, The Cynic Project, Zhi-Vago |
| Hands up | Europe; mainly in Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Russia, Finland, Liechtenstein and United Kingdom | Hands up (sometimes referred to as Euro-trance) is a hybrid of Dream trance, Progressive trance, Hard trance and Eurodance music incorporating hardstyle bass drums and trance elements. It is closely related to uplifting trance. The trance synths at times can sound like techno hoovers with trancey effects and strings backing it up. The vocals are often pitched up for the most part, but sometimes they can be heard as in normal pitch range. This is often confused as vocal trance because of its use of vocals. The lyrical content is usually primitive, containing an introduction to the song with usually no or little drums, and often includes renderings of classic Happy hardcore anthems or melodies. Also some of the middle '90s Happy Hardcore producers started to produce tracks in this style. | Jan Wayne, Milk Inc., Special D., Marko Albrecht, Pulsedriver, Cascada, Alice DeeJay, DJ Manian, Insomnia, Tune Up!, |
| Futurepop | Norway, Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom and United States | A fusion of mainly Electronic body music and Anthem Trance. This music has a cold, dark feel to it, while having grandiose synth melodies and, generally, a more trance-like sound than EBM. Vocals have a more prominent place in Futurepop than most other types of trance, and lyrics tend to be focused upon themes of complex human emotion, alienation, extropianism, and existentialism; as well as global issues, such as war, apocalypse, and environmentalism. | VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Angels and Agony, Apoptygma Berzerk, Covenant, Assemblage 23 |
| Goa trance | Goa (India), Israel, Somalia and Haiti | A complex, melodic form of trance named after Goa, India, and originating in the early '90s. Often uses Raga. Raga usually consists of soothing melody by the Harmonium, Sitar, etc. and various Indian Instruments. The style has been developed by musicians from many countries, and is now generally referred to as Psychedelic trance, which is discussed below. | Yahel Sherman, The Infinity Project, Transwave, Man With No Name, Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Goa Gil, Juno Reactor, Message From God, Raja Ram, Avalon, Tristan, Sesto Sento |
| Hardstyle | Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Greece | Closely related to nu style Gabber and Hard trance. Its sound is usually characterized by a mix of gabber and hardcore like kick/bass sounds, spontaneous rhythmic changes, trance like synth stabs and sweeps and miscellaneous samples. However, Hardstyle usually has a lot slower BPM (between 140 and 150). | Blutonium Boy, Dana, Technoboy, Trance Generators, The Prophet, DJ Zany, Headhunterz, Wildstylez, AudioFreq, KamiKaze |
| Hard trance | Germany | Aggressive and slower trance sound, originating in Frankfurt, and including influences from hardcore. This style arguably began around 1993 and peaked in popularity in the late '90s. | Kai Tracid, Gary D., Yoji Biomehanika, Trance Generators, Flutlicht, Mat Silver & Tony Burt, DuMonde, Jones & Stephenson, Yves Deruyter, Cosmic Gate, Mauro Picotto, Sunburst, DJ Scot Project, Jon The Baptist, System D |
| Ibiza trance a.k.a. Balearic beat, Balearic trance | Spain | This style has been influenced by various relaxed music genres, especially linked to Ibiza's (Spain) chill-out style of life paralleled with the huge rave scene that is present in the islands. Very melodic and mellow, sometimes with ethnic features, and it often samples seaside elements like seagulls and ocean waves. It relies more heavily on guitar than other trance genres. It also include danceable uptempo songs featuring syncopated or Latin rhythms. | Café del Mar, Chicane, Energy 52, Imagination, Miromusic, Roger Shah, Salt Tank, York |
| Neo-trance | Germany and Denmark | Neo-trance is new genre that arrived in the vernacular to describe the recent developments towards more minimalist trance. | Kyau & Albert, Gui Boratto, Trentemøller, James Holden, Nathan Fake, Dominik Eulberg, Virtual Self |
| Nitzhonot | Israel | Nitzhonot (Hebrew: נצחונות, "victories") is a form of Goa trance that emerged during the mid-late 1990s in Israel. Nitzhonot blends hard pulsating basses, sometimes referred to as "laserkicks", with the Eastern melodies typical for Indian Goa trance from 1996 and 1997. The tracks are usually in a range of 145–155 BPM. | Eyal Barkan, Astrix, Cyan, Darma, Cherouvim, Star Children, Space Odyssey, Dementia |
| Progressive trance | Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Liechtenstein and the United Kingdom | Differentiated from the then "regular" trance by more breakdowns, less acid-like sound & bass chord changes that gave the repeating lead synth a feeling of "progression". | BT, Xtronika, Cosmic Gate, Cloud2Ground, Humate, Sasha, Flash Brothers, Agnelli & Nelson, Nic Chagall, John Digweed, Underworld, Sander Kleinenberg, Slacker, Breeder, Markus Schulz, Faithless, Brainbug, Ronski Speed, Reflekt, Three Drives, Rank 1, Ruben De Ronde, Perry O'Neil, Estiva, Same K, Max Mayer, Rodg, LTN, DRYM, Above & Beyond, ilan Bluestone |
| Psychedelic trance | Goa, Germany, France, Russia, Israel, Lebanon, Somalia, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand | A kind of trance that was developed in the late '90s and grew from Goa trance culture of India. While it retains strong cultural ties to India, the term has come to refer generally to the music and style of culture associated with it, which is now found in many countries. One defining feature of this genre is the use of a lot of spontaneous sounds and samples. However the range of styles is quite broad, and it has several subgenres of its own, listed below. | 1200 Micrograms, Infected Mushroom, GMS, Son Kite, Skazi, Hallucinogen, Astrix, Avalon, Vini Vici |
| Darkpsy | Germany and Russia | Does not use vocals, though sampling is common, with speech and other kind of samples usually being taken from different kind of movies (especially horror movies), or occasionally from other tracks. Sometimes sampling elements form other genres of music is done as a mockery of the original tracks. | LuneCell, Bio Babas, C-P-C, Kindzadza, Ocelot, Parasense, Penta, Xenomorph |
| Full-On | Israel and Palestine | Full on or "Melodic psytrance" draws its main influences from more radio-friendly genres such as nitzhonot and Eurodance, futuristic melodies, occasional electric guitar performances and usage of vocals. | Astrix, Vibe Tribe, Kali, Sesto Sento, Puzzle, Talamasca, Frozen Ghost, Slug |
| Progressive psytrance | Germany, Norway and Sweden | Progressive psytrance combines the elements of minimal sounding progressive electronic music and complex developments of psychedelic music. Its heritage can be traced back to the developments of minimal techno, tech, and minimal house. | Vibrasphere |
| Psybient | Goa, Israel, France, and United Kingdom | Also known as "Ambient Psy", "Psychedelic Ambient", "Ambient Goa", or "Ambient Psytrance" it is a mixture of Psychedelic trance with ambient and glitch. | Bluetech, Celtic Cross, Entheogenic, Total Eclipse, Kick Bong, Shpongle, Shulman, Younger Brother, Ott |
| Psybreaks | Goa, Israel, Spain, France, and United Kingdom | A mixture of Psychedelic Trance and Breakbeat. | Digitalis, Polyploid, Far Too Loud |
| Psydub | United Kingdom | A fusiongenre of electronic music that has its roots in psychedelic trance, ambient and dub music. | Androcell, Antandra, Alien Dread, Banco De Gaia, Bluetech, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Desert Dwellers, Dreadzone, Drrtywulvz, Easily Embarrassed, Entheogenic, Ephemeral Mists, Globular, Grouch, Kalya Scintilla, Kaminanda, Kuba, Kukan Dub Lagan, Land Switcher, Ott, Phutureprimitive, Pitch Black, Quanta, Resonant Language, Shpongle, Shulman, Somatoast, Soulacybin, Soulular, Supersillyus, The Orb, Tor.Ma in Dub |
| Suomisaundi | Finland | A style of freeform psychedelic trance | Eraser vs Yöjalka, Luomuhappo, Salakavala, Shiwa 2000, Squaremeat, Haltya, James Reipas, Texas Faggott |
| Tech trance | Germany | A merge of Techno and Trance, Tech Trance appeared in the mid-'90s. Usually Tech Trance tunes consist of non-changeable bassline, loud drums and percussion and mostly ambient pads. | Tiësto, Oliver Lieb, Yoji Biomehanika, Humate, Sander van Doorn, Jesselyn, Megamind, Ernesto vs Bastian |
| Uplifting trance | Germany | Popular style of trance that emerged in the wake of progressive and acid trance in the late '90s. | Andy Blueman, Xtronika, Super8 & Tab, Ferry Tayle, Ferry Corsten, Gouryella, Carlo Resoort, Ayla, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond, NWYR, ATB, DJ Tandu, Neo & Farina, Blank & Jones, Cloud2Ground, Marco V, Matt Darey, Filo & Peri, Daniel Kandi, Digital United, Sean Tyas, Airscape, EX-PLOSION, Darude, Vincent de Moor, Airbase, Aly & Fila, Cascade, Sash!, The Thrillseekers |
| Vocal trance (also Uplifting trance involved) | Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Liechtenstein and United Kingdom | Broad term referring to trance with a full set of lyrics, which may or may not be any of the above genres (Uplifting, and epic trance often have vocals). Often an artist will borrow a singer's talents as opposed to the singer himself or herself, or sample from/remix more traditional pop music. Note that there is some debate as to where the divide lies between vocal trance and Eurodance. | Astroline, Nadia Ali, Dash Berlin, Dance Nation, 4 Strings, Lange, Milk Inc., Ian Van Dahl, Above & Beyond, Fragma, Lost Witness, Armin van Buuren, NWYR, Xtronika, OceanLab, Chicane, Lasgo, Faithless, Ayumi Hamasaki (remix albums), Sylver, Kate Ryan, ATB, DJ Encore, DJ Sammy, Santamaria, Do, Delerium, Angel City and Jessy De Smet, Globe (band). |
| Trance-fusion | United States | A subgenre of the jam band movement that blends such musical styles as rock, jazz, funk, and electronica. It consists primarily of instrumental music. The terms Jamtronica and Livetronica are also used to refer to this style of music. | Disco Biscuits, The New Deal, Lake Trout, Brothers Past, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Lotus, Particle, Holy Fuck, Future Rock, EOTO, Pnuma Trio |
References
- Ishkur. "Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music". Ishkur.com.
- ""A Beginners Guide To Trance Music"". www.listology.com.
- Argentum. ""Trance music. A definition of genre."". Moodbook.com. Archived from the original on 2008-03-19.
- "Understanding Trance Music". tranceproduction.com. Archived from the original on 2009-03-02. Retrieved 2008-05-28.
- "tranceparty.org". Archived from the original on 2011-02-26. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
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