electronic music genres Archives

What the hell is trance music?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

dj, electronic music, electronic music genres, paul van dyk, tiesto, trance music, uplifting trance

HI! Aaron here again, still investigating genres. This time I thought we’d check out trance music. Here’s an example of a pretty typical (although creative for the genre) trance song:

First thing I notice – a spiritual transcendent energy. Sawtooth synths that are more melodic than techno or house. You’re in the same ballpark, with BPM’s at 120-140bpm, 4/4 time signatures and of course, the 808 kick on every beat. The snare is even more de-emphasized, but it’s still there. Usually an 808 or a 909 clap sound (I’ll talk about what an 808 and 909 is tomorrow, how about?). There’s usually another 808 snare that does some filling too. And, at times, the snare is out.

But I think the most important defining factor about trance is the sawtooth synth with the super transcendent melodies. Trance is DEFINITELY for taking you to another place, which of course is often enhanced with drugs. Trance songs don’t usually have an A-B-A-B verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure – trance tracks just sort of build and build, and go and go and go. There will usually be a drop or two where the track goes down to nearly nothing. You can literally do this repeating for hours and hours and if you’re mixing it live, all you have to do is follow the feeling (or drop when you need to catch your breath 😉 ).

Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say:

Trance is a genre of electronic music that developed during the 1990s in Germany.[5] It is characterized by a tempo lying between 125 to mid 140 beats per minute (BPM),[5] repeating melodic phrases,[5] and a musical form that distinctly builds tension and elements throughout a track often culminating in 1 to 2 “peaks” or “drops.”[5] Although trance is a genre of its own, it liberally incorporates influences from other electronic music styles such as techno,[3] house,[1] pop,[3] chill-out[3] classical music,[3][4] tech house, ambient and film music.[4]

I just said that! 😉

Let’s take a look at some “early” trance type stuff – Paul Van Dyke is often credited as being one of the first…

Ahh – yes – you can hear the connection between that mix and the newer Tiesto stuff. But as usually happens, things become bigger and more aggressive as they evolve…

Here’s a quote from Wikipedia that definitely connects Third Option to trance:

Rapid arpeggios and minor keys are common features of Trance, the latter being almost universal.

We’ve never used a major key in any Third Option production – ever. 🙂 And as I go through tracks, I do hear trance elements in Third Option stuff…observe:

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://www.nquit.com/sounds/ThirdOption/CultOfNice/03ThirdOptionPossibility.mp3″] Possibility – wait until 2:38…

I love Urban Dictionary’s first definition:

A euphoric electronic dance music genre that’s the love child of classical music, house & techno. In essence classical music for the dancefloor or ‘the next generation of classical music’.

And wait for it…another quote from Wikipedia:

Uplifting trance is also known as “anthem trance”, “epic trance”,[3] “stadium trance”, or “euphoric trance”,[5] and has been strongly influenced by classical music both in the 1990s[3] and at present…

Remember when I said Third Option has always been referred to as “techno/classical fusion”? That’s because what we do is use classical style melody and structure (classical music doesn’t adhere to pop song structure, as you probably know)…so…are we…”uplifting trance?”…or just simply trance because we try to do euphoric classical music using new technology?

The thing is, again, even though that fits us very well…I don’t think you can put us in the “trance” category really… and that’s part of the point of this series of genre investigations, I think. Like I said in “what the hell is techno music“, there’s an un languagable thing, which eventually just comes down to listening and knowing, it either is or it isn’t…

Ok…I need to keep this short…but I hope you’re enjoying these investigations. I’ll explain what the hell a TR808 and TR909 is tomorrow, I think, and then we can get into some other more esoteric genres. We’ll never get done with electronic music, but hopefully we’ll get somewhere.

If you want our free downloads, they’re up at thirdoptionmusic.com/free-music and of course, email me at thirdoption @ nquit . com to discuss anything! 🙂

— Aaron

What The Hell Is Electronic Music?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

dj, electronic music, electronic music genres, house, max matthews, moby, synthesizers, techno, trance, turntablism

Hi! Ok so we’re mirroring some stuff that was on Third Option’s site here – because if it’s relevant both places, why not have it both places? 🙂

I probably should have started this “series” with this question – what the hell is electronic music? It seems like an obvious answer – it’s – uhm – electronic? And it’s music?

But it’s actually a deep thing and one of those esoteric things if you think a little on it. It’s like asking “what is technology?” – mostly we think of technology like smart phones or other electronical new fangled gadgets. But technology really just means “a capability given by the practical application of knowledge” (Merriam-Webster). That means an ape using a stick to capture termites to eat is technology.

Similarly with electronic music, how do you define it? Well Wikipedia says “Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production”. Yes. But actually, EVERY SINGLE RECORDING YOU EVER HEARD employs “electronics” in its production. So when you start out and you want to become an “electronic musician” you’re really just setting out to learn to record. All the technologies are the same as in rock, hip-hop, or even flat out acoustic music (when you make recordings of it). Even deeper than that, acoustics are the same science, sound is sound, and so on.

But – you have to admit, although TECHNICALLY “electronic music” means basically any damn thing other than a live performance with only acoustic instruments and vocals – in practice it means something else. No one refers to a rock band with a live drum set and guitars as “electronic music”. And no one really refers to hip-hop as “electronic music” although it REALLY actually is.

What is it then? Is it dance music? Not necessarily. Is it bloops and bleeps? Also, not necessarily. What it is is, music that is created with mostly synthesizers or computers, and even when performed live, utilizes mostly synthesizers and/or computers. Would turntablism count as “electronic music”? No not really, but turntablism and electronic music go hand in hand, because really what “electronic music” means is playing machines as instruments. That’s not even fully right…it’s more like…playing music with stuff that’s not the traditional thing…so it’s not playing guitars or drums or violins or pianos…it’s making turntables create a beat by sampling pieces of stuff…or programming a computer to create sounds that are musical…or…wait…playing synthesizer keyboards? Or…guitars live? Wait…it’s all jumbled up!

That’s because music is music, kid. Still – just like with techno or house or trance – you know when something is “electronic music”, even when you can’t accurately describe it with words. Pearl Jam is NOT electronic music. Limp Biskit and Bon Jovi, although both chock full of the use of synthesizers are NOT electronic music. Moby IS electronic music, even though he plays a live damn bass on stage.

Confusing. But not. Here’s an incredible, overwhelmingly long list of electronic music genres. My god!

I’ve been going through some of them, to try and more accurately describe (and target) Third Option. There’s a long list, and maybe one will fit! Or not. The reason there are SO many genres is because people come along and do something that doesn’t fit. A few people will usually copy the trendsetters, and then somebody names that style. That happens really quickly now.

Still, if you go back in time, you start to see that the pioneers of “electronic music” are also the pioneers of “recording” and really there’s not as big a separation between them and “traditional” musicians as you might think. I’ve had the privilege of hearing Max Matthews play quite a mean violin! (Check out that link – Max Matthews was one of the originals – basically invented digital audio. You can thank him for the CD – and he was an accomplished musician.)

So what the hell is electronic music? I couldn’t tell ya, but I think you’ll know it when you hear it 😉

Maybe Third Option will just invent its own genre. What do you think? Why don’t you send us an idea or two at thirdoption @ nquit.com 🙂

More to come…

— Aaron

DJ Eklypse

electronic-music-genres

What the hell is trance music?

What The Hell Is Electronic Music?