Dance|Trance|Electric

“Electronic music” is an umbrella category that includes over 100 genres, including Ambient, Breakbeat, Dance, Nu Disco, Electronica, Garage, Hardcore, House, Industrial, Jungle/Drum and Bass, Techno and Trance. Many of these genres have dozens of subgenres. Trance alone can be broken down into Acid Trance, Dream Trance, Hard Trance, Progressive Trance, Vocal Trance and others.

I don’t claim to be a jack-of-all-electronic-music-trades. Thus, I will only focus on the genres I know best: Dance, House, and Trance. Below is a short description of each subgenre this blog will focus on within those three genres. (The descriptions come from Wikipedia).

Genres Covered in this Blog:

1. Dance (My subgenre focus: Alternative/indie dance and nu disco).
   1. Alternative/indie dance is a term used for the genre of music combining elements of dance-pop (or other forms of electronic house or techno) and alternative rock genres such as indie rock. Alternative dance music is typically predominantly electronic, with programmed beats from drum machines or sampled drum loops and sequenced synthesizer melodies, and thus musically very similar to commercial dance-pop. The indie element is most prevalent in the songwriting; unlike much dance music, alternative dance typically contains lyrics, and, as in indie pop or indie rock, these are often more thematically complex than those of commercial pop.
   2. Nu disco is a 21st century dance music sub-genre associated with a renewed interest in 1970s and early 1980s disco, mid-1980s Italo disco, and the synthesizer-heavy Eurodisco aesthetics. The moniker was legitimized by online record retailers like Juno and Beatport, and is often associated with edits or re-edits. It is used most often in association with European dance music producers who make music inspired by American disco, electro and other genres popular in the late 70s and early 80s but it is also used to describe several American labels that were previously associated with the subgenres electroclash and deep house.
2. House (My subgenre focus: Electro house, French house and progressive house).
   1. Electro house is a subgenre of house music that rose to become one of the most prominent genres of electronic dance music today. Stylistically, it combines the four to the floor beats commonly found in house music with harmonically rich analogue basslines, abrasive high-pitched leads and the occasional piano or string riff. The tempo of electro house ranges approximately from 120 to 130 bpm. Dirty house is a derivative of electro house, which is often much more commercial in its appeal and in general features more vocals. Electrotech is a darker variation of electro house mixed with the sound of tech house.
   2. French house is a late 1990s form of house music, part of the 1990s and 2000s European dance music scene and the latest form of Euro disco. The genre is also known as “French touch”, “filter house” or “tekfunk”. The early mid-to-late 1990s productions was notable for the “filter effect” used by artists such as Daft Punk.^[1] Other productions use more mainstream vocals and samples.
   3. Progressive house. Most electronic dance music tracks contain features that are relatively easy for DJs to beatmatch records together Unlike the song structures of genres like hard house or Hi-NRG, the peaks and troughs in a progressive dance track tend to be more complex. Layering different sounds on top of each other and slowly bringing them in and out is key to the progressive movement. Progressive dance music refers to the structure of a track with more gradual changes, a less prominent lead melody and a focus on build-ups and musical climaxes.
3. Trance (My subgenre focus: Progressive trance and vocal trance).
   1. Progressive trance is a popular sub-genre in trance music and contains elements of house, techno, and ambient music. Acoustic elements and spacey pads became popular with compositions leaned towards incremental changes à la progressive structures. Progressive trance contains distinctive sounds in many tracks, such as unusual basslines or original synthesized sounds, which generally makes it more “catchy”. Compared to trance, the progressive wing is usually deeper and more abstract, featuring a lower average bpm (around 125-135 instead of 130-160) and a recurrent melodic structure. This structure is intuitively described as consisting of three major structural elements: (1) build-up; (2) climax; (3) break-down. These three structural elements are expressed either temporally or in their intensity, if not both. A ‘build-up’ sequence can sometimes last up to 3 or even 4 minutes. Subtle incremental/decremental acoustic variations (i.e., gradual addition/subtraction of instruments) anticipate the transition to each subsequent structural element of the track. The initial build-up and the final break-down are generally very similar, adding a feel of symmetry to the general structure of the melody. Furthermore, a progressive trance track is usually longer than a regular trance track, ranging in length from 5-6 to even 12-13 minutes.
   2. Vocal trance is a subgenre of trance music. It contains Vocals, highly melodic sessions, intro/outros which are similar to those of hard trance or Progressive Trance and tracks of usually about 6 to 8 minutes long. The sub-genre goes back to the early 1990s, when trance was still developing, and vocals have gone onto become a staple of trance. A typical track consists of three elements. At the beginning of the track there is an intro of progressive beats, which lasts about 1-3 minutes. The melodic part (2-5min) starts incrementally, combining vocals, usually female, and melodic sound (for the most part high pitched and fast) with the bass pattern giving a melody cycle. Finally when the outro approaches, the melody fades out into the intro rhythm, usually with some minor changes. More recent tracks are much less formulaic but are born from the same structure.

I love electronic music. But it’s damn hard to find. I started this blog to share my knowledge of Dance, House and Trance music to make your life easier.

My vow to you is this: I will only feature songs truly worthy of a crowded dancefloor. Now let’s get started and let the booty-shaking begin!