Trance Vs. Mainstream – Where is this Genre going?
Should Trance Remain Underground?
With the recent unveiling of Deadmau5 at the VMAs questions might have come to the forefront of a tranceheads mind.
Where is trance going?
More and more you can turn on your favorite mainstream radio station and hear a backing line that sounds like something Rank 1 would be proud of back in 2000, but with an auto-tuned MC on top laying down a chorus.
It seems to me that mainstream just lags behind current trance trends for a few years and then begins to integrate them into their music, but thats not true either. I am speaking specifically about America and the trance culture here that is still very young. As a listener and in some cases more importantly as a consumer, you should ask yourself if you want trance to go mainstream.
In my beginning days as a producer there was always talk in forums about how people would love it if trance were big in their area. “I really wish my friends loved trance as much as I did”, nothing wrong with this, and I still feel that way myself. How big should it get though. Do we want the radio to replay our favorites over and over till we are sick of them? Do we want radio hosts to pull on Sander Van Doorn and interview him about his upcoming album? should Global DJ Broadcast play over regular FM radio and not the big internet radio stations?
As interesting as these questions are, I think the biggest one is “should trance remain underground?”, trance has a culture with it, a history if you will of always being hidden amongst society. Right now there is and has been a huge Bedroom movement, all the producers can produce for themselves and make their own name. Much easier than finding a talented rapper and producing for him. If trance became commercialized to the extent that rap is in America, will we lose the talent pool that is currently out there? Don’t get me wrong, there is a never ending line of bad trance out there, but when someone stands out we raise them up, support them, and ultimately define their success much more than a label does for a rapper or band in mainstream music.
The level of money involved in digital music is minimal, and the amount of labels without the resources to get gigs for their artists is very large (Us included). So now we also have a pool of artists who make music because they love it, and they love that we the fans love it.
- Douglas Hazelwood
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Trance is taking a slight turn in direction slowly, as its older/earlier style becomes more commercially known. Makes me wonder if producers are changing up styles to keep Trance Mainstream or to be different? I think its a little bit of both. The trance anthems today, are starting to sound more involved with high production value. Having complex rhythms & glitching certain parts of the composition ,drums, and melodies. Has Experimental electronica & IDM influenced the trance/electro house scene? This definitely isn’t a bad thing but a great move.
A good Example of this is Andrew Bayer & Boom Jinx’s Track “Fracture”.
LISTEN HERE:
Dangerbox releases also serve as a great example for this new direction in trance & progressive. We release dirty progressive music with a little twist. Sometimes even melodic/emotional trance. The album we made “Laptop Jocks And Bedroom Divas” gives a core sound of what our idea of trance is. It has all the elements a regular Progressive trance track would have, but you can tell there’s somethings about the builds, and composition of every Arc track that’s different from your average trance track.
To us …. this is a what we mean by your average Trance Track:
Not that it sounds bad, This is good remix from Mike Koglin. You have all your elements of trance in this song. Your chords, builds, intro leads, a roller bass, with your occasional Bass sweep, a beautiful break introducing the lead, and after- break.
Dangerbox has released trance like this a few catalogs back from an artist named Airdrift. The song Phoenix starts on the same bass scale as Mike Koglin’s remix, its just two great examples, to your perfect trance track:
DANGBX053: Airdrift – Phoenix (Original Mix) PREVIEW by Dangerbox Recordings
As for us, We approach things a bit differently. A majority of the songs that were released on Laptop Jocks and Bedroom Divas were made almost 2-4 years ago. Our intentions for the album was for people to listen & feel the songs as oppose to album full of “Club Tracks”. But we are very excited that it hit some playlists and DJ support. I think one of Arc’s best productions is “Gross Motor” CATALOG: DANGBX007.
The reason why:
The track sounded strange for its time of release. Not a bad strange, more of an experimental Strange. we used glitches, with a unusual broken bass rhythm for the song. It has your main elements of trance in it, with some influences of electro house and IDM. The synthesizer sounds used in this production were picked carefully, and is not usually used when making a trance track. I think Gross Motor was overlooked, & even today, it sounds fresh to our ears.
Ahnken did a remix of Gross Motor, and at first we thought it wasn’t as good, but after a few plays, Ahnken delivers something unique as well, fusing our broken bass rhythm and working it into his remix.
This is what we think makes trance different. There are tons of examples and releases we can show you at Dangerbox that show a similar sound, but we want to leave that to you & explore the db site 
This is what we think is pushing trance to the next level of a new genre. Electro influenced basslines and unique sounding synths. Simple and melodic fused with glitches.
We feel bad saying it, but the sawtooth sound is dead in the Trance/Progressive Trance Genre. UNLESS you work it in your productions very well. It still has its place in classic trance tracks back in 2000, But using it today sounds very dated. Some people might disagree with us, and I respect that, because producers still use it today. That (Year 2000 Trance) sound has left the trance genre and went into its own category called “EURO TRANCE”
A GOOD Example of EURO TRANCE:
Music is always re-inventing itself throughout the years, and certain styles/genres do comeback. We find producers & musicians combing them into new ideas. So why am I showing you all these trance clips?
Because Hip Hop & Pop music today, has officially turned what was the trance genre back in 2000, which is now referred to Euro Trance if your producing it now, into their own GENRE. Trance & Hip Hop together, with tons of influence from electro house.
A few Pop & Hip Hop songs using Trance/Electro House style beats:
What do all of these songs have in common? Do you hear it? All of them have a 4/4 Kick that you would normally hear in any Dance/Club/Trance track. All of them have some kind of main lead/chords similar sounding to trance. All of these artist never did any style like this before, except for Madonna, and that’s because she was always influenced by electronic music, she is overall, a different case.
By the way if anybody knows, what classic trance song sounds similar to the Madonna track, leave us a comment. The chords sound so familiar, but we cant tell where its from.
Is this a good thing for Trance?
In a way, we believe yes! If Trance goes mainstream, let it be. It will only help the scene more.
Its not the first time Pop and Hip Hop fused Dance Music with tracks. In the late 80′s, Technotronic came out with “Pump up the Jam”
We see this whole thing as a new comeback.
- Artificial Dreamer
Dangerbox Version 5
As you can see Dangerbox went through a little change for the past month or two. We took a new change in direction, and decided to make the site HTML friendly. Simple & Straightforward! You can now preview all of the Dangerbox Releases with the options to ( Share, Tweet, Like…etc) any release you want.
Now you may notice and ask “What happen to the whole Catalog?, DANGBX001 -DANGBX043 is missing?”
No worries! we wanted to get the site up and running as soon as we could. In the meantime, we still are in the process of updating it. This is very Brand New, and Dangerbox has had over 50 releases over the past year or so. Not to mention new releases in progress, so for now.. you can check back in with the site as we update our whole back catalog within the next couple of weeks.
We are also embedding our Artist page, with all the lovely stats. That should be live next week for everyone to see.
We also combined our Dangerbox Universal Show with this site. So you can hear the latest dbU shows, all the time every week! Comment & download.
We hope you enjoy exploring the site, and we are now officially open to accepting Demos again!
Dangerbox Universal Week 44 With Eric Shaw
The November issue of Dangerbox Universal with Eric Shaw delivers a house-focused feature. Lots of fresh
and funky club tunes, finishing of with a twist of vocal and progressive trance. Watch out for a completely
mad swedish db selection.
Tracklist:
01 Parov Stelar – Catgroove
02 Pharrel Williams & Uffie – Add Suv (Armand van Helden Remix)
03 Chris Lake & Marco Lys – Cross The Line
04 Mylo – Drop the Pressure (Laidback Luke Bootleg)
05 Funkagenda & Mark Knight – Good Times
06 Afrojack & Bobby Burns – Bungee
07 Tocadisco & Nadia Ali – Better Run (Afrojack Remix)
08 Julie Thompson – Shine (Kid Massive 3AM Mix)
09 Faithless – Sun to Me (Mark Knight Remix)
10 Age of Love – The Age of Love (Wippenberg Remix)
11 Miike Snow – Silvia (Robotberget Remix)
12 Avicii – Ryu (Laidback Luke Remix)
13 Nalin & Kane – Beachball (Chris Lake Remix)
14 Mango – Here We Go (Jaytech Remix)
15 Tim Berg – Bromance (Chris Reece Pinkstar Remix)
16 Patric la Funk & DBN – Inside Out (Inpetto Remix)
17 Chris Reece & Luciana di Nardo – Still Breathin
18 Dabruck & Klein feat. Stafford Brothers – Open Up Your Arms
19 Dada Life – Unleash the Fucking Dada
20 Dabruck & Klein feat. Jean Elan – I’ve Got My Pride
21 Tara McDonald & TV Rock – Elevated (Dabruck & Klein Remix)
22 Tyler Michaud & Mat Zo – Battle Royal (Robert Burian Remix)
23 Arty – The Wonder
24 Aruna feat. Mark Eteson – Let Go
25 Oliver Smith – Chordplay
26 Funabashi – Daylight (Estiva 2010 Remix)
27 Rex Mundi feat. Susana – Nothing at All
Dangerbox Universal Week 42 With Johan Vilborg
Tracklist for dbUniversal Week 42 w/ Johan Vilborg:
1. Johan Vilborg – She Made Me Smile
2. Arty – The Wonder
3. Feeltz – Dont Hold Me Back (Allende Remix)
4. Christian Zechner – Futurestate
5. Adam Tas featuring Sopheary – Say
6. Above & Beyond presents oceanlab – I Am what I Am (Lange Remix)
7. Cressida – Breakfast With Zeus
8. Robbert Ladiges – Signs
9. Paul Trainer feat Antonia Lucas – Rise Again
10. Digital Horizon – Hold The Motion (vitodito Remix)
11. Jochen Miller – Classified
12. Joop – Prominent (Leon Bolier remix)
13. Blugazer – Singer Island (Simon Hunt Presents Ish Remix)
14. Mike Shiver – feat Susana – Give Me Faith (dub mix)
15. Feeltz presents Johan Vilborg – Summit
16. Adam Nickey – Altara
17. Daniel Kandi – Forgive Me
18. Daniel Kandi & Martijn Stegerhoek – Australia
19. Suncatcher – Wildflowers
20. Tritonal – Driftoff
21. Tucandeo – Layla (DJ Eco Remix)
22. Super8 & Tab – Helsinki Scorchin
