Trance

Trance emerged as a form of electronic dance music around 1990, with the advent of music that was essentially techno or house, but had simplified percussion, extreme repetition, and other hypnotic effects such as sustained chords and long echoes. In trance's early years (1990-1992), it wasn't always clear whether a track was just "trancey" techno (or even beat-laden "ambient" or "deep" house), or was actually an example of what would later be called simply "trance". Consequently, such music might be tagged as (for example) both Trance and Techno. Example artists in this category and time period include The Shamen, Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia, The Irresistible Force, and Speedy J. From the New Beat scene, Age of Love's 1990 self-titled hit single is sometimes pointed to as the earliest "pure" trance track.

Similarly, some tracks from the Acid House era, such as original versions of The KLF's "What Time Is Love?" (issued in sleeves that say "Pure Trance") were called house or acid house at the time, but are retroactively considered by some to be trance or proto-trance. The first wave of what many now consider to be "classic" trance peaked in 1992 and waned in 1994, and was dominated by producers and labels from Germany and the UK. Key labels include Eye Q/Harthouse, Rising High, FAX, ESP, and MFS. Hits include Jam & Spoon "Stella", Jaydee "Plastic Dreams", Sequential "Prophet", Transform "Transformation", Cygnus X "Superstring".

This music is generally tagged according to which style it is Goa Trance, Progressive Trance, and Psy-Trance), but plain old Trance can be used if the specific variety isn't known. When these styles became more popular, the more basic, classic sound became marginalized, and it did not really re-emerge until the early 2000s, when classic trance-infused techno/tech-house (sometimes called Neo- Trance) became popular. This newer sound is generally tagged with Trance, along with whatever other style applies, indicating it has elements of both.

Trance Music Releases, by Decade (~)

Trance Related Music Styles

Progressive Trance, House, Techno, Hard Trance, Euro House, Progressive House, Tech Trance, Acid, AmbienT, Downtempo, Electro, Hard House, Eurodance, Breakbeat, Psy-Trance