Although heavily influenced by electronics, when it comes to trance music vinyl is still seen by many as the most preferable format for distributing and playing trance and dance music. This might seem strange to some people, since much of today’s dance and trance music is digitally generated, computer manipulated and formatted in binary code. But for many fans of trance, dance and house music there is a huge benefit to be gained through having music distributed and played on vinyl.
Trance music is a relatively new form of music, originating in Germany through the 1990s. There are mixed references as far as exactly how it was influenced, and even how it managed to acquire its name, but it would seem that a combination or fusion between space music and dance music were ultimately responsible for such formats. As for the name, several of the early tracks seemed to use the word trance within the title, and this then developed into mainstream popularity.
Today there are a wide number of different types of trance music, from acid to euphoric, although they all share a number of general similarities. These include the beat, typically up to around 150 beats per minute, rarely dropping below 130 beats per minute. Trance music also tends to have quite repetitive phrases of usually digital or electronic melodies which build up over time. It has often been likened to tribal drumming in being able to stir up a crowd and almost hypnotize them into moving with the music and the beat. Certainly trance music has gained huge popularity, and this is in part why when it comes to choosing the medium to hear trance music vinyl tops the list for a great many fans.
Once of the advantages of vinyl is the ability to play the music in your own style, with scratching, mixing and spinning allowing creative individuals to experiment with the music, explore new ways of playing and enjoying the music, and generating unique sounds and experiences. This is something that is simply not as possible with modern digital media. Certainly MP3s and compact disks have brought tremendous advantages to the world of music, with the ability to carry tens of thousands of songs with you, and distribute them more easily and more cheaply than ever. In terms of durability as well, digital media are very much more robust.
But there are disadvantages when it comes to modern digital media, and although trance music and dance music lend a very great deal to the world of electronics and computers, since many of the sounds are synthesized, there is still a very great demand for vinyl records and for trance music to be distributed or transferred to vinyl to allow the music to be enjoyed in an entirely different way.
This is the difference between listening to music and participating in it. Not all of us are musicians, but most of us can enjoy music, and trance music, as well as dance music and house styles, all of which have captured wide audiences across the globe. But for many of these people, as well as the DJs who create unique sounds and experiences, vinyl offers an attraction in that it can allow much greater diversity and provide a wider choice in terms of style, collaboration and performance.
One of the things people often comment on when listening to trance and dance music styles is that the music can be felt, or at least, should be felt. This is a little like the drumming of the tribal music which seems to have in some small way influenced this branch of modern music. Feeling the music, and sensing that the music has depth and a physical impact is important. Somehow this whole aspect seems lost when music is played entirely digitally, yet vinyl creates a dimension which emphasizes this physical bond between the musicians, the DJ or performer, and those listening to and enjoying the trance music.
Perhaps this is due to the fact that when it comes to recording trance music vinyl allows the music to be scratched into the surface in real, physical grooves. The music is almost tangible, and the scratches, crackles and pops which are not just an integral part of listening to vinyl music, but some would say essential part of it, add this extra dimension which is missing with the clinically pure sound of digital encoding.
