A list of trance music genres. Several crossover with other major forms of electronic music. Sub-Genre Classifications Of Trance | Name Of The Sub-Genre | Origin | Description | Notable Artists | | Acid trance | Germany and Belgium | The prevalent early '90's style, sometimes called "first-wave" trance. Characterized by the use of a Roland TB-303 bass machine as the lead synthesizer. | Art of Trance, Union Jack, Eternal Basement, Emmanuel Top, Hardfloor, Kai Tracid, Psychobabble, Solar Quest, Oliver Lieb | | Ambient trance | Germany | A fusion of ambient atmospheres and/or samples with trance style synths and beats. Ambient trance may have atmospheres which are relaxing, spacey, dark, mysterious, tribal or erotic. | Banco de Gaia, Klaus Schulze, Sasha & John Digweed, Solarstone, Young American Primitive | | Classic trance | Germany | Original form of trance music, said to have originated in the very early 90's. Characterized by less percussion than techno, more melody, arpeggiated melody, and repetitive melodic chords/arpeggios. | Age of Love, Harald Blüchel, Cygnus X, Dance 2 Trance, Jam & Spoon, Sven Väth, Oliver Lieb, Marco Zaffarono, The KLF | | Dream trance / Dream house | Italy | A variety of epic trance popularized by Robert Miles in the mid 90's which is highly melodic. Very often it features soothing piano riffs. | DJ Dado, DJ Panda, DJK, Robert Miles, The Cynic Project, Zhi-Vago, Eurohawk | | Euro-Trance | Europe; mainly in Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Belgium and UK | Euro Trance is a hybrid of Hard trance and Eurodance music incorporating hardstyle bass drums and trance elements. It is closely related to uplifting trance. The trance synths at times can sound like techno hoovers with trancey effects and strings backing it up. The vocals are often pitched up for the most part, but sometimes they can be heard as in normal pitch range. This is often confused as vocal trance because of its use of vocals. The lyrical content is usually primitive, containing an introduction to the song with usually no or little drums, and often includes renderings of classic Happy hardcore anthems or melodies. Also some of the middle 90's Happy Hardcore producers started to produce tracks in this style. | Jan Wayne, Nemystic, Milk Inc., Special D., Starsplash, Marko Albrecht, Pulsedriver, Cascada, Verano, DJ Manian, Alex Megane, Marco Juliano, Rocco, Insomnia, Tune Up! | | Electro trance | Germany and Sweden | This style has been influenced by electroclash and takes some elements from Uplifting Trance. Originated around 2004. | Ferry Corsten, Elevation, Marcel Woods, Martin Roth, Gabriel & Dresden | | Futurepop | Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, United States and Canada | A fusion of mainly Electronic body music and Anthem Trance. This music has a cold, dark feel to it, while having grandiose synth melodies and general more trancy sound than EBM. Lyrics have a more prominent place in Futurepop than most other types of trance, and tend be about love, hate, human emotions and global issues. | VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Angels and Agony, Apoptygma Berzerk, Covenant | | Goa trance | Goa (India), Israel, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Netherlands | A complexly melodic form of trance named for Goa, India, and originating in the early 90's. Often uses the Raga. The style has been developed by musicians from many countries, and is now generally referred to as Psychedelic trance, which is discussed below. | Yahel Sherman, The Infinity Project, Transwave, Man With No Name, Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Goa Gil, Juno Reactor, Message From God, S.U.N. Project | | Hardstyle | Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, and Italy | Closely related to nu style Gabber and Hard trance. Its sound is usually characterized by a mix of gabber and hardcore like kick/bass sounds, spontaneous rhythmic changes, trance like synth stabs and sweeps and miscellaneous samples. However, Hardstyle usually has a lot slower BPM (between 140 and 150). | Blutonium Boy, Dana, DJ Luna, DJ Isaac, DJ Zenith, Technoboy, Trance Generators, The Prophet, DJ Zany, Headhunterz, Alpha2 | | Hard trance | Germany | Aggressive and slower trance sounding, Originating in Frankfurt, includes influences from hardcore. This style arguably began around 1993 and peaked in popularity in in the late 90's. | Andrea Montorsi, A*S*Y*S, Derb, Hennes & Cold, Kai Tracid, Legend B, Nostrum, Gary D, Genetic Line, Yoji Biomehanika, Lisa Lashes, Trance Generators, Flutlicht, Mat Silver & Tony Burt, DuMonde, Jones & Stephenson, Yves Deruyter, Cosmic Gate, S.H.O.K.K., Mauro Picotto, Warmduscher, Sunburst, Scot Project, Raver's Nature, Jon The Dentist, System D | | Ibiza Trance aka Balearic beat | Spain | This style has been influenced by various relaxed music genres, especially linked to Ibiza's (Spain) chill-out style of life parallel with the huge rave scene that is present in the islands. Very melodic and mellow, sometimes with ethnic features, and it often samples seaside elements like seagulls and ocean waves. | Balearic Session, Café del Mar, Chicane, DJ Shah, Chiller Twist, Energy 52, Gouryella, Imagination, Miromusic, Salt Tank, Solarstone, York, Three 'n One | | Neo-trance | Germany and Denmark | Neo-trance is new genre that arrived in the vernacular to describe the recent developments towards more minimalist trance. | Kyau & Albert, Deadmau5, Trentemøller, Gregor Tresher | | Progressive Trance / Melodic Trance | Germany and Sweden | Style of trance that originated in the early-mid 90's. Differentiated from the then "regular" trance by more breakdowns, less acid-like sound & bass chord changes that gave the repeating lead synth a feeling of "progression". | BT, Humate, Sasha, Agnelli & Nelson, John Digweed, Sander Kleinenberg, Slacker, Breeder, Gab Olivier, Markus Schulz, Faithless, Brainbug, Ronski Speed | | Psychedelic trance | Goa, Sweden, United Kingdom, Israel, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand | A kind of trance that was developed in the late 90's and grew from Goa trance culture of India. While it retains strong cultural ties to India, the term has come to refer generally to the music and style of culture associated with it, which is now found in many countries. One defining feature of this genre is the use of a lots of spontaneous sounds and samples. However the range of styles is quite broad, and it has several subgenres of its own, listed below. | 1200 Micrograms, Logic Bomb, Tegma, Infected Mushroom, GMS, Son Kite, Skazi, Hallucinogen, Electrypnose, Astrix | | Psybreaks | Goa, Israel, Spain, France, and United Kingdom | A mixture of Psychedelic Trance and Breakbeat | Digitalis, Polyploid, Far Too Loud | | Psybient | Goa, Israel, France, and United Kingdom | Also known as "Ambient Psy", "Psychedelic Ambient", "Ambient Goa", or "Ambient Psytrance" it is a mixture of Psychedelic trance with ambient and glitch | Bluetech, Celtic Cross, Entheogenic, Open System, Kick Bong, Shpongle, Shulman, Younger Brother, Ott | | Dark psytrance | Germany and Russia | Does not use vocals, though sampling is common, with speech and other kind of samples usually being taken from different kind of movies (especially horror movies), or occasionally from other tracks. Sometimes sampling elements form other genres of music is done as a mockery of the original tracks. | Cosmo, C-P-C, Fungus Funk, Kindzadza, Ocelot, Para Halu, Parasense, Penta, The Nommos, Xenomorph, Psykovsky | | Full on | Israel | Full on or "Melodic psytrance" draws its main influences from more radio-friendly genres such as uplifting trance (Nitzhonot and vocal trance) and electro house, futuristic melodies, occasional electric guitar performances and usage of vocals. | Astrix, Cosma, Vibe Tribe, Kali, Domestic, Sesto Sento, Puzzle, PsySex, Sirius Isness, Talamasca, Frozen Ghost, Shift, Slug, EMP | | Nitzhonot | Israel | A crossover between Goa trance and uplifting trance | Astrix, Cyberia, Cygnet | | Progressive psytrance | Germany and Sweden | Progressive psytrance combines the elements of minimal sounding progressive electronic music and complex developments of psychedelic music. Its heritage can be traced back to the developments of minimal techno, tech, and minimal house. | Andromeda, Ticon, Atmos, Vibrasphere, Kalumet | | South African psytrance | South Africa | | Artifakt, Frozen Ghost | | Suomisaundi | Finland | A style of freeform psychedelic trance | Flying Scorpions, Eraser vs Yöjalka, Luomuhappo, Mandalavandalz, Salakavala, Shiwa 2000, Squaremeat, Texas Faggott, Kalumet | | Tech trance | Germany | A merge of Techno and Trance, Tech Trance appeared in the mid 90's. Usually Tech Trance tunes consist of non-changeable bassline, loud drums and percussions and mostly ambient pads. | Oliver Lieb, Mark Sherry, Fabio MC, Incolumis, Humate, Sander van Doorn, Jesselyn, Megamind, Simon Patterson, Rafael Frost | | Uplifting Trance aka Anthem trance, Epic Trance | Germany | Style of commercialized trance that emerged in the wake of progressive and acid trance in the late 90's and is sometimes called "second-wave trance". | Tiësto, System F, Pulser, Carlo Resoort, Ayla, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond, ATB, DJ Tandu, Neo & Farina, Blank & Jones, Marco V, Matt Darey, Filo & Peri, Daniel Kandi, Digital United, Sean Tyas, Julian Cumberworth, Airscape, EX-PLOSION, Darude, Vincent de Moor, Airbase | | Vocal trance | Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, and United Kingdom | Broad term referring to trance with a full set of lyrics, which may or may not be any of the above genres (Uplifting, and epic trance often have vocals). Often an artist will borrow a singer's talents as opposed to the singer himself or herself, or sample from/remix more traditional pop music. Note that there is some debate as to where the divide lies between vocal trance and Eurodance. | Astroline, Dance Nation, 4 Strings, Lange, Ian Van Dahl, Above & Beyond, Fragma, Lost Witness, Armin van Buuren, Oceanlab, Chicane, Lasgo, Faithless, Ayumi Hamasaki (remix albums), Sylver, ATB, Lasgo, Sylver, DJ Encore, Milk Inc, Dj Sammy, Santamaria, Do, Kate Ryan, Delerium, Angel City, and Jessy De Smet. | | Trancecore | United Kingdom and United States | Term referring to the combination of trance and hardcore techno, versus the popularly assumed combination of trance and metalcore or post-hardcore. It occasionally contains shouted vocals, with bass-heavy techno beats. | Asking Alexandria, Enter Shikari, Attack Attack!, Dying Diva, My Passion, Blood Stain Child, T3chn0ph0b1a, The Republic of Desire, Cyanotic, Hardwire, Mnemic, Violent Work of Art, Scorngrain, Psyclon Nine, Atari Teenage Riot, Kong, Mad Capsule Markets, Ted Maul, Cubanate | [edit] References |
