The best way to truly understand trance is to dance to it. The next best way is just to listen. Spiritual and overpowering at times, Trance is manifesting itself as the most popular form of dance music, from the underground raves where it was born to giant mega clubs where it is played today. The term "Trance" has evolved into an umbrella term to cover many types of beat-driven electronically generated dance music.
Trance took a bit of technology, some existing dance music formulas like 4-4 beats at a danceable bpm, and created a new unique sound to call its own. Trance was the starting point for such specialized sounds such as Hard Trance, Acid Trance, Trancecore (a mixture of Trance and Hardcore) and eventually - Goa Trance/Psychedelic Trance and Progressive Trance.
There are many, many theories as to what influenced and who created every type of music, from techno to house, disco to hardcore. But there can be no denying the symbiotic structure created by culture, drugs and music. Trance has been called "music made for ecstasy" and it certainly flourished along with it. The seemingly endless builds of energy, climaxing repeatedly, taking you higher each time is certainly recognizable in both, though with the music its a healthy crescendo of Doppler effects, sequencer riffs, driving bass and energetic percussion. Those addicted to the music claim no drugs are needed to be taken on such a journey, that the music itself, when constructed by such masters as Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, Marco V, and Armin Van Buuren surpasses any chemically enhanced perception.
All kinds of Trance share floor-pounding kicks intertwined with other elements of electronic instruments essential to all forms of dance music. It's evolution and popularity attest to its strength as a genre, and its ability to carry a crowd dancing into a euphoric communal state will carry it onward and upward to its next incarnation. Trance lives forever, and will never die!
