Trance

Trance is a genre of music incorporating several distinct subgenres. Trance is mainly composed of electronic sounds, but lately some trance artists prefer to incorporate instruments. Lyrics are very unusual, though voice sampling is used in some genres. Trance is virtually unknown in North America.

Often confused with techno and other music that is performed by American DJs.


 * Psychedelic Trance
 * One of the two best-known trance genres.
 * Notable artists include Astral Projection, 1200 Micrograms, and Syndrome.
 * Also notable is the Psychedelic Ambience genre, which bears many similarities to psytrance.
 * Goa Trance
 * The other well-known trance genre. Tends to have a more spiritual and relaxing sound than psytrance, but is otherwise quite similar.
 * Notable artists include Man With No Name, Juno Reactor (earlier works) and Hallucinogen.
 * Uplifting Trance
 * Primarily by Greek artists, Uplifting Trance (sometimes called Melodic) is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
 * Notable artists include Soundreamer, Qsys, Above & Beyond, Daniel Kandi
 * Progressive Trance
 * Known for its fast tempo, massive build-ups and breakdowns. Popular in Poland and other parts of Europe.
 * Commonly, many artists combine Uplifting Trance and Progressive Trance into together on their tracks
 * Notable artists include Nitrous Oxide, Above & Beyond, Sasha, Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz
 * Nitzhonot Trance
 * Originating in Israel, Nitzhonot is a faster, harder form of Uplifting. Often incorporates elements of psy and goa trance. Suffered due to many cheap, rushed songs that more or less crippled the genre through saturation.
 * Notable artists include Eyal Barkan, Mihabra, and Cyan.
 * Dark Psytrance
 * Obscure genre originating in Germany.
 * Usually tends to be High Octane Nightmare Fuel in music form.
 * Notable artists include Xenomorph (the original dark psy artist), Dark Soho, and Para Halu.
 * J-Trance
 * Trance from Japan.
 * Identifiable in many cases by that persistent unison lead playing the melody or by Japanese vocals.
 * One notable group is I've Sound.

There are also various artists who are harder to pin down, such as S.U.N. Project, which could only be described as "rock trance."

Trance has also been influential on various other genres. For instance, from 1999 to the early 2000's, the Industrial scene began to incorporate various influences from Trance resulting in a subgenre called "Futurepop." Some Melodic Death Metal and Metalcore bands have also incorporated Trance elements into their music.