Is there a resurgence in trance? What state is trance in currently?
At Hello Trance we’ve been reviewing the state of the scene and made a few conclusions.
First, we are currently seeing trance neither become more underground nor grow into the biggest genre within electronic dance music. Event-wise, there are more events at both the club scale to the festival scale than in the past throughout the world. These events continue to be as popular as ever. On the music production side of things, it almost feels stagnant. Labels are seeking tracks that fit their style and mold, not allowing for creativity that pushes the genre forward. Artists rely on the same major radio shows, such as A State of Trance, to reach the masses if they want any chance of success. The small labels don’t get noticed very often.
That being said, we are seeing slight changes as artists begin to attempt to combine various genres in a track or add in sounds from another style, such as using a future rave sound in an uplifting trance track. Also, you could say the resurgence is occurring in the United Kingdom and Europe with even more events now than there were before the pandemic with larger lineups than in the past. Calvin Harris, who has quite the following, is even producing vocal tracks with pop stars with the 90’s trance iconic sound. Many DJs and producers are finding new avenues to reach their audience by live streaming on Twitch due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 3 years down the line the viewers are similar to the 2020 mid-pandemic levels which suggests the scene is stable at a bare minimum.
Moving forward, I don’t believe we are seeing a full trance resurgence, but I also don’t see trance becoming even more underground. Where trance is strong, such as in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, it’ll continue to have the same draw as before. In other parts of the world other genres (house, dubstep, etc) will continue to dominate leaving trance for a small side stage at festivals. It is possible as the scene evolves as we leave the COVID-19 pandemic behind us we’ll reach a point where the resurgence signs are even greater than they are currently.