solo electronik

As the name suggests, trance music aims for a hypnotic state with a combination of hard, up-tempo, four-on-the-floor beats, arpeggiated sequences, and euphoric, anthem-like refrains. While trance gained popularity at both underground clubs and raves, the movement proliferated in countries such as the U.K., Belgium, Holland, and Germany, in tandem with the rise of ground-breaking talent such as Art of Trance, Jam and Spoon, and Sven Vath. The style gained popularity and play in European clubs such as Ministry of Sound, Ibiza, and Cream. Meanwhile in India, in the coastal state of Goa, a form of electronic dance known as Goa, or psychedelic trance, arose alongside an international backpacking community. Live acts such as Infected Mushroom characterized the sound with abrasive, repetitive, 4/4 rhythms and winding acid loops. During the '90s, artists such as Sasha and John Digweed and hard-trance forefathers Pascal FEOS, DJ Scot Project, and Cosmic Gate helped trance diversify into different styles in the U.K., including progressive trance (synonymous with progressive house). New producers and remixers entered the fold of trance rather quickly with new forms and styles that embedded the melodic "epic" feel of the music style. Labels such as AMM, Manifesto, Perfecto, and Positiva Records championed the sound commercially and spawned the likes of U.S. producer and DJ Christopher Lawrence, who is today's leading U.S. trance DJ alongside trance empress Sandra Collins.

Notable Artists: Art of Trance, Sven Vath, Sandra Collins

Electronica is a blanket term that describes electronic music, but it mainly references a style in which the use of electronic technology (drum machines, synthesizers, samplers) takes a role in the creative process. Experiments by such pioneers as Russian physicist Leon Theremin and later Robert Moog and Don Buchla brought electronic sounds and keyboard synthesizers to the public arena. Early electronic composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, ambient pioneer Brian Eno, experimentalist John Cage, and the German electro group Kraftwerk utilized technology to make innovative music. As technology became more affordable and widely available in the late '70s and early '80s, the analog synthesizer birthed a variety of new sounds and subgenres. Innovation around the development of these devices gave way to the beginnings of Detroit techno and Chicago house, with hats tipped to the early '70s disco-funk influence, a breath of fresh air to American and British music. In the mid '90s, drum 'n' bass, trip-hop, techno, big-beat, and garage were sired by British DJs, and though each took a dramatically different set of chromosomes from its mother, all were born from disco hips.