I was interested in hearing from people just how popular progressive / uplifting / melodic / vocal trance as a genre is in different countries. I know it's popular in Europe, but just how popular? In other words, does its popularity stand out amongst the rest of dance music - house, hardhouse, eurodance/trance, etc.? (Yes, the genres do blend, but they are different in general.)

Here in South Africa, it isn't big at all (as far as I can tell) - there are few DJ's playing it, and the local music stores stock very few CD's (and what little they do stock is old). We have practically no radio shows - absolutely none (that I know of) on a national scale. A great pity for me.

So what is it like in your country?

i think compared to other countries, where I'm from (UK) it's pretty big.. at least bigger than most countries.. perhaps the 2nd country after Holland trance wise.. but the RNB hiphop influence is still too big here, and UK is the one country that produces really s**t pop music..

but anyway, there was a poll somewhat similar to this topic a while back

well weve had such previous topics as this one.... but here goeZ..
im from egypt ... and trance here died late 2001 (trance popular from 98-01 which i call the golden era looL).... im sure zuli has more 2 say bout this loL .... but still weve been havin good gigz lately.. hope it comez back again.....
LaZ

I'm from Tranceparadise Holland.....need I say more. Party-summer is coming closer...looking forward to the festival-seaseon here in Holland

Here in Spain trance is a weak genre, far below eurodance or house. Some trance tunes are played by many djs but with a speed (over 145 bpms) that ruins it's meaning.

yeh the only Spanish DJ I know is Abel Ramos

I think Frank TRAX is from Spain?

good point, yeh he is actually... born in Igualada, near Barcelona... began his career playing hip-hop! the pratt.

Short answer: not

Trance is pretty big here in Norway, but pop is bigger DJ Elusive, Verzus, Freeloader to name a few...

Id say trance is big here in the UK

Well trance is like "IT" in my country, we have a lot of good producers. But other styles of dancemusic are also very popular for example: hard-house & hard-style! Ever heard of Q-dance.....? Well I think you could guess in which country I live... ...The Netherlands!!!

Mzzls

nie martw sie!! When I go to Krakow this Summer I'm bringing trance with me!! I'm going to start a trance-revolution!!

Now you know another one: Me

Trzymam Cię za słowo

There's still no club is playing trance ATM, unless they invite some big djs to spin here for a night, party or rave. That's the only time where i could find trance. Like Tiesto, Ferry Costen, Judge Jules, Deep Dish and so on, all had been spinned here but its not trancy enough IMO. Too hard pumping and less vocal due to the local crowd responce.
You guys should be glad that born in europe.

United States:
For the last couple of years I have listened to this radio station based in Long Island, NY. And they've been the closest station that plays trance in a while. They really got me hooked back in 2000. Played the Airscape Mix of Silence by Delirium, Safri Duo - Played Alive, and most importantly Thrillseekers - Synaesthesia (which really got me into the scene). Then, between 2001-2003 they played all cornball stuff, but now they are playing BT & Tiesto and the new Above & Beyond Mix for Britney. So, they are getting a lil better. Haha like the funniest thing I think I ever heard was like two months ago, they played Motorcycle - As The Rush Comes and said it was new. I laughed so hard considering I first heard the song a year before that time. But I mean, some places like Miami are bumping in the trance scene, so is New York, so we're not that bad.

isnt that big here in germany, only the commercial stuff but in the last it also sell bad and the real trance is getting more popular ...

yeah i think trance scene in egypt is getting better & bigger,there were many kewl gigz l8ly &also the openeing of pasha sharm el sheikh,however,we need more real trance lovers in egypt i think but it's all going in the right way i think zuli can give more detailes

still isnt that big, but Germany is one of the 'bigger' countries IMO... at least compared to other countries

ok in continuation of what jayhova is saying it is getting better but there's a long way to go,,,
,,,,,hip hop is always gonna be at the forefront of the US scene,i don't think it's gonna go away,same w/sugarcoated pop music and of course rock.
,,,,,i spin myself & it's hard to get good gigs because promoters don't see trance as a way to bring in money & "most" people would rather go to a hip hop club
(so they can freak it)

well about the scenecoming back and getting bigger/better...i wish i could agree with u guyz but sadly i see things going the other way

tranced was introduced to egyptian clubbers in 1997. from 1999 till late 2000, it was the most popular/important electronic music genre and club music around egypt. but the thing about egypt is, when anything gets too popular most people stop listening to it as they consider it 'out of fashion' (bee2a ). In late 2000, progressive & tribal house became very popular around the club scene, so most trance-lovers decided to become house-lovers (coz they think house is a new genre ). at the beginning of 2003, house-music became as popular as trance once became at its peak so, again, most people stopped interest in house (dumb asses ). but house still remains the most important electronic music genre in egypt today. R'n'B is the most popular club music

about the cool gigz, well compare them to the gigz back in 2002 !!
i mean, steve lawler(actually november 2001), sander klienenber & Nick warren, dave seaman, marco v, sasha, tall paul, tiesto (his secound time which i doubt u know about), yves deuyter(excuse my spelling )....besides, look around u at the clubberz now!!! a dredfull sight

and about pacha - sharm....remember Space - Cairo ??
dont think itll change anything

btw...what year was oakie's gig??

here in Cyprus trance (real trance not commercial) has just begun to become a little popular. dj's like Johan Gielen, Tiesto, Jon O'Bir are visiting cyprus. Especially now with the radio edits of AvB - Burned with desire and Motorcycle - As the rush Comes is becoming more mainstream

in my country, Trance is becoming popular as well... we have some radio stations

which plays electronic music... some only plays prog-house... and we have seen

so many big djs here although I couldn't go to see them. and on June 5, we will

have an electronic music festival . just to give you an idea, here is the line up:


PLANET FUNK, CHICANE, BT (Brian Transeau), LONDON ELECTRICITY, FUTURESHOCK, PAKO & FREDERIK, DEEP DISH, MAURO PICOTTO, DAVE CLARKE, ADAM FREELAND, GABRIEL & DRESDEN, MAX GRAHAM, ADAM BEYER, FREQ NASTY, RANK 1, PATIFE, SAMUEL L SESSION, LUKE CHABLE, NICK FANCIULLI, TONY COLMAN, CLEVELAND WATKINS, MC JUICE ALEEM

and our djs and producers who are famous:

Mert Yucel
Yunus Guvenen
Subsky(aka Goktug Citci)

oops I forgot to say I am from Istanbul..

HOT HOT HOT....

you probably have a wonderfull evening!!!

I think that trance is not any more very popular in the area I am from! People more like Gigi d'agostini and other s**tty commercial acts!
But we had and still have some very talented producer!!


Italy

Living in South Florida, I can agree with what everyone has said about the U.S. trance scene, I dunno if trance is as big in N.Y. as it is here in Ft. Lauderdale / Miami, but more and more in malls and stores like target and walmart. I am starting to hear more and more dance music and I live 11miles west of the coast. But as you get near the beach, trance music is a religion. I remember when South Beach used to be more hip-hop/Rnb oriented and now I see more clubs like mansion (old level), flavour, opium gardens, quench, and etc... making dance music its main style of music. So it is slowly growing out of the South Fla area into other parts of the state, but I don't think trance will be as big as it is in Holland or the U.K. here in the U.S..

haha that's true but hip-hop will fall off, don't u worry.
It's a fad that's recently grown popular because of most of their (rap-artist) careless drive in life to party & have sex. Shows how stupid the majority of Americans really are, they pay people to talk about snorting coke, smoking weed, hitting a bitch from the back when in reality, they don't even have acoustical talent.

australia ????
pft what trance?
mainly house.. and really really commercial trance

In Holland where I live, I think all dance styles are very big! Trance and Hardstyle are the biggest and the rest is not far behind...

If you look at the line-up of Mysteryland or Dancevalley, you'll see that all these stages have one or more DJ's from Holland, so I think the 'dance culture' in Holland is big, no matter what kind of style, we play it

Over here it is pretty small everyone here still listen to Pop sHt music
But i think it is trance is increasing popular hope

I'm from the USA- Trance is pretty popular in the big cities...........but if you go out into the sticks your more apt to find house/ hip-hop/ and rap
I hope to change that

and country western

I'm in the sticks of USA....Louisville, KY to be exact. The trance scene here blows. I think its just that there are no real clubs so people don't know what real trance is all about.

yea tiesto told that germany is one of the biggest and one of the most important markets ...

in Poland TRANCE is soooooooo weak
but we've got some trance dj's like Angelo Mike - spun on Mayday 2004 main stage
but Tiesto was only once, Paul van Dyk spun on Mayday Polska 2002
Ferry, Armin, Johan & all of the TRANCE dj's weren't here

but i'm collecting TRANCE vinyls & in some time i start 2 spin TRANCE in Kraków
we'll see
but Poland is a total hole in the Earth - pity
only Drum'n'Bass, House - but not Funky or Disco only Deep House,Schranz, Hard Techno - but sometimes ACID TECHNO DJ's spun here - Chris Liberator & Dave The Drummer are for 3 months in Poland

and pop & rock & last 2 years only f**kIN HIP-HOP
GOD i hate it that much

i think oakie was here in 2000-2001,not very sure either

here in the uk its getting beta and beta and beta and beta beta and beta.............................. a gud rival 2 the dutch!!!

It's not big at all here in Russia. Not in my city at least. I have only one trance radio show so I could say that I'm lucky here But in Moscow and St Petersburg trance is much more popular, not so popular like D'n'B or house, but it's much better then here. Raves are quite rare but parties with known trance guests are quite often in the capital, so I want to move to Moscow when I'll end studying in uni here.

Yeah, here in germany Trance isn't that popular (in the commercial way).
In the (well, let me call it) "underground", trance is really big. Just go to a pure trance party, and you will see what i mean. Full House...

Every Vandit Night (just an example) is nearly sold out.

The biggest thing here in germany are those s**tty Casting Superstar shows music singers...

yea thats so bad and the f#ckin record companies and especially viva and mtv dont realize that trance is becoming more popular, there are som many "nice" trance videos and the play all day long usher (ca. 30 times a day > viva and mtv)

only black, pop and rock but mostly black and always the same videos. hell yea wake up you f#ckin bastards

Here in Finland trance is quite popular style of music. Just remember how many good trance-artists comes from Finland .

dude.... 'Aalto'... nuff said

and Darude

Didn't realise that the question had been asked before - sorry about that.

Anyway, it sounds like most countries have the exact same "problem" (to me ) as South Africa does: the masses like pop/rock/hip/r'n'b/rap, so that's what one hears *all* the time. <sigh>

Guess we'll all have to pay the UK and Holland a visit. I know I will... one day...

Uplifting and prog. house\trance isn't very popular here in Israel.
mostly people like psychadelic,commercial club(special d. and alike) and a bit NY house. in Tel Aviv many dj's spin deep house and tribal.
where i live(Haifa) there are 2 radio shows, the first is mostly uplifting and vocal trance, the second is more dance\house show. no progressive. it's almost impossible to find someone who listens to it.
lately the trance scene is getting more and more exposure and more and more new talents come out of israel. I hope it will keep growing

in italy there isn't a trance culture... many people don't know nothing about music so follow the masses and listen commercial-house, pop music, now it's time of hip hop (j lo and sean paul ) and anybody want to be like this "stars"...


the trance is the music for the guys that take xtc pills... but i think that i should to take pills just for listen pop music!!

for electronic music many people listen techno, but there isn't a culture..
2 years ago come in italy jeff mills but the people don't know his style so they wanted the residence of the club

now i think that it's better but 90% of the peoples that listen techno don't know nothing about the djs the musics ecc...

finally the trance lile but the art director don't call anybody... but sometimes there are some nice dj like manuel le saux, nu nrg, robert smit, misja helsloot, tomcraft ,ferry corsten, arminnnnnnnnnnnn

it'd be a shame for a vandit night not to be sold out.

I'd say that the party edegded stuff (which I don't particularly like) is pretty big here. As far as ASOT trance goes, you'd have to be lucky...

well, coming from Toronto, Canada, i can say that more and more people are getting into trance. and if any of you guys ever go to Toronto check out THE GUVERNMENT. it is the place to be on saturday night.