trance | en

Trance is a style of electronic dance music that developed in the 1980s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 160 BPM, featuring repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. It often features crescendos and breakdowns. Sometimes vocals are also utilized. The style is arguably derived from a combination of largely electronic music such as ambient music, techno, and house. In the early 1980s, the German composer Klaus Schulze composed several albums of experimental, atmospheric space music. Two of his albums from the 1980s include the word "trance" in their titles: Trancefer (1981) and En=Trance (1987). The early trance act Dance 2 Trance though it is likely that both these uses are linked to the perceived ability of a drum beat to induce altered states of consciousness, aka a trance. As this music is almost always played in nightclubs at popular vacation spots and in inner cities, trance can be understood as a form of club music. .