Here it comes, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

Trance is not techno. They are both considered electronic dance music (EDM), which covers a huge pile of other genres: House (including Prog), Breakbeat, NRG, Hardcore, Industrial, et cetera. What characterizes techno is repetitive beats with certain non-melodic samples involved to produce a danceable flow. Mauro Picotto - Taotek is a good example. I don’t like techno.

Trance is somewhat broad in itself, however, but what generally characterizes trance is at least some entrancing melody- it can be classified as uplifting, euphoric, dark/tech, hard, etc.. And the 4/4 beat is always characteristic of it, as it is with techno. The typical trance song these days will contain this formula: breakdown-build-anthem. A classic euphoric trance song would be William Orbit - Barber’s Adagio for Strings (Ferry Corsten Remix). Some good uplifting trance would be Pulser - My Religion (Original Mix), MK-S - Illuminate (Mind One Remix), and Fire & Ice - Para Siempre. Dark/tech trance is closer to techno, but it still has a basic melody and is not quite the same as techno– it just usually has a darker melody and is simpler (example: Mark Norman - Phantom Manor). Hard trance is exactly that: hard. It involves harder beats, more distorted things, and generally very energetic trance (example: anything Cosmic Gate, Woodshokk - Tulips & Chocolate). Uplifting/Euphoric trance are flowing and melodic– the feel-good style of trance (my favorite XD).

Have some trance sites: - Very good trance community: http://www.tranceaddict.com - Another trance community, co-founded by Airbase: http://www.trance.nu - Some DJ set streams: http://www.ets-global.org and http://www.trancesphere.com - Trance singles stream: http://www.di.fm