I believe it's here, but of course you need Flash http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

Another favorite is Ishkur's "trancecracker" comic, which you can find here: https://modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=245900

That comic is the funniest fucking thing I've seen in a long time.

I was literally just making the argument with my friends who were going "oh, I wish Tiesto was still playing trance; he turned his back on the trance scene" to which I responded "Tiesto was never a trance DJ, he was a mainstage DJ. He's still a mainstage DJ, and you don't get on the mainstage playing trance anymore".

Love that comic, first saw it like 15 years ago or so (^_^)

You don't get on the main stage without words/lyrics.

Also, any musician that wants to get big should know that the fastest way is to add words/lyrics.

Music is such a universal language that it needs to be annotated or something.

Mainstage is a specific genre of EDM, ironically known for being particularly transparent and banal these days. Some of the most likely to have lyrics that are basically just another beat track, IMO, if they have them at all.

Trance ironically enough (including a lot of the stuff Tiesto worked on) is known for having very deep lyrics and that's a good chunk of what people are missing I think when they make the comments like above.

I'd check out Beautiful Things by Andain if you're curious. The lyrics are about a woman who believes she gave up her life and potential to be a traditional wife and is contemplating suicide to end her regret.

I think once the genre becomes defined, it's often bound to get more simplistic if there are words/lyrics. It's not limited to trance music.

A lot of trance music never even had lyrics; listen to what came out before 2000. (Even Tiesto made a lot of music without lyrics before 2002 or so). If you want to find music that sounds like the early days of trance music then you'll more likely find it labeled as techno music today (which is not really all that surprising since trance music originated from techno music anyway).

Beautiful Things is arguably not trance music. Also, when you're studying or trying to concentrate, do you listen to music with lyrics?

> Also, any musician that wants to get big should know that the fastest way is to add words/lyrics

Ahem. I think you'll find it's a little bit more complicated than that

It's not though.

In the last 50 years, you can probably count the number of chart-toppers without lyrics on one hand. Animals, Axel F, Doop, Flat Beat, and Sandstorm (and I am not sure if these even topped charts everywhere).

Sure, if you are into the niche of EDM or techno club music, the situation is different, but none of those tunes sell millions of copies.

It is though. The number of non-chart-toppers with lyrics is beyond counting. You don't make yourself a chart-topper simply by writing music with lyrics

Okay, it's almost always necessary but not sufficient.

I probably could've worded it a bit better.

The point is you could spend hours actually developing subtleties in engineering, especially in timing and mixing, to produce something profound.

Or you could get a drum machine and a 303, and get someone sexy to sing/rap/speak over the top, make a video, and save a lot of time. A lot of pop music these days is quite simple, except for the singing, which I can admit is talented, but it's more about personality/fashion than music.

Actually, he definitely was a trance DJ. I remember when his first single was released. He understood how to make simple melodies with hooks which a lot of us respected. Over time, he learned how to make "epic" trance hooks that help pioneered the rise of the EDM genre.

Mainstage antics are part of performance. Check out every mainstream genre before EDM. Van Halen Jump is probably my fav example :)

My point was that he played trance because that got you on the mainstage (particularly in 2000 era Netherlands), and as soon as other genres were played on the mainstage he switched.

There's plenty of even trance without mainstage antics.

I'm mainly being pithy more than anything else, lol.

Oh thanks, I remember laughing at that comic 15 years ago or so, back when I had "trance sucks" as an avatar on at least one dance music-related forum :)

The fact that it's originally a Jack Chick tract about how evil Muslims are makes it even better lol.

I haven’t used a Flash site for ages but I guess it would not be impossible to run it in a VM somehow.

Heh... KLF worship

It's part of BlueMaxima's Flashpoint: https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/

Thank you. Installed it and enjoyed listening to the carefully cut loops :)