>House music vs. trance music.

"Techno and trance, the two primary dance music genres that branched off from house in the late 1980s and early 1990s respectively, can share this basic beat infrastructure, but usually eschew house's live-music-influenced feel and black or Latin music influences in favor of more synthetic sound sources and approach."

Trance is more... trancey. Lots of repeated, slowly morphing, spacey synths. Lots of reverb. I would say it's more druggy (but YMMV -- I guess some people might prefer to do their drugs while listening/dancing to house). It's certainly got more of a "I'm flying thru the cosmos on a beam of light" feel.

Sometimes it's ridiculously cheesy and emotionally manipulative. I got tired of trance about 5 years ago, after buying one too many trance compilation CDs; after a while, it all starts to sound the same: buildup, breakdown, buildup, breakdown.

Having said that, the best trance producers I know of are Sasha and Digweed. I recommend seeking out some of their stuff -- it's less cliched than Oakenfold and van Dyk.

House, as someone said upthread, has more black and Latin influences -- funk, gospel, blues, salsa. It sounds less synthetic, more like it's performed by real people using real instruments.

Lately there's a subgenre called electro-house, which is neither trance nor traditional house nor techno, but has similarities to all three. It has a house beat (4/4 with some syncopation and variations), and weird, dark, edgy/noisy synths. Also a lot of EQ sweeps -- for example, you'll hear a phrase of music or singing or speaking, looped, very muffled, and as it repeats it slowly becomes more clear as the treble is turned up, or it starts out tinny and gets richer as the bass is turned up.

Some of this stuff actually has a very menacing feel to it -- not bluesy like house, euphoric like trance, or spaced-out like techno. Tiefschwarz and Blackstrobe are good exemplars of electro-house.

Trance = 130 - 145 bpm's roughly, and it features driving bass, extended intros and outros, and typically features a break of some sort with a climax following. Melodic and emotionally moving. Solid powerful kick drums with intermittent hi-hats and long drum rolls to build to a transition.

Techno = 132 - 155 or 160 bpm's roughly, often more focused on beats and interesting structure. Not as melodic or deep as Trance, but very energetic with lots of power or flare.

House = 120 - 130 bpm's roughly, this is what you think of when you think of club music. Very groovy, often very complex and rhythmic basslines. Often features vocals. Beat rhythm's not always as confined to traditional 4x structure as in other electronic music. Kick drums are solid and house music almost always features some sort of hi-hat or hiss/clap on every second beat. Very danceable and catchy tunes.

In truth, these lines get fudged all the time because there are so many artists with different gifts and styles... I try to incorporate different styles into each track...

If you listen to enough electronic music, you will soon learn all the nuances of the countless genres. All have their characteristics.

Genres don't limit artists creativity, it just gives the potential listener an opportunity to understand what is being played, and what to expect. Originality (if it is truly intentional and well thought out), will always be well recieved...

That's my two cents.

PS. No one post anything like:

"my trance music is 155 bpm's and you said it can only be 130 to 145 bpm's!!!" blah blah blah...i said roughly...haha...

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

Labels: trance techno house