At the End

Bloging is an art which is for sharing thoughts on certain topic chosen by the blogger. I felt that I was communicating to people, who have the same interests about or people who want to know about the music.

Writing blog posts each week have been a pleasure and thought provoking experience. I was obligated to focus a thought each week about trance, but it became harder and harder to post different thought each week. Since the blog posts were short and concise in a specific topic; it made me more focus on my writing my essay. I loved my own ideas and own prompts that I had to set for myself.

I did not have wait for my teacher to provide me with a prompt or see examples of blogs in order to get an idea of what to write. I was more relaxed in my blogs than on my essay topic. My experience of blogging offered me an insight of being an author of friction or author of fantasy because they write it from their own thoughts.

Last thing I gained from this experience is to be own my critic and do not wait for others’ opinions on pieces of writing. I got fraction of comments than my classmates, but it didn’t stopped from posting post each week.

Trance Union Limited

The web blog, Azrael, “Trance Revisited”, describes and defines the genre of trance music. Although I agree with some of the author's points about the music, I don't quite agree with the sub genre of the music because of lack of source provided in the post. The values of trance are poorly represented in the post for more experienced listeners of this type of the music. It seems not credible enough to educate people about this kind of music or its sub genres. This post provided a brief history of the music, which lacks examples of the different sub genre of trance.

The post was essentially a beginner’s guide to the wonderful world of trance. It described Trance music and guided the readers who lack knowledge of trance. The post was about different types of trance. It states that trance is made up beats and manipulated tunes. It uses more repetitive lyrics which puts a person in trance-like condition. Trance was formed in Germany in 90s, when deejays mixed other beats with songs. Most of the mixes are high pitched, so the audience can distinguish between the original and mixed songs. The post explains the sub-genre of trance which is acid, progressive, anthem, psychedelic, Goa, and lastly Vocal. The author described a lot of popular deejays such as Paul Van Dyk, John Digweed, Sasha, Ferry Corsten and Dj Tiesco, who are helping the genre gain a wide audience in events. People love trance for their satisfaction of being somebody and gain some kind of symbol of “celebrity” status in a dance floor. The author was a deejay, who has performed locally in his hometown in Philippines for a brief period.

The blog post was about trance music in general and brief history of the music. I kept on pushing myself to read the definition of trance, which was trying to show that people might have a lack of knowledge of music. The real "meat" of the posts starts at second paragraph, when the author describes the formation of the trance.

The initial point of the post was the music itself, which generally is 124 to 160 beats per minute and incorporates repeated synthesized sounds throughout the track. I thought it was not clearly describe author to write because people don't realize the number of beats. Attracting new audience is mostly done by their peers or hot videos. I know lot of people who like trance were first didn’t know until when it was shown to them.

Secondly, the author tried to explain the history of different genre of trance, which are acid, anthem, progressive, Goa, vocal, and Euro. I felt author’s intention of guiding readers through the wilderness of trance was a waste of time, point of trance is to experience it. He didn’t provide musical examples that would have connected with the readers even more. I got stuck with anthem trance because I haven’t really listened to it.

I agree with the foundation of Acid trance that it use classic trance with some refined edgy sound effects. It is closely related to progressive trance, which has even more bass beats and melodic sounds.

I don’t know anthem trance, so I wanted an example of the music. I drifted off the paragraph because he didn’t explain the music. I was hoping to learning about anthem rather than receiving a history lesson. It is wrong for me to call it bad the post that provides a good overview of trance, but it fails on citing it sources for legitimacy. I liked the mention of Goa that was like old school trance music. It is made with energetic thumping drumbeats, rhythm, and loops. I know this music for its most rhythmic beat structure. I thought the Euro and Vocal trance was poorly described due to lack of musical examples. He didn’t really explain the lengthy lyrics and musical beats. It was pointless to read about without the examples.

I thought transition to paragraphs were sloppy, because someone doesn’t put a random statement like “Sadly, the trance scene in the Philippines is dying if not dead.” Azrael should have introduced some concrete statement (in the intro) to lead the paragraph that he is from Philippines. If I were to write “Trance Revisited”, I would write this without places that don’t help the article at all. The use of Philippines doesn’t help the paragraph; instead it confuses reader like me.

He tries to identify the differences between Philippines and Europe’s trance clubs, which I thought was pointless because the post supposed to be all about the trance music. Trance supposed to be incomparable of status of specific place. I think the author is like me because we are both passionate about Trance. Trance should be experience in an open environment which allows audience to embraces it.

The post was not carefully written to provide good example of Trance, rather than just a brief history of the music. I think it is written for author’s personal reflection. I think he didn’t want a large audience to read this post; he didn’t show the music by providing mini sound clips in the post, instead he shows bit of example of the music at the end. Post moved fairly quickly on points that confused me to identify the differences between sub-genres. It had paragraphs that did not try "show" the different types trance while it was trailing through the history. I believe that the post was dry for the brief part of post.

While I agree with most of the post of Azrael, certain parts of the post were not properly sourced or provided with a proper example. The author’s personal experience of the music served a connecting purpose to its target audience. It is kind of an easy read if you are into history lesson of trance; you would like it.

About the Musicians

Trance is supposed to be a genre of music that gains feedback from the live audience. It was kind a created like "American Idol" where the audience participation is important to choose a talent. Reputation of trance Deejays and bands are important because most of them don't have a major record deals or managers.

Most trance musicians get their income from performing live or hosting radio show. I adore this kind of attitude because some of singers of my generation are only for the money and fame; at least my favorite trance musicians try to serve the audience by making sure the participation is strong in the dance floor.

I have a DJ friend, Chris Allen, who regular host his own radio and goes out dick jockeying. He makes about $4,000 a night when he is performing. In his radio show people sends him request and some invites in parties.

Part of the reason trance is interesting because of the unique audience who wants to take part in the music itself. Trance music generally goes on for hours and even days (several deejays take part in events) non stop.

Usages of trance (part 1)

Trance music is used everywhere such as in ads, clubs, radio show, and games. Sometimes the music is blurred to match the mood of target audience. I see lot of promo videos of cars and car prototypes. It seems to me that people have moved with trance and other form music which is sometimes called fusion or europop. Trance has gained popularity in many places across the world because of the local Dick Jockeys and their mixes.
Many full moons back I saw an ad about Citroen C4 to make it more appealing to young car buyers in France and United Kingdom which worked for the company. The ad was about transformation of the Citroen C4. It made the song, Jacques Your Body by Les Rythmes Digitales more popular in social circles and more and more deejays tried to mix the song which in turn made it even longer.
Another ad by Citroen for the same model which used part of song, Walk away by The egg, which was made to attract younger car buyers for the hatchback. It was about transforming C4 which did cool ice stating tricks. Musical usages in the two ads are meant to attract and projects the coolness of the product. It is not a ripoff off the blockbuster movie Transformer, which most Americans covey from the ads.

Experiment and outlook

I felt my post moved away from my personal post which means less meaning to me. I think provided more diverse point of view which I could never distinguished TV show and the music. I didn't knew about steriotypes with trance music. My tone is more positive towards a specific bands and songs. But the spooky blogger was trying to tell about the negative public image of the music.

The blogger was keen on making connection to a popular TV show, Family Guy which had made lot of spoofs about cultural differences between ignorance and arrogance which makes most of impacts. I don't really connect popular cultural beliefs into my blog because I am far too opposed to the idea making a culture look bad.

"I am just trying to keep this good music alive and well. Many people out there have slandered techno as gay and ignored." He did a good job in making example of correcting the wide belief of the genre. The post moved more towards the point of general overview of gaining audience which I have failed too. I never tried to connect the American media about my blog in general.

I will try to connect the music with some from of media which my peers might have heard about or seen it for my next post.

Guest blog: The Trance, Gay bar Stereotype

As you well know from reading my posts I like electronica music mostly trance, among the other types of electronica. It has become aware to me that a homosexual link to techno may exist, in the form of a gay bar stereotype. Many people who make fun of a gay bar say that it plays pulsing repetitious music to dance to like techno or trance. I have seen TV shows and movies that quickly describe a gay bar scene as many men dancing with black leather vests and hats much like the Village People.
The description is followed by vocal sounds like a techno song to imitate the background music of a gay bar. First off I would like to say that I find this music to be psycadelic and pulsing, weather or not it is played more at a gay bar than a regular bar doesn’t mean anything. This type of reference was used in a “Family Guy” episode in a past season, an insult from baby Stewie towards Brian’s gay cousin and “guy” friend.
In closing I am just trying to keep this good music alive and well. Many people out there have slandered techno as gay and ignored. Much like what some people say about disco, is that techno went that way too. I don’t think techno is dead, thanks to bands like Linkin Park, Moby among others who have brought back and in some cases mixed techno better for future generations to hear it.

What’s the Difference?

Trance is like blend of vocal and electronic synthesized music. Most of the music sounds like high pitch of beats like a car horn and thumping of feet in Irish folk dances. It goes in the along pop and rock songs. Rock songs have high pitched vocals with wild beats and if you mix any electronic sounds to make it fit into trance genre.

The Ishkur guide will guide you more about the different type of electronica music. It will teach you about House, Techno, Trance, Breakbeats, Jungle, Hardcore, and Downtempo. I am more of a trance freak, which mean that I know more about trance music.

Most of the music of trance are remixed singles and songs of mainstream artists. It is not like the original music, but a repition of the vocals and some tunes.