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I was listening to A State of Trance 2005 Yearmix while working out last night and it hit me: The quality of tracks (especially uplifting) has plummetted since then. This is only my opinion though. Here me out!

CD2 is full out uplifting! The kind of uplifting I used to truly love and dance to. I still do, but for some reason the tracks in 2005/2006 were GOLD! But then I thought "CD1 was full on progressive with tons of melodies, yet the focus of energy was more on CD2"

If you listen to today's trance tracks, you will notice that the focus nowadays is more on the prog side of EDM. Not to mention that tracks have slowed down massively in terms of BPM. Back in the days, I was playing AT LEAST @ 138!!

Now people can safely say it's a change in taste and styles that led to me and many others to play and listen to other forms of EDM, may they be slower or faster or whatever.

HOWEVER! I really think that the MAIN reason behind the change in styles and tastes is the fashion of EDM every single year. Remember when minimal techno was on the rise? Man, it was minimal everywhere!!! The same goes for trance. Recently I think it's darker, proggier, edgier trance music. Vocals and more pop-style trance is on the rise too. Uplifting is still there, but bouncy music is more preferred nowadays... Unless you're Armin van Buuren of course. No one can touch him

Seriously though, it almost seems like an unconcious fashion where many producers are following. I understand the whole shift in sounds and styles, but don't you think it has to do with the trend that is being followed?


Crow

LOL ... !!!

I hate this subject !!

So you are trying to say that many producers just follow the trend of what most people want to listen to these days , and produce their tracks in that style to fit the current taste , regardless if they feel they like that sound or not ?

I think everything in life has different cycles , nothing every stays the same , this applies to music as well , and you can tell the difference in the quality of productions , when a certain producer believes that what he is doing is right , and the ones that are just following the " trend " to stay in the loop !

THe simple answer to your question is maybe you need to check out more tracks!! if Armin or anyother DJ is currently playing slower BPM that doesnt mean everyone is doing so, maybe the majority and maybe not! we cant really be certain since for sure no1 is able to check everything!!
your topic has the same logic as the ones that say trance died in 1997 or 2001 or 2003 (whatever number they like), but yours might got a bit more logic into it (however logical this may sound! )

PS: have you heard "Damage Effect" for example?

Here's what i've learned over the years, and specially the last few months
When you limit yourself to the same group of artists you are bound to get bored eventually and then assume thats how everyone in the scene sounds like, but you're wrong, there's a vast collection of new sounds to pick from if you step outside the box and dare to discover.

Why do we have to think about everything?