A genre page, 2000: Trance

Breaking out of the German techno scene during the early '90s. Trance emphasized brief synthesizer lines repeated endlessly throughout tracks, with only the addition of minimal rhythmic changes and occasional synthesizer atmospherics to distinguish them -- in effect creating a trance similar to Sufi and Hindu music, though Trance has no elements of world music. Inspired by acid house and Detroit techno, the style coalesced with the opening of Frankfurt's Harthouse/Eye Q Records and Ghent, Belgium's R&S Records. Harthouse, begun in 1992 by Sven Väth with Heinz Roth and Matthias Hoffman, defined the sound of trance early on with Hardfloor's "Hardtrance Acperience" and releases by Arpeggiators, Spicolab and Barbarella in addition to Väth's releases as himself. Though popular in Teutonic Europe for the rest of the '90s, trance had run its course by the mid-'90s.