Welcome to “The Many Faces of Dance Music”. In this series, I try to dive into the world of electronic music and explain the differences between multiple genres of electronic dance music (EDM). Genres are a plenty with countless sub-genres; such as techno, dub-step, trance, house, drum & bass and more. My aim is to help educate as well as entertain on just what makes each one of these genres tick.
Today’s journey will take you into the vocalized world of vocal trance.
Vocal trance came to light in the early 90’s when trance was still being developed and refining its sound. Vocal trance’s origin can be traced back to Europe, mainly dominated by German producers. Belgium and Holland soon followed and vocal trance began to spread worldwide. Many early vocal trance producers used the sources of studio musicians/singers to help with their productions. Most vocal trance features strong female vocalists.
Vocal trance can be described in a variety of factors. Even though many trance records can feature vocals, vocal trance still has its own style. Vocal trance actually has more in common with genres such as pop and dance than any other genre. Vocal trances structure is usually set up with a beat, bass and chord progression with a melody gradually coming in. Vocals are placed on top and featured heavily, typically with harmonized parts as well as a typical verse-chorus-verse type structure. At the end of a track, the melodic elements fade and the beat/progression from the intro returns, sometimes with variations on the intro.
Listed below are some examples of vocal trance.
Delerium – Silence (DJ Tiesto Remix Edit)
Ian Van Dahl – Castles In The Sky
Traci Lords – Fallen Angel
