The Logic Off Topic list

> I think what he maybe meant is that there have never been and
> probably never will be hit singles that will over time become more
> than one-day flies -- like Bowie's Space Oddity (to pull the msg back
> on the original topic :), or Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven, or a
> zillion other hits that have lost very little of their original
> impact or quality or "brilliance".

The difference with trance is that it is the lesser known records that tend
to have the greater longevity.   For whatever reason the public like, buy
and make hits of very plastic, sacharine throw-away trance records with
dreadful vocals.   This give a bad representation of what is really being
played on the underground scene.   Just as there was prog-rock, there is
prog-trance and just as much innovation and care goes into the construction
and developement of recordings, but in very different ways.

I often think that trance records are too *good* to be hits.   They may for
example be devoid of shit vocals, which destroys their chart chances
straight away.  The record company's A+R  departments are always on the
lookout for quality instrumental trance records to destroy with bad vocals
and then launch at the charts.   Many make it unfortunately, adding to the
greater publics misconception about the quality of trance music in general.

I have loads of records that I could pull out and play and nobody would know
they were 6 or 7 years old (an eternity in the dance world).  I have many
Trance records that I consider to have a 'timeless' quality and will
definitely still want to listen to them many years from now.  You had to be
on the underground scene at the time to know they existed as they were
definitely too good to chart.

A scene has to finish before people look back at it lovingly and pull out
records from the time.   The Trance scene will never finish as it will keep
morphing into ever more subgenres of music, splitting, reconverging, maybe
even going full circle.  There are no definite timelines where one stops and
another starts. Since 1988 it has been doing so and there are countless
sub-genres (or micro-scenes?) right now.  Almost as soon as one is
documented it has evolved into something else or split up and dissappeared.
That is the beauty of it all. It happens so fast, you never know what is
going to emerge next.  Only the broader genre definitions (such as House,
Trance, Garage, Breakbeat,) stay fairly contant taking many years to evolve.

Also there are many elements that believe the dance scene should always be
forward looking and innovating.  A popular mantra to come from the Mayday
party organisation in Germany is 'Forward Ever, Backward Never'.   So
playing lots of music from the past would probably be considered uncool
anyway.   I am certain that if  a dj was to just play  records that were
over a year old, their career would not last very long.   I would often feel
uneasy if I had to play out a few records that were just 5 or 6 months old.

So you see comparing the longevity of hit trance records to Bowie and Led
Zep hits is deeply flawed.    If there were a party at the end of time and I
had to choose some trance music from years gone by, for one final night of
pleasure, I am sure that virtually none of those tracks on my playlist would
ever have been chart 'hits'.

regards Hector.