Why psytrance doesnt attract a bigger audience?

[MrAnarchy]

As the title says. Why do other electronic music genres and "artists" which are a joke at both technical and creative levels like Martin Garrix, Tiesto and similar... attract a bigger audience? Im trying to be as politically correct here but I just dont get it. That music is shit from every aspect and gets millions of views and sales, while psytrance (excluding Vini Vici, Astrix and other clowns) is still very underground and I personally know only a few people who like it and even those people dont listen to it regularly.

I get that its just the way psytrance was from the start, Its hippie background and all, but why did the popularity of psytrance diminish through time instead of getting better known?

Is it hard to get into?

Any theories?

[recursion loop]

Ask my wife, lol. She doesn't understand why it is even considered music.

 

I think, most people "consume" music as a background for something else, like dancing, hanging out, cleaning bathroom etc, they hardly listen to all the tiny subtleties of it, while psytrance is all about tiny sublteties, if you don't pay attention to them it may become a monotonous rhytmic noise.

 

Btw, Astrix is fine to me. At least more fine that people making uninspired noisy non-melodious stuff only the sake of "not being cheesy".

[Kitrinos]

Well, psychedelic music from its nature cannot be appealing to the masses. It's not easy listening and most people naturally are not attracted by it. It's normal. Real psychedelic music will never become mainstream IMO.

 

Regarding the 'shit music' that you mentioned: this is not the case only with electronic music I believe. The most popular music is usually not creative and is stagnant of ideas; it's usually the shittiest one (and it often comes with video-clips of pop stars or whatever). Most people don't like things that are "out of the box", especially when it comes to radical things, ideas, etc. They don't like being challenged. They prefer staying inside their comfortable safety-zone and consume whatever they are fed.

 

Unfortunately, that's how most societies function: they do not encourage individuals to think out of the box.That's why mainstream things are mainstream. Not only in music actually, in entertainment in general and in many aspects of our lives, I would say.

 

And another factor is advertisement - promotion. All the mainstream products are massively advertised and promoted, so that they can be massively consumed.

 

If this was not the case, the world would be different (in a better way for sure). Anyway, this could turn into a long discussion...

 

My 2 cents of course.

[MrAnarchy]

A very good point Kitrinos. I like your idea that the problem goes beyond music and into the way of thinking and living of the consumers.

I live in one of the major cities of Serbia and in the past years there were amazing old school goa parties organized every 1-2 months, but they stopped coming and when I asked the group of DJs who were also the organizers of the parties why that was, they said that the bosses of clubs werent happy with the scarce amount of people who were coming. Then I checked out what parties were thrown in the same club instead, and what I found really disturbed me. Freaking parties for highschoolers with djs that play dance summer hits from 2012. So sad...

[abasio]

Psytrance as with a lot of music is audio art. Because it's art, because it's creative and different it will be adored by a small number of people, but the majority of people just don't get it. For things to be truly mainstream popular they have to be "liked" by a lot of people. As what people adore is so different from other people's, to be liked by do many it has to be inoffensive: nothing in it that many people would hate. In other words bland. Lovers of music, not just Psytrance but any genre that is creative will hate mainstream pop, they'll also probably hate other artistic genres because they're not personally into them.

 

It's a shame more people aren't in to our favourite music but if they were, it'd probably mean the music has become bland and more mainstream.

[recursion loop]

I thought psy is big in Serbia. Many psytrance artists whose skills I really admire are from Serbia, like Relativ, Sideform, Lyctum, Talpa - I thoght such a strong production school with distinct sound may not come from nowhere

[Ormion]

It's very weird to be liked by bigger audiences. House, Trance etc. are more easygoing music than psytrance.

[MrAnarchy]

I thought psy is big in Serbia. Many psytrance artists whose skills I really admire are from Serbia, like Relativ, Sideform, Lyctum, Talpa - I thoght such a strong production school with distinct sound may not come from nowhere

None of them held a party in my city, or even Belgrade (to my knowledge) in recent 6 months at least. There are great djs from Serbia, but I guess they dont care to hold parties here... and the reason may be this problem which were talking about here. Majority of these goa parties that I mentioned are organized by Filip Nikolaevic (also known as Magnetik), Marko Panić and Velimir Mićović (aka Mars Flowers) from Belgrade. They bring major names to our country like X-Dream and Thierry from Spectral and Holeg Spies. They dont make their own music but their sets are always perfect and are the only ones who are trying to keep the retrotrance spirit alive here.

You can find them here https://www.mixcloud.com/RetroTranceBelgrade/

[XoArK]

It might be the accessibility in it. Try asking someone that has never listened to psytrance before to listen to Shaolin Wooden Men - Trickster (Just naming one of the most unconventional song I know)

See what reaction you will get.

 

[the goa constrictor]

^^^ That's my jam!

 

lololololol

[antic604]

I think, most people "consume" music as a background for something else, like dancing, hanging out, cleaning bathroom etc, they hardly listen to all the tiny subtleties of it, while psytrance is all about tiny sublteties, if you don't pay attention to them it may become a monotonous rhytmic noise.

Exactly. Although I do clean the bathroom while listening goa/psy on headphones

[Imba]

Few days ago i saw this 'psytrance' getting big:

https://www.facebook.com/kobiblastoyz/videos/10154190539464771/

 

 

First of all its not psytrance at all, and psy wasnt made for MTV but underground scene. Brazil, Mexico and Israel found way to (destroy) spread it and make it big and commercial. All you need to do is make kick-bass and nothing for 8 mins.

 

 

Here one more example of guys who start making 'music' few years ago:

https://www.facebook.com/UpgradeSound/videos/1132299970148162/

 

 

First/business class flights, private jets, 5 star hotels, selfies, autographs, bombing crowd with your CDs, spending time on your 'outfit' more than on music, 5-10k euros for pressing space button and looking stupid on stage?

 

 

 

Makes me sick

[MrAnarchy]

Few days ago i saw this 'psytrance' getting big:

https://www.facebook.com/kobiblastoyz/videos/10154190539464771/

 

 

First of all its not psytrance at all, and psy wasnt made for MTV but underground scene. Brazil, Mexico and Israel found way to (destroy) spread it and make it big and commercial. All you need to do is make kick-bass and nothing for 8 mins.

 

 

Here one more example of guys who start making 'music' few years ago:

https://www.facebook.com/UpgradeSound/videos/1132299970148162/

 

 

First/business class flights, private jets, 5 star hotels, selfies, autographs, bombing crowd with your CDs, spending time on your 'outfit' more than on music, 5-10k euros for pressing space button and looking stupid on stage?

 

 

 

Makes me sick

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!

Couldnt get cheaper or more pathetic than this. :puke:

 

Ok I get it. Psytrance (the real one) just cant flourish in this world

[Imba]

I know Upgrade when they were just organizers from few years ago, suddenly they are everywhere. Per 250k likes on their page.

 

2 guys, one laptop and controller live? Seems legit

 

 

Here is more of MTV 'psytrance':

https://www.facebook.com/neelixmusic/videos/10155811010605158/

 

 

He is ready for Jersey Shore or something lololol

[MrAnarchy]

Cant even imagine how that makes you feel as a producer, knowing that guys with far less skill get away with so much undeserved attention

[recursion loop]

Well, let's put it clear - any act with 1k+ followers is a sold-out crap

 

 

(says the guy for whom 100 followers is an unrealistic perspective).

 

Seems that the thread has taken kinda self-contradictory route - first it was stated that psytrance as a genre doesn't have its audience as large as it allegedly should, then people start to piss on the acts which have actually gained some popularity.

[MrAnarchy]

Well, let's put it clear - any act with 1k+ followers is a sold-out crap

 

 

(says the guy for whom 100 followers is an unrealistic perspective).

 

Seems that the thread has taken kinda self-contradictory route - first it was stated that psytrance as a genre doesn't have its audience as large as it allegedly should, then people start to piss on the acts which have actually gained some popularity.

Hhahahahahha! Thats so true

But they did gain popularity by adapting their music instead of making great psytrance and doing the same. Thats the difference

[Anoebis]

Hhahahahahha! Thats so true

But they did gain popularity by adapting their music instead of making great psytrance and doing the same. Thats the difference

Well, empty psytrance exists since 2001

[recursion loop]

 

But they did gain popularity by adapting their music

This basically answers your question imo. In order to make psytrance popular you have to "adapt" it - make it more accessible by removing large part of what actually makes it psytrance. Same with drum'n'bass, dubstep, death metal and other genres started as experimental, underground or extreme.

[thanosp81]

This basically answers your question imo. In order to make psytrance popular you have to "adapt" it - make it more accessible by removing large part of what actually makes it psytrance. Same with drum'n'bass, dubstep, death metal and other genres started as experimental, underground or extreme.

And here we have our final answer summarising all the little bits. :0

[abasio]

We love your music we're going to make you a star.

 

But first we need to make some tweaks to your music in order for it to appeal to a wider audience.

 

We'll have to get rid of this acid synth lines, people don't like those.

 

And the kick is too hard well need to soften that or maybe get rid of it all together, people are put off if it's too hard.

 

We like your melodies but we can't have them change through the track, people like consistency so well make sure people remember them.

 

People don't like songs with no singing do we hired you a singer, don't worry we already wrote the words so you don't have to.

 

Okay now one last tiny tweak: people don't have the attention span for 10 minute tracks so we've shortened everything to 3 minutes.

 

We love your music, you're going to be huge!

[Starkraver]

Sad truth?

We'll have to get rid of this acid synth lines, people don't like those.

What the fock is wrong with people!

 

 

On Topic - this is exactly why its important that we support the artist/label we like and preserve our beloved scene.

[Celaripo]

as for my personal opinion - i am perfectly fine with the fact that psytrance is not a popular genre

i mean with the internet nowadays you can get your music easily so no big deal

it was a problem in the mid nineties when you had to listen to the radio and expect some rare psytrance at midnight on obscure channels - or go to rave parties

but now with the internet it is fine and really easy to access

only problem is for people who would like to attend to psytrance parties every week end

 

i think the biggest audiences prefer dance music focused on groovy basslines rather than psychedelic sounds

[MrAnarchy]

This basically answers your question imo. In order to make psytrance popular you have to "adapt" it - make it more accessible by removing large part of what actually makes it psytrance. Same with drum'n'bass, dubstep, death metal and other genres started as experimental, underground or extreme.

Huh, I really did answer my own question without noticing. Genius

as for my personal opinion - i am perfectly fine with the fact that psytrance is not a popular genre

i mean with the internet nowadays you can get your music easily so no big deal

it was a problem in the mid nineties when you had to listen to the radio and expect some rare psytrance at midnight on obscure channels - or go to rave parties

but now with the internet it is fine and really easy to access

only problem is for people who would like to attend to psytrance parties every week end

 

i think the biggest audiences prefer dance music focused on groovy basslines rather than psychedelic sounds

I think your right that it kinda is a good thing that it isnt popular. Im gonna sound cheap, which I am since I dont have the money to invest in music atm, but if psy-trance was popular, I guess we wouldnt get free content from artists at Ektoplazm or Bandcamp for an example. For which I am extremely grateful of course!

[Imba]

Psytrance/Trance as whole is 'bass music'. Main focus is on bassline and bassdrum/kick and those 2 gives you the groove and drive, percussions and background sounds gives you rythmics, melodies gives you emotions and energy.

 

Sadly, today they know to make 8 minutes track with kick and bass variations like fullon bass, galop bass, swing, offbeat, triplet and few one shot samples.

 

Why is that? It's clean and good for stomping, people loves that and people will come to such gigs, so festivals earns huge money and festivals prefer that, so do they producer. It's easier + you earn 10x more money.

 

 

But as i am coming from shithole named Serbia, only thing im proud of are producers from this country. 90% of them are TOP quaility while most djs/crowd hitting for Beatport Top 100 'psytrance'.

 

Tesseract Studio + Transcape Records are some of the best we can offer to world. Talpa & Zyce probably one of most known names and one of the best production quaility. Yes, Tesseract sound is commercial but still far more melodic and interesting than most of prog releases.

 

Psilocybian who is just simply fantastic producer he said lately: Talpa's production is so clean it breaks diamonds lol

 

Sonic Entity aka Imaginarium... thats one top psychedelic trance music with goaish touch.

 

Alternative Control and Freaked Frequency 10 years ago in fullon golden era... melodic emotional euforic trance for masses still top quaility. And many many more!

 

 

Sometimes i am feeling ashamed standing next to such producers and people while im not an 1/10 part of them.

 

 

I would say that psytrance is bigger than ever now. But what is big for you now? Number of the attenders or number of attenders that actually understand, follow and support such music instead of just getting wasted and stomp? For me it's second ones.

 

 

I am playing active for couple of years now, done around 70 gigs, played for 30 people, played for 3k people. Hey, for goa thats massive event!
Last gig i had was private bday party of the dearest fan and trance friend... 30-35 people who knew background about every single track i played, people who are just simple listeners but some of them know more than me.

 

You as producer/dj got inspired by attenders, not them by you. Now that was 'biggest event' for me