How do you tell whether a tune is house, trance or techno? I really can't distinguish one genre from the other

Question

I've read somewhere DJ Tiesto songs are trance, yet my closest friend tells me it's house. And what about rave? Is that a techno subgenre? Prodigy's music is rave, but I hear them being identified as techno too. I'm totally confused. I'm hoping somebody could tell me the difference. Thanks!

Answer 1

is there really a difference? it all sounds the same to me..
i just prefer to call it all techno..

Answer 2

Yeah, dance music is confusing that way. What i might call trance, someone else will call it house.
Trance has a lot of electronic elements, uplifting pads (strings) and progressions. Generally, it puts you in a trance!
Well it does to me.
House can also have electronic elements, but it lacks that edge that trance has. Then you get the other side of house, that is more like disco and soul and made with real instruments.
Rave is an older form of dance music, that is much faster and ,idk, i find it a bit repetitive. I wouldnt class Prodigy as rave or techno, they have their own style (im a big prodigy fan).

btw: your friend has a weird idea of what house is. Tiesto is trance all the way!

Answered similiar questions:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnMHHVnXvHqz4N8CnPX1AhPty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20070916084812AAq5WGY&show=7#profile-info-qOZ0Qw48aa
(Follow the links here too, i cant find that other q)

Answer 3

No no no no. Tiesto it's trance, well a very bad kind of trance, very comercial. House and deep house are characterized by a lower tempo, soft percussion and loungy donwtempo low key instruments and notes.
There s very mcuh soul in deep house and tech house(well, less in tech house.: Timewriter, terry lee brown, forteba, mulder.
Now trance trance its a derivation from rave. Very high energy, upkey, uptempo. Paul van dyk, plastic bot, oliver lieb.

Rave :MArusha, Dj Hooligan, Westbam. The classics of rave. Germany Homeland of rave. Very high energy, acid, uses a lot of TB 303.
Techno, uptempo, very uptempo maybe 170 and higher in some
Detroit techno-very cool, lower tempo great percusiion, unique.
Schranz or sweedish techno- very uptempo, very heavy percusiion, sometimes uses pads.
Minimal techno-ricardo vilallobos, not danceable, congas used in percussion, not very complex, uses few instruments,mid tempo.
Prodigy is rave , id say more harcore.
Gabber-170 to 200 and over. Very agressive.

Ishkur' Guide to Electronic Music.
di.fm.


By the way eddie c doesn't have the slightest idea of what electronic music is. He got it all mixed up.

Answer 4

Techno is the term used for electronic music in general.
Trance is usually softer, with more of a gentler flowing pace. Lots of women's vocals, with positive meanings.
Examples: Paul Van Dyk: Words, Time of Our Life, Angel. Ascension: Someone. Hybrid:Finished Symphony. Fragma:Toca Me

House is closer to Disco in a sense. High energy with a lot of change-ups in tempo.

Hard House is just harder techno. I don't particularly like HH, it is usually not too easy to listen to if you mostly listen to Trance.

Breakbeat is just that. instead of "dun-dun-dun-dun" as in a regular techno track, it goes "dun-da-daa-dun-da-dun...dun-da-daa-dun-da-dun"

Jungle is similar to Breakbeat, but with a more "earthy" and "bioligical" feel.

Industrial is not really considered Techno, but is Electronica. Usually a bunch of sythesized music like Nine Inch Nails.

I have never heard of "Rave", but I can imagine it as being more bubble-gum type stuff. Not really what Prodigy is, as I would have to say Prodigy is closer to Hard House if anything.

I don't think I have it "all mixed up". This information is from my experience when I was DJing at raves, parties, clubs and working with other DJs and party people since 1994. I DJ'd for quite a few years, and still have over 5,000 tracks on vinyl and digital form and listen to them constantly. Maybe it is different now as techno is constantly evolving, but this is my input and I am sticking to it. 8-)

Answer 5

ditto that ishkur's guide is helpful . . . check it out

http://www.di.fm/edmguide/edmguide.html