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Why isn't the psy scene huge?


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Maybe it's because I live in the states but I'm getting the general idea that the psy-trance scene isn't as huge as I would expect. I mean progressive house and club trance still rule the electronica scene....why do you think mass media hasn't grabbed onto psy-trance yet.....and more importantly do you think the psy-trance scene will become a worldwide addiction or will remain to be adored by those lucky enough to stumble upon this insane style of music.

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Guest roopak@procyonrecords

here's the deal...

 

I'm kind of boiling it down to simplicity but anyways...

 

There's a basic 'undergroundness' to the psytrance scene because of the hippie foundations of the culture. Because the um...let's call it the grassroots...of the scene are still at the parties out in the open in places like India, South Africa, Brazil and the festivals (where those of us who play love to play) etc. often frequented by the travellers, etc...

 

Then there's the underlying philosophy of the scene. The aversion to commercialization and materialism.

 

These two factors create a sort ethos within the scene to kind of 'keep it real'.

 

However, at the same time, there's a movement in the opposite direction propelled by labels and the like to expand in some way...more listeners, larger scene, more money...not just for profit's sake (although that can sometimes be the case)...but to spark a little cashflow ino circulation to provide more quality to the listener, a better livelihood for the artists, etc...

 

(Psy)trance artists, DJs and labels earn a fraction of what artists in more popular genres of electronic music get paid, e.g.- top DJs get paid between 1000 and 1500EUR per gig (regular large party) compared to 30,000 or so for top house DJs (large club in London).

 

But it's a matter of balance...you've gotta admit that part of what makes this sooo much fun is that not everyone's doing it...I mean, I'm all for having as many fun, nice smiley people at parties but not everyone who likes trance is gonna be like that (again I'm simplfying things to answer the question)...so those of us who are able to have some influence on the scene should, in my opinion, remember the need to maintain that balance. Not everyone may share my point of view on this though.

 

Hope that provides some explanation...

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Guest Barrington

My friends and I have surmised this very quandry for some time....

 

Among the favourite conclusions were:

 

1) No other form of dance music is so closely symbiotic with LSD as psytrance. The percentage of people taking LSD is minute, hence the marketability of the music to the core demographic is nonprofitable.

 

2) Psytrance is not accessible music. With most tracks weighing in at around 8 minutes apiece, flicking through the music on fast-forward shows one nothing of that track.... different to shorter 3-minute commercial trance.

 

3) People don't want to work to appreciate their music. To get the best out of psytrance, we all know that you're going to have to lay back in a darkened room with some hallucinogens to really get the vibe...

 

Most people dont have that 12 hours spare to trip out to music at parties or at home.... They want easy music to whistle along to over the cleaning.

 

4) Commercial Tie-Ins: Psytrance fans go to parties and largely take LSD, Shrooms and Ecstasy. Thus most will drink solely free water from the taps. They also won't eat anything. Most potential revenue to sponsor psytrance events by drink and snack companies is lost.

 

But of course the closer always has been and always will be that "the public just aren't ready for it yet!"

 

Barrington

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Then there's the whole: "how can you listen to that? It all sounds the same. How can you dance to it? It's so fast. The beat is so repetitive. Other sounds? What other sounds?..." And so on and so on.

 

And let's not forget:

 

"What kind of music do you listen to?"

 

Psytrance...

 

Trance.

 

"Ohhhh, like Paul Oakenfold and stuff right?"

 

Yeah, something like that.

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just a side note: compared to commercial trance or house music the psy scene isn't huge. but it's getting bigger and bigger very fast. two or three years ago when i went to my first party a lot of people didn't know what goa/psy was and now it's quite hip to go to a psy party. there are also much more parties than then and also in bigger clubs in which ar normally commercial parties. as said in other posts because of the drugs and the hippie-like behaviour psy isnt' really interesting for sponsors because psy freaks are not as influencable for commercials like "normal" people so i guess psy will always stay more underground. but who knows...

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Guest psylotik

sometimes I wish I could enjoy club trance and house as much as I do psytrance.... so I can go out every weekend to the various parties and events held locally. The last psy party I went to I think was like 5 or 6 months ago.

 

The underground-ness of psytrance is intrinsic in the music itself. It's just not-very-accessible, weirdo music. Unless the music changes, psytrance will always be for the minority.

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It depends where you are...for example in India I could buy psytrance cd's in any shop, psytrance is on newpapers, tv and most of the people know what it is...

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Guest goannes

Journalist's quote: "For psychedelic music to become mainstream- and retain its spirit- people will have to change the way they think. It's happened before. But it won't happen overnight. In the meantime, psychedelic trance still rocks electronic music's deepest underground".

 

en right he is!

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ive only met one person that even knew what psy trance is so far in california, ive never met anyone who has heard of such great artist as logic bomb, hux flux, ect... but when i play it to them they love it cause it trips them out so much

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Guest la caxia

why do you want it huge??

 

do you want big festivals named like "doritos boom festival" or goodyear's voov experience? and seen artists like nomad eating at mcdonalds and infected mushroom wearing nike outfits? and some crappy commecial with talamasca dancig like he does and then "damn im so thirsty i should take a coca-cola!"

 

plz gimmie a break!!!

 

psytrance scene is small because its the perfect size to avoid undesirable ppl, to protect and mantain the amazing places that parties used, or do you want to have it in the silver dome or aztech stadium (122,000 ppl)?

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maybe it's not huge, because the ppl who are into psytrance don't want it huge?? do the labels, fans and artists push there music onto the public?

 

thats part of the reason "commercial" electronic music does so well, because it is being marketed to the public realy realy well...

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I also thought of this factor....

 

Vocals.....the mainstream populas has grown up on music that based on vocals because they are catchy and memorable...you don't see people walking around humming the melodies to their favorite electronic song do ya? But you will see people singing their favorite songs....thats why club trance and stuff like that is more likable....also like some of you said the songs are shorter and not 6-12 minutes long.

 

I'm actually really glad that I have attached myself to a genre of music that is classified highly underground....so when it does become more mainstream I can say "I've been into that for years...." Hopefully it will stay primarily underground so I can say that, since I just discovered it....but I would like to find some places in Florida that play mainly Psy-Trance, or maybe find people locally who enjoy psy-trance and kinda start a psy-trance clique.

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I also thought of this factor....

 

Vocals.....the mainstream populas has grown up on music that based on vocals because they are catchy and memorable...you don't see people walking around humming the melodies to their favorite electronic song do ya? But you will see people singing their favorite songs....thats why club trance and stuff like that is more likable....also like some of you said the songs are shorter and not 6-12 minutes long.

 

I'm actually really glad that I have attached myself to a genre of music that is classified highly underground....so when it does become more mainstream I can say "I've been into that for years...." Hopefully it will stay primarily underground so I can say that, since I just discovered it....but I would like to find some places in Florida that play mainly Psy-Trance, or maybe find people locally who enjoy psy-trance and kinda start a psy-trance clique.

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I also thought of this factor....

 

Vocals.....the mainstream populas has grown up on music that based on vocals because they are catchy and memorable...you don't see people walking around humming the melodies to their favorite electronic song do ya? But you will see people singing their favorite songs....thats why club trance and stuff like that is more likable....also like some of you said the songs are shorter and not 6-12 minutes long.

 

I'm actually really glad that I have attached myself to a genre of music that is classified highly underground....so when it does become more mainstream I can say "I've been into that for years...." Hopefully it will stay primarily underground so I can say that, since I just discovered it....but I would like to find some places in Florida that play mainly Psy-Trance, or maybe find people locally who enjoy psy-trance and kinda start a psy-trance clique.

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It's quite simple really.

 

The labels are a bunch of amatures using their time traveling to india and smoking waterpipes instead of pushing sales :-)

 

No money is used for promotion and PR. It's all used on the labels owners drug and travel habbits !!

 

harsh? yes !....but true !

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Guest Spifer Jo

lets all hope Psytrance stays undergronud.... I think nobody would like to see Psytrance turn to a cash machine.

a (quick) similar example: GRUNGE.

Grunge (revisited Punk music) scene in SEATTLE was running for years locally, then some guys called NIRVANA became famous. And what's next? 150.000 bands came out from the outskirts of Seattle. Major labels interested in making money start to book all bands with seattle in their adress. They don't care about true quality, don't understand the music, the culture, the mind blowing....

 

Psytrance will get huge, but "there's no rush"...

 

peace 4 all psyfreaks

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Guest Maak ku Paax

I remember about 3 years ago psy trance parties in Mexico were still not as crowded as they are now, during that time parties were awesome, the perfect people, the perfect places... since one year ago psy trance in Mexico is becoming something popular even you can hear psy music on the tv, promos from pioneer, radio stations, and even sponsors are moving to the scene.

This "really" kills the scene, and also the most important thing is being distroyed "spirituality and mysticism", at least here those things are completely dead.

Psytrance wasn't made to benefit the people with money, psytrance wasn't even made to ignorant masses, what happened? = s

I don't want to keep going to parties of about 10,000 people dancing and destroying the sorrounding ecosystem.

Sh*t! It's like if attila and his huns had a psy trance party.

 

so "Why isn't the psy scene huge?" because there is still hope, I think.

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Guest spacemonkey

yup, people listen music for different reasons.

 

many people want music to be simple, after working or studying they want to unwind with a simple tune, or go to a club not having to think about music but dance to tunes that don't ask anything of them.

 

goa is different it asks active involvement of the listener or you will miss the point and it will seem like some random noise.

 

because of that this scene is small, different listening habbits............

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Daniel: "you don't see people walking around humming the melodies to their favorite electronic song do ya?"

 

yeah i do, it sounds good to me, but apparently to outside listeners it sounds bloody awefull:)

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Guest spacemonkey

humming or whistling my favorite psy tunes, yeah i do that too, but it only sounds good in your head, because you can hear the added effects and stuff, for others it indeed sounds like crap.

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Guest AutoMath

This topic have been discussed many times, but continues to be fascinating. :)

 

There seems to be a certain identifiable time-cycle from that psychedelic trance have been introduced into a country. First the enthusiasts push the music and the parties.. creating the best atmosphere and with the avant-garde people making up the crowd. Eventually things gets more and more popular, parties gets bigger and with this it seems unavoidable to prevent some people bringing in a badass, know-it-all attitude that results in the vibe decreasing in intensity, getting more deteriorated. Drugs, money.. normal ways of thinking may be the reason for this.. but maybe this deteriorating of the vibe is inevitable (horrible thought!) since these great feelings of pioneering spirit are noting but a novelty feeling, that comes because the new-ness of the scene... We have observed this in all electronic dance scenes.. Now the rings on the water have spread out and the last countries where psytrance have been established are the ones that are rocking hardest.. Russia, South-africa, Portugal, Mexico etc..

 

We could see in europe, when the first Goa-wave was hitting hardest at its peak, the music was suddenly everywhere and was bit by bit taken over by rednecks and gangsters.. (pardon my harsh words) :) people into cheap thrills and not interested in the mystical and spiritual qualities that this culture transmitted. Along with this there was a reaction of the music getting harder, weirder and darker, probably to some extent to scare off people not already initiated, in order to preserve the exclusivity and mystical and magical qualitites to the music, parties and the culture..

 

So after the initial stage of pioneering bliss, there seems to be a growth in popularity and a eventually decline in vibe.. there are some shadow years where the scene tries to shake off its unwanted inhabitants and stereotypes, by descending into darkness (dark horrible scary music.. According to the english journalist and writer Simon Reynolds this cycle is usually connected with the drugs time-cycle as well, the downside of drug-use and abuse makes itself known here) and finally when its unhip again (like here in Sweden and England) people dare to bring out the morning glory again, making beautiful music, creating beautiful parties.. Daring to be different, naive and uncool!!

In my opinion there seems to be an element present in this scene of elitism, but that is observed in most other contemporary underground or should I better say post-underground dancemusic cultures around..

 

 

I am very aware of that this is a very biased viewpoint and that a lot of things affected and affects the development of the scene and the development of the music.. This is just my personal viewpoint. What do you think?

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Guest Psy shaman from Canada

Yes the same thing happened in Toronto but with the jungle and drumnbass scene. When I first started partying in 96 the partys were really underground with really cool peaple then around 98 the hip hop thuggy crowd strted going just to sell drugs and generally were just unpleasant to be around . it got so popular by 2000 there were partys with 10000 people plus all the time until the city banned us from using federally owned builings so now its pushed into clubs and underground venues again and the 19 plus partys are still hype.

As for the goa scene in Toronto it has been very underground since I went to my first party in 98 it has grown but is considered by by most people to be weird so as far as I'm concerned goa here will never sellout

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