01
Pre-Trance Roots
The synthesizer records and sequencer tracks that electronic dance music got built on. This is where the listening starts.
Kraftwerk / Tangerine Dream / Jean-Michel Jarre / Giorgio Moroder
Timeline
Eight eras, and what each one changed.
This page is the web companion to the eight eras from the companion playlist in Euphoria Unleashed. Think of it as a listening map, not a separate chronology. The era labels and the artist examples come straight from the book, and the short notes are just here to get you oriented.
Read a section here and you can go hear it in order on the companion playlist, since both use the same eight eras. Terms you don't recognise get defined on the glossary page, and the research notes explain how dates and claims are handled.
The eight eras
02
EBM / Industrial Bridge
Rhythm-driven industrial and electronic body music, the sound that carried machine music onto club floors.
Front 242 / Skinny Puppy / Nitzer Ebb
03 / 1989 - 1993
Birth of Trance
The years the sound takes shape and gets a name, out of Europe's club and rave scenes.
Orbital / The Orb / KLF / Future Sound of London / Jam & Spoon
04 / 1994 - 1999
Golden Age
Melody moves to the front, and the records most people still name first get made here.
Paul van Dyk / Robert Miles / Café Del Mar / Gouryella / Cygnus X
05 / 2000 - 2004
Peak Era
Trance at its widest reach, filling arenas and festival crowds around the world.
Tiësto / Chicane / Above & Beyond / BT / Rank 1
06 / 2005 - 2009
Progressive Shift
The sound splits into camps, with progressive, uplifting and psy pulling in different directions.
Gareth Emery / Dash Berlin / Aly & Fila / Markus Schulz
07 / 2010 - 2014
Modern Trance
Radio shows and residencies turn listeners into communities that travel to be together.
Above & Beyond (Group Therapy era) / Armin van Buuren (Intense era)
08 / 2015 - present
Contemporary
Psytrance crossover, classics revivals and a new festival generation finding the sound on its own terms.
Vini Vici / Factor B / Gareth Emery / Armin van Buuren / Andrew Bayer