Reading Guide
Books about Trance music. What each one actually covers.
People search for books about Trance and land on lists of dance music books where Trance turns up in one chapter. This page is narrower. I could verify two English-language book-length works whose primary subject is the Trance music genre itself, and the useful thing to know is what each one covers and where its scope stops.
Full disclosure before anything else: I wrote Euphoria Unleashed, so pretending this is a neutral ranking would be weird. There's no winner declared here and no stars. The comparison is by period, scope and purpose, because those are the parts you can check for yourself.
If I missed one, send it to me and I'll check it. The same standard applies to this page as to the rest of the site.
Side by side
Period, emphasis and edition.
Nothing in this table is a judgement. It's the bibliographic facts and the stated scope of each book, so you can see straight away which one answers the question you came with.
| Book | Period | Main emphasis | Format and ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Euphoria Unleashed: The Transformative Power of Trance Music | Pre-Trance electronic roots through to current Trance | History plus production craft, technology, labels, regional scenes, DJ culture, the business and media side, and the dancefloor itself. Documented history alongside a lived perspective. | Print and Kindle. White Sands, LLC, First Edition 2026. ISBN-13 979-8-218-18513-8. |
| Hypnotised: A Journey Through Trance Music 1990-2005 | 1990 to 2005 | A near-complete discography of albums, labels and releases from the period, with photos and in-depth interviews with influential artists and label owners. | Softcover, 332 pages. 2021 (original publication). ISBN 9789082075892. |
The classic period
Hypnotised: A Journey Through Trance Music 1990-2005
Arjan Rietveld. 2021 (original publication). Softcover, 332 pages. ISBN 9789082075892.
Rietveld's book works as a reference on a defined stretch of the genre. The published scope covers 1990 to 2005 and spans a near-complete discography of albums, labels and releases from that window, which is the part that makes it useful when you're trying to place a record.
That mix matters because the book isn't only a list of releases. The published description also identifies exclusive photos and in-depth interviews with influential artists and label owners, so its reference material includes both discographic detail and first-person material from people in the scene.
Its stated period ends in 2005, and that's on the cover rather than a limitation anyone has to infer. It's a defined window, treated properly.
Roots to now
Euphoria Unleashed: The Transformative Power of Trance Music
Steve Zenone. White Sands, LLC, First Edition 2026. Print and Kindle. ISBN-13 979-8-218-18513-8.
Mine traces the genre from pre-Trance electronic roots through Frankfurt, Goa, the Dutch and global eras and into current Trance. The classic period is in there, but it sits inside a longer history, which means the records that set the conditions before 1990 and the scene as it stands now both get room.
It also spends real time outside the chronology. How the records were made and what the gear made possible, the labels and regional scenes that kept the music moving, DJ culture and the long set, the business and media machinery around it, and what the floor feels like to the people standing on it. There are appendices, a bibliography and a glossary at the back for the same reason: so a claim can be followed up rather than taken on trust. The research notes and the source library set out that standard in public.
It uses two lenses and keeps them separate. Documented history where the record supports it, and my own perspective from inside the scene where that's what's on offer, marked as such. The companion playlist runs the eras in order if you'd rather hear the shape of it before reading it.
Reader intent
Which one should I read?
It depends on the question you're carrying. If you want a classic-era reference centered on discography, labels, photos and interviews from 1990 to 2005, Hypnotised is the closer fit.
If you want a roots-to-current history that also spends time on production, infrastructure, DJ culture and the experience of the music, Euphoria Unleashed is built for that. Different job, different shape.
If you want both lenses, read both. They're complementary rather than competing, and neither one replaces the other. A period reference and a full-span history answer questions that don't overlap much.
Wider reading
Useful context, but not Trance-specific books.
These four are in the Euphoria Unleashed bibliography and they're worth knowing about, with one caveat: none of them is a book about Trance. They're broader works on dance music, DJ culture, rhythm and the electronic lineage, and Trance appears inside a much larger frame. Read them for context rather than for genre history.
- Last Night a DJ Saved My LifeBill Brewster and Frank Broughton
- DJ history and club-culture context.
- Energy FlashSimon Reynolds
- Broader rave music and dance-culture context.
- Unlocking the GrooveMark J. Butler
- Rhythm, meter and musical design in electronic dance music.
- The Ambient CenturyMark Prendergast
- Broader ambient and electronic lineage useful for pre-Trance context.
What I left out
Books where trance means hypnosis, ritual, possession or altered states aren't here. They're a real subject with a real literature, and they answer a different search than the one this page is for.
Source notes
- Bibliographic details for Hypnotised, the period covered, the page count, the ISBN and the description of its discography, photos and interviews, come from the Antenne Books listing. No publisher is stated here because current retailer records conflict on that field.
- For independent context on Rietveld and the book as a genre reference, Pitchfork's piece Trance Is Back and It's No Joke discusses both.
- Details for Euphoria Unleashed come from its own front matter and are published on the book page. The evidence standard behind it is set out in the research notes.
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