The main branches, and why nobody agrees on them.

The main Trance subgenres

• Goa and psytrance

  Rolling bassline, layered acid lines, long hypnotic stretches

  This is the branch with the strongest claim to being its own scene, not a variant of anyone else's. It built its own parties, its own labels and its own festival circuit, and it kept a rhythmic focus while European Trance went off chasing melody. Psytrance is the broader modern term now, and it spans tempos and moods wide enough that regulars will happily argue none of it sounds alike.

  Where to hear it: Pre-Trance Roots through to the Contemporary era on the timeline

  How psytrance compares to Trance

• Uplifting and euphoric

  Long breakdown, supersaw lead, a release that lands on a big melody

  The sound most people picture when they hear the word Trance. Everything in the arrangement points at one emotional payoff, and the breakdown is the centre of the track rather than a break in it. It's the branch most associated with the mid and late nineties, and it's also the one that keeps coming back, because the structure works on a big floor and always has.

  Where to hear it: Golden Age and Peak Era

  The uplifting trance guide

• Progressive

  Slower changes, restrained melody, arrangement over payoff

  Progressive trades the single large release for a longer progression that develops across a set rather than a track. Less lead, more groove and texture, and a lot more patience. It shares a border with progressive house that nobody has ever agreed on, which is why the same record often ends up filed under both.

  Where to hear it: Progressive Shift and Modern Trance

  The progressive trance guide

• Hard trance and tech trance

  Higher tempo, harder kick, less melody carrying the weight

  Two related answers to the same question: what happens when you take the euphoria out and leave the pressure in. Hard trance pushes tempo and distortion. Tech trance borrows techno's rhythmic discipline and keeps the Trance sense of build. Both stayed closer to the club than the arena, and both have had periodic returns to prominence.

  Where to hear it: Golden Age onward, and current main-floor releases

• Vocal and dream trance

  A sung hook, or a piano and lead line doing the singing

  The most radio-legible end of the genre. Vocal trance puts a topline over the standard structure. Dream trance leans on a melodic hook simple enough that people who never went to a club still recognise it. This is where Trance crossed into general pop awareness, and it's also where the genre's own audience argues hardest about authenticity.

  Where to hear it: Golden Age and Peak Era

• Ambient trance and chillout

  The same palette with the kick removed or pushed to the back

  The after-hours and pre-club end. Same synth vocabulary, same sense of scale, no urgency. It's an important branch historically because it gave the sound somewhere to exist outside peak-time floors, and a lot of listeners arrived at Trance from this direction rather than through a rave.

  Where to hear it: Golden Age onward

People argue endlessly about where these branches end and the next one begins, and the arguments are usually about identity more than sound. A record filed as tech trance in one shop may well get played as techno somewhere else the same weekend. If you'd rather hear the distinctions than read about them, work through the chronological companion playlist or the genre maps on the resources page.