There’s no official count. Insomniac’s subgenre guide lists ten types of trance, Wikipedia names a few more, and fans will argue about the rest. Seven of them cover nearly everything you’re likely to run into, and they fall into three families.
For each one I’ve given the usual tempo where sources agree on one, what it feels like, and a record or two to start with.
The melodic mainstream
Uplifting trance
Tempo: 136 to 142 BPM. This is the style most people picture when they hear the word trance, and it’s sometimes called anthem trance. Long breakdowns, long chord progressions, and a bright lead that arrives like a chorus when the drums come back. Start with Rank 1’s “Airwave” (1999) and System F’s “Out of the Blue” (1999), which is Ferry Corsten under another name. For artists still working in the style, try Aly & Fila.
Progressive trance
Tempo: 128 to 132 BPM. Slower and more patient. The builds are longer, the breakdowns are less dramatic, and the track keeps developing from start to finish instead of swinging between a big tune and a quiet middle. Start with BT’s “Flaming June” (1997), written and produced with Paul van Dyk, and Sasha’s “Xpander” (1999).
Vocal trance
This one is a format more than a tempo: any of the melodic styles with a sung topline in front, most often a high female voice floating over the synths. Start with Delerium’s “Silence” featuring Sarah McLachlan in Tiësto’s In Search of Sunrise remix, which reached number three in the UK in 2000, and Above & Beyond’s “Sun & Moon” with Richard Bedford (2011). I’ve written separately about what makes a vocal connect in dance music.
The harder end
Tech trance
A cross between trance and techno that took shape in the late 1990s, with Oliver Lieb among the first names attached to it. It’s defined by sound, not speed: a loud, dominant kick, slightly distorted hi-hats and claps, harder synths with lots of resonance and delay, and very little of the soft pad work the melodic styles rely on. Start with Marco V’s “Indicator”, then look up Bryan Kearney and Simon Patterson.
Hard trance
Tempo: 140 to 180 BPM. It came out of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in the early 1990s and was built for very large raves: hard, sometimes pitched-down kicks, thick bass and a lot of reverb on the beat. It later fed directly into hardstyle. Start with Jones & Stephenson’s “The First Rebirth” (1993) on Belgium’s Bonzai label, and Cosmic Gate’s “Fire Wire” (2001), which took the style into the UK top ten.
The psychedelic branch
Goa trance
Tempo: usually 130 to 150 BPM. Named after the Indian state where it developed in the early 1990s, out of a beach-party scene that went back to the hippie years. Tracks are long, often eight to twelve minutes, and they build steadily in layers instead of stopping for one big breakdown. Expect squelching synth lines, melodies with an Eastern flavour and sampled dialogue from science fiction films. Start with Hallucinogen’s album Twisted (1995), and Paul Oakenfold’s Goa Mix, a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix broadcast on 18 December 1994 that introduced a lot of listeners to the sound.
Psytrance
Tempo: roughly 140 to 148 BPM for the main full-on style, faster for the darker variants. Psytrance grew out of Goa trance in the late 1990s as production went digital, and the two names were used interchangeably for a while. The giveaway is the bass: a kick followed by three quick bass notes, over and over, like a gallop. Start with Infected Mushroom’s Classical Mushroom (2000), and for the festival-sized modern version, “Great Spirit” by Armin van Buuren and Vini Vici with Hilight Tribe (2016).
The ones I left out, and where to start
Acid trance (built around the squelch of the Roland TB-303), dream trance (the piano-led style Robert Miles made famous with “Children”) and Balearic trance all have their own histories. They’re smaller rooms in the same house, and once you know the seven above you’ll place them easily.
If you’re new, I’d start with uplifting and progressive, in that order. I make progressive trance and progressive house, so I’m biased, but they’re also the closest to what most people mean by the word. If you want the wider map of dance music around them, I’ve put together a plain guide to EDM subgenres. And if you’re wondering why so many of these names are turning up in club sets again, that’s covered in my piece on the trance comeback.