Trance is so BIG right now because >it's non-threatening, white music (I just can't think of that many popular >black, hispanic, or asian trance artists).
I wouldn't say it's totally non-threatening since it is so closely affiliated with drug culture, in particular ecstasy. Out of all the trancers, Paul Van Dyk, as much as I can't stand his music, actually believes in what he does - a point even Laurent Garnier (his longtime friend) acknowledged when he recently let rip into trance in the British press. Tragically misguided maybe. He came from Communist East Germany, an industrial town on the border of Poland and the GDR, and barely knew his father, who walked out when he was a kid. If you know anything about life behind the iron curtain or East Europe then you will understand that it is not exactly a privileged background; it's one of dislocation and poverty. And Van Dyk has never taken drugs. Maybe it's a case of him being co-opted by a Western European (white) movement? Funnily enough Sash! (yes - cue groans!) reckons that the UK media's current backlash to trance is motivated by the fact that the Brits can no longer stand all these Continentals in their charts. Just some leftfield thoughts to consider on a Sunday afternoon...... There is a French guy Karim, of French Moroccan descent, who plays trance, or at least nu NRG, and heaps of Japanese cats - there's this crew who came out for Earthcore (forget their name) here. I think there may be a few trance DJs of ethnic origin (ie non Anglo-European) here in Australia, too.
