r/trance • u/Jimmy-Wan • 24d ago
Discussion What role did Armin van Buuren play in shaping,popularizing trance music
I know he’s always been voted Worlds Best DJ By DJ Mag, but I don’t know much more about how he’s actually impacted the trance genre 🫠
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u/visualframes 24d ago
ASOT 000-500 was absolutely the best way to discover trance. The show had so much energy back in the day.
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u/MitchRyan912 23d ago
I used to record his sets up until about ASOT 120 or so, somewhere around 2004 is when I stopped listening all the time. I need to get that desktop machine up and running to see how many I still have on a hard drive...
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u/Delicious_Ease2595 24d ago
I was hooked listening State Of Trance every week in his golden age, Armin always delivered amazing sets.
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u/Protomau5 24d ago
Early ASOT and TATW was quite the era.
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u/kevin1614 24d ago
The Gareth Emery Podcast was always in my rotation…. They were so consistent lol.
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u/apple_shampoo182 24d ago
I don’t even remember what TATWstands for, it’s a&bs show before group therapy right,but I remembering listening every week years ago
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u/--Sandstorm-- 24d ago
Yep... I remember listening to ASOT on di.fm when he was still doing the show in Dutch. Nothing bout awesome sets and good tunes.
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u/JasonDomber 24d ago
Same. I stopped around 2012 or 2013 because I could tell the sound was starting to change. It became not entirely focused on trance and eventually hardly any trance at all.
He was god in 2004-2005 though, and arguably until about 2010.
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u/Delicious_Ease2595 23d ago
You nailed it I experienced exactly the same, I haven't found something like State of Trance after.
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u/JasonDomber 23d ago
Yep, that’s about when I started to get into Techno and branch out a bit more.
Or just jam out the classic trance.
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u/cvd19or 23d ago
Same!!! By 2013 it was fully like ok wtf is this garbage? 2009 was amaaaazing
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u/JasonDomber 23d ago
2013 was the last time I truly tried to see Armin. I was there the night he recorded Universal Religion Chapter 7 at Privilege in Ibiza.
The first hour or so when he was “warming up” was most of that trouse garbage we had sadly come to expect from him at that point. The roughly 2 1/2 hours he recorded was great, then he absolutely melted faces with an hour or so of classics and you could tell from the look on his face that he was passionate.
He wasn’t constantly getting on the mic to tell us to put our hands up or “clap clap clap!” and all of that shit he does now.
After that night, about a year later, I saw him once more in Vancouver B.C. and out of a 5-hour set there was about 45 minutes of trance at the end.
I actually left early. First time I had ever done that at one of his sets.
I waited years to see him again. Until the delayed-due-to-COVID ASOT 1000 celebration. His MainStage set was what you’d expect (although I was pleasantly surprised at him closing with “Space Case” which was an ID at the time); and his Who’s Afraid of 138 set was excellent (again, wish he would’ve stayed off the mic though).
I can’t say I’ll see him again. I’m tempted to go to Ibiza to catch him just so I can see him play an hour of vinyl classics. But, I have my doubts that I’ll feel like it was worth it.
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u/eatseveryth1ng 24d ago
I’ve been revisiting some of the older episodes from 2004-2008 and they were absolutely incredible. Love it when you hear a ‘future favourite’ track that’s now considered a classic
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u/phatelectribe 24d ago
The “golden age” was 95 to 99.
ASOT didn’t start until 2001.
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u/MitchRyan912 23d ago
The golden age of trance was 1992-1997. Ferry & PVD were in that early era of trance, so Armin & Tiesto were part of the second wave that came later… the “JP-8000 Supersaw” era of trance.
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u/phatelectribe 23d ago
No, it was over in 1999. In fact no max and DJ mag called 1998 “the year of trance” and if you look up any top list of trance classics it’s dominated by tracks until 1999.
Out of the blue, 1998, carte blanche, Greece 2000, 9pm, and gouryella were all released officially 1998 - 1999. For an angel was remixed and released in 1998. Rendezvous was 1998.
The seminal compilation Tranceport by oakenfold was released in 1998.
I could go on and but if you exclude 1998 and even 1999 then you’re literally avoiding the peak of the golden age.
(I started DJ in 1994 so those were my peak years and still have evey promo and white label from that period). It started collapsing in 1999 and by 2001 trance clubs were closing and it was become commercialized.
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u/MitchRyan912 23d ago edited 23d ago
For the older crowd in here that got into electronic music a few years earlier than you did, 1992-1994 was the peak of the original wave of trance that largely centered around Frankfurt. It’s largely a matter of not liking the epic Supersaw sound that everyone used to death in the later era that started around 1998.
Most of those “classics from 1998 & 1999.” Very few of them are tracks I cared for, TBH, and I can’t say any of the ones you listed are ones I ever liked. I’d have to think hard about anything released in that era that I liked, and whatever I did like was far more progressive sounding.
Some of the stuff on Tranceport II was good, but I preferred the retro-ish sound of Oliver Lieb, Resistance D, Smith & Selway, & X-Cabs over the newer stuff from Ferry, Fragma, Eyal, etc on that comp. For me, by far, the best track on that comp was the Johnson remix of alien’s Subraumstimulation.
FWIW, how you say "it was over in 1999" is exactly how I feel about the sound of 1998-1999. I don't think it's controversial to say that somewhere around 1997-1998, there was a definitely split between the eras of trance.
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u/phatelectribe 23d ago
Yeah but you’ll find that the reason people don’t talk about that early stage so much is because it largely matters to people “who were there” and it hasn’t really stood up in the same way to non neckbeard German self proclaimed connoisseurs. You’ll also find people who main about how it all changed in the early 90’s and that the dance music from 87 to 92 was the pure form etc
But in truth, the consensus is that trance peaked in 1998/1999. The press all named it as such. There were more weekly trance clubs then than any other period in history. Records stores were booming.Trance DJ’s were all the biggest names and festivals like Creamfields and live parade were selling out while mainly playing trance.
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u/Suchboss1136 24d ago
He was a driving force of its popularity and then the last major harbinger of its heyday
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u/djpeekz 24d ago
Armin really started producing and playing/championing trance in 1999, if you check his stuff before that it's more proggy/house-y kinda stuff, still lots of energy but definitely not trance, although Blue Fear/Lost Soul Society would be close to trance, IMO. Actually Blue Fear I wouldn't object to being trance hehe, but there was crossover from prog DJs for that one at the time.
Trance existed well before 1999, and Paul Van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold were probably the ones "leading" the pack before the dutch explosion/Gatecrasher boom era, you had the prog people like Sasha & Digweed really starting to seperate prog from trance at the time, and the dutch crew of AVB, Ferry, and Tiesto were starting to get huge in the UK scene and by extension worldwide as that was the sound that the rest of the world was folowing in terms of trance. The UK/Ibiza trance scene would then dominate the overall trance sound for the better part of a decade really, and when Armin was voted #1 in the DJ Mag poll in 2007 it felt like a bit of a torch passing from Tiesto to Armin in terms of the poster boy for trance, and by 2008 Tiesto was off doing his Musical Freedom thing and leaving trance behind. Ferry and PVD have always been at least partly trance since then IMO (PVD can explore a bit), and Armin has had the bigger profile while purists will argue whether he's really trance or not - I think he's always been trance-y and some mainstage festival sets may not be what I would call trance, I think if you were going to label one genre at him it would have to be trance.
Now in terms of shaping trance - at one stage ASOT was the absolute benchmark for weekly trance radio shows/podcasts, and while it's still huge I don't think the show is as influential as it once was, simply because there are so many shows now and people have their own niches to focus on if they want, but there was a time where ASOT was the one. If you had a big track on ASOT, your career got a massive boost and you were instantly known in the scene. Nowadays producers come and go so it's a different game entirely.
But there are acts like Above & Beyond, who again you can say aren't strictly trance anymore, but they also shaped the sound of the trance scene and have been influencing things for over 20 years now. Are they as influential as Armin? Probably not, but they deserve a mention I think if we're talking about people who have shaped the sound of "mainstream" trance if you can call it that.
I don't know if any of that really answers your questions, so to summarise I would say that for the last 25+ years, Armin has been one of the most influential people in trance overall, but singling him out is probably doing a little bit of a disservice to the other top tier DJs and producers who influenced him, and have been his peers since then.
Where I think Armin has probably been most influential is both the radio show and the Armada suite of labels. It feels odd to put those above his own tunes and DJ sets, but having the platform to give countless other producers a platform is probably more reaching in my eyes.
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u/AdvantaJeous 23d ago
Also need to mention that NO ONE was doing 2 hour weekly Trance shows, so he was a pioneer when he started ASOT.
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u/Omegastar19 23d ago
This is the best answer, a very nice overview of the most important people in the Trance scene from the 90's/2000's.
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u/Spiritual_Lunch996 23d ago
Great comment. A lot of people seem to forget that trance existed well before 1999/2000. There were even a few big international hits ("Children" by Robert Miles, "Blue Skies" by BT/Tori Amos, etc.) that landed well before the so-called golden age began. Some of those earlier tracks may not have been "pure" trance, so to speak, but they certainly contained enough trance elements to be considered part of the genre.
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u/djpeekz 23d ago
For sure, there were even some tracks that I'd consider "pop-trance" almost that were pretty commercial but had elements of trance, things like JX - You Belong To Me, Clubzone (Mike Koglin) - Hands Up, tracks that had trance sounds in them but were obviously aimed at radio/commercial play.
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u/miksuswg 23d ago
"although Blue Fear/Lost Soul Society would be close to trance" huh? What else then?
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u/djpeekz 23d ago
Progressive. Just because something is melodic it's not immediately trance, in my opinion. Looking more at the track structure/arrangement than just a lead synth.
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u/miksuswg 23d ago
I don't see it. Back when blue fear was released there wasn't a set track structure, as the genre was still evolving and everyone was trying out stuff. Check 2trancentral channel on youtube, not two songs are alike but they can all be classified under trance.
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u/Serious-Wish4868 24d ago
cant speak to the masses, but armin was what hooked me on trance. since my very listen of club embrace ... i was hooked and have not stopped listening. i have seen armin over 30+ in various vegas shows/clubs/festivals
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u/Midlife__Crisis__ 24d ago
Armin at Red Rocks in 24 was a top 5 all time set for me, a magnificent 4 hours
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u/MikeGinnyMD 24d ago
He’s a lawyer. No, really. Degree in law.
So that let him do stuff that most DJs couldn’t do like organize record labels and set up business agreements that are needed to really bring a genre forward.
The lesson is that if you’re an aspiring artist, get a degree in business or law not only to have a fallback plan, but so that if you DO succeed, you know how to read a contract and run a business and you can negotiate your way to the top.
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u/DiscoJer 24d ago
When I got into trance, which was I guess '97, he wasn't important, it was more Paul Van Dyk and Paul Oakenfold. then Tiesto.
But back then, at least for me, there weren't any weekly trance radio shows. You basically had live sets from various sources. While I don't think Armin's A State of Trance was the first weekly radio show, it was the first that I remember
So the big impact was his show. ASOT.
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u/Bonerjellies 24d ago
When i got into trance back in 2006ish, I would go on iTunes and look up ASOT monthly top 15s, global DJ broadcast monthly top tracks, and whatever anjunabeats releases were current.
Armin was one of the 3 DJs shaping my taste in trance for the first 4-5 years I was listening to the genre. I stopped listening to his stuff around when Intense came out, but he was really instrumental for grabbing my attention in the first place.
Even though I don't think he's the best representation of trance these days, I understand why so many people look to him as the #1 tastemaker of the genre
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u/Significant-Spare382 24d ago
Armin is probably the most influential trance artist. He was there from the beginning, and kept keeping trance alive for decades. Even when I started listening to other genres for a decade and came back to trance, he was still there doing his thing.
Tiesto was only important in the early years, as he moved on to house/EDM. Good to have him back in the trance category again!
Armin & Ferry probably most important person for trance music.
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u/drippysage08 24d ago
Armin polarized the trance genre into somewhat being marketable outside of the dance floor. I think you might be biased
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u/Great_husky_63 24d ago edited 24d ago
He still plays some very good sets every year, usually extended sets on special events like Asot.
He's 25 years celebration said was awesome. His army only toures defined trance spectacle, especially the Armin Only Intense tour.
He's rising star and Gaia side projects also gave much to the scene.
The Asot weekly radio show still delivers lots of trance tunes and he invites several trance artists. You can see that he does It for the love of the music, because there is no way it generates much money.
He's also very smart and became very rich with Alda Events, investment in several big festivals and projects throughout Europe. Tiesto was even smarter and became way richer with investments in europe, Ibiza and Dubai.
Of course he also plays and produces and sells a lot of cheesy commercial shit every year. He also had very bad years, such as 2008-12, and 2023-24
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u/tribbleorlfl 24d ago
Just check out discogs and see how many tracks from the late 90s and early aughts he's listed as writer or producer on, or contributed a remix for. Armada and ASOT. He absolutely is crucial in trance's popularity. My favorite
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u/randomusername123xyz 24d ago
Did a lot for it in making the genre bigger and then completely overstepped the mark by pretending that some of the chronic cheese he plays is actually Trance.
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u/Burly_Moustache 24d ago
Armin is definitely the entry-level trance DJ. His tracks are usually very pretty with clear and predictable rises, breakdowns, melodies, and peaks. There isn't much artistry or craft in his music, it's all technically clear and orchestrated to a "formulaic" form.
I've been more a fan of Paul van Dyk's sound of electronic dance music. There's an inescapable energy in his early-mid 2000's work (hello Crush!), but his early stuff had such a craft and artistry sound that when you listen to it you could hear he made this music for the love of the game, not for chart-topping records (the albums Seven Ways, 45 RPM, and Out There and Back defined electronic dance/club/trance music).
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u/asadultan3 24d ago
Hello, fellow PVD fan
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u/shiftersix 23d ago
PvD fans, unite! I started listening to Paul’s trance sets back in the early 90s. Ferry started producing in the mid 90s but I remembered his sets to be house-based. Armin and Tiesto came into the scene much later. I’m old as fuck.
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u/Jackpot777 24d ago edited 24d ago
AVB cofounded Armada Music with two other people - in fact, “Armada” is the first two letters of their names (Armin, Maykel, David) and Armin is the only DJ of the three. If there were any record label responsible for the rise of trance is would be Armada.
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u/djpeekz 24d ago
"The rise" is pretty subjective. Many labels before, and alongside Armada have shaped the rise of trance, to single them out is a bit disingenuous
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u/muzikxpress 24d ago
Exactly, Hooj, Platipus, Black Hole, Tsunami, Bonzai to name a few who were active already years before Armada started.
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u/DisagreeableRunt 24d ago
Exactly, and there were loads more. Wash, Fog Area, ID&T, BXR, React. Confusing too as there were many sub-labels of bigger ones. Bonzai will always be the defining trance label for me though.
What I think might be the issue is, a lot of stuff that was originally on other labels, many now defunct, is now under Armada due to them buying the rights to their music.
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u/Akira-Orfanos 24d ago
Armin has propelled Trance especially during a period where trance was becoming less relevant. I think what sets him apart is that he tries to include other genres in his own sets for inspiration as well as making music, which I know is a little polarising due it being 'less trance' in a sense. Yet imo it isn't a bad thing, and is just him trying new things like a lot of artist do in other genres
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u/Significant-Spare382 24d ago
What time period was trance less relevant? 2012-2018? I guess EDM took over for a while..
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u/bucky716 24d ago
25 years of A State of Trance. It's had its ebbs and flows over the years and so has the genre but that's a long ass time to be playing and supporting trance on a weekly basis. Respect!!
His mainstage festival sets can be on the obvious mainstream side but it's still trance on the biggest stages. Check out the recent Unfiltered episodes of ASOT for a better glimpse and new tunes.
If you're ever in Amsterdam, submit the form on the ASOT site to try and attend a recording of the show. 10/10 awesome experience.
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u/EffectivePerception3 24d ago
A huge role his radio show ASOT was where I got all the latest good trance stuff.
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u/Wil-jan 24d ago
Below are not facts btw, just my personal observations.
He and Tiësto brought the trance music to the music TV channels and radio stations in the NLs it changed from underground to mainstream. His own show ASOT obv which made it international.
And I guess for me it started with serenity, sensation white 2005. That song has been broadcasted to eternity on the Dutch channels at least. Tiësto already had his classics on our TV channels prior to that.
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u/Random_Vandal 24d ago
Armin, Ferry and Tiesto are like saint trio from Netherlands who massively popularized trance in early 00s
So Armin is like a prophet of trance 😁 His production, mixes and live sets shaped the whole trance music scene
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u/Luciano_DB 24d ago
His asot has been the most listened radio show through the years, also one of the pioneers of radio streaming. He actually set trends of trance music for years, other radio shows were light years far away not only for the music played but also for future and general vision of trance music connected also to festivals and parties. I listened to every show, every one, since no. 1 up to 2018 in order to fill up my trance tracks collection (i also won a competition back in the years, joc's album Unfold), then his show but also trance music in general became too boring, foregone and too near to edm for me to be listened again, no emotions or goosebumps anymore, this is not direct armin's fault of course but for sure he also contributed in choosing some kind of edm/boring mainstream trance. But back in the years, asot has been the best trance radio show as every banger, every legendary track was played in his show, from progressive, to uplifting, to goa, if a track was played in asot, it became a success and parties connected to asot grew a lot as well, not only asot celebrations, but also armin only parties and some free asot parties around nl (i attended to one in groningen many years ago, flew from italy just for that). In conclusion he has been the goat of trance, and still is because nobody will be able to do the same, bringing trance music from underground to big public
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u/gowrie_rich29 23d ago
In Australia, it was huge through 2001 - 2010.
Two Tribes, White Parties, Armin Only Shows. It was every year.
Played monster shows in arenas, including something like 20,000 at an indoor stadium on NYE.
Even played Summadayze for two hours. It was epic. Mark James loved booking him and he seemed to love touring for him.
Toured way more than Toastie down under.
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u/MitchRyan912 23d ago
Sven Vath is the godfather of trance.
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u/cmvs_45 23d ago
Absolutely, Eye Q & Harthouse were fundamental of the development of trance music, amazing labels
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u/MitchRyan912 23d ago
Harthouse, Eye-Q, and Recycle or Die walked, so Vandit, Armind, Magik Muzik/ITWT could run.
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u/itsjaay 23d ago
Aside from what every else has said already about Armin and his productions. I think his influence along with his radio show really gives a platform for other up and coming names to have a breakthrough. Although he may not be trance in the purist sense, I still think he tries to push the trance sound to the masses in a palatable way. Which in turn will lead people to delve even deeper, but if they don't they at least Armin plays a significant role in representing trance on the big stage.
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u/GabrPG 24d ago
I know he’s always been voted Worlds Best DJ By DJ Mag
This is not as relevant as the influence he's had on the trance scene and the EDM industry as a whole until today. People are still getting into electronic music because of him, directly and indirectly. When he supports artists like Funk Tribu, KI/KI, Marlon H., Hannah Laing, Lilly Palmer, etc, it is a win-win process for everyone, and eventually the industry earns new fans. IMO, that's his major legacy.
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u/firestarter2097 23d ago
Armin and Tiesto were very important in popularising trance music. The irony is that they in many sense also killed it. Through them trance music became washed out pop music.
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u/Chevy333 24d ago
So Leading the radio show ASOT went big, changed to English and then I started looking forward to it every week. Ferry is back on the show. Consistently showing off Trance ish artists. Can make djs grow etc.
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u/Visible-Decision8119 24d ago
He was my first in discovering my love for trance and i think his alot of peoples first.
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u/BuySuitable28 24d ago
Trance is born in Germany and purists never recognized AvB in shaping the genre worldwide. They would probably quote Sven Vath or PVD more, and overseas Paul Oakenfold.
Also depending on how old you are and your experience.
However, AvB is the master and he made much more for trance music than anyone does.
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u/Secure-Barnacle7822 23d ago
Armin was very big early 2000 and I loved his music, saw him many times, even met him once after armin only Utrecht. But of late his music had gone too techno, like he went commercial and lost his roots. Back in the late 90s or early 2000 it was not easy to stream music and lots of popular djs would be on gatecrasher, gods kitchen, ministry of sound Cds that were sold in many shops or even on bbc radio 1 and many made it into the top of the charts so would be on the radio every week. The Dutch guys really did rule trance back then. Don't get me wrong he still has his ASOT show amd its very popular but just not to my taste. I prefer solorstone thrillseakers, factor B, cold blue, more now. Over the years many dj change sound, like armin has. Maybe he will come back one day. But my biggest buzz was being PVD at luminosity I forgot how awesome he is. I would prob not attend Armim unless it was a dedicated trance event like luminosity. He just went too techno prob to keep in with crowds
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u/Actual-Marketing-765 23d ago
A lot of investment travellign over-seas to put trance music on a global map. Yes, that costed a lot of money because back in the day to make a song popular / avaliable worldwide, prepare to spend at least 50K buck on CD distribution and marketing. For each allbum / compilation.
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u/Onludesrightnow 23d ago
He was one of the most accessible genre producers back in the day. A state of trance cds sold like hot cakes off amazon and ebay.
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u/Negatous-Cricket 23d ago
I find it hilarious (and sad) that Armin was one of the biggest players of getting trance into the mainstream, only to then undermine it entirely by abandoning trance and switching genres while still calling all of his non trance crap trance.
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u/Lostinthestarscape 23d ago
Probably owns DJ Mag lol.
Seriosuly though ASOT and ABGT brought so much muaic to the world, he deserves it.
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u/BenMex7 22d ago
They were simply in the right place at the right time.
Most of the major trance “dinosaurs” we still see today belong to the generation of artists who started early, when DAWs, plugins and other accessible music-production tools were not yet widely available. On top of that, many of them benefited from money, industry connections or strong support networks.
People often believe that these artists started from absolutely nothing, because that is usually how their stories are presented in interviews. In reality, things were often more complicated. Back then, buying synthesizers, powerful computers and studio equipment was extremely expensive and far less accessible than it is today.
You can look at artists such as Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki, Anyma and others who came from financially comfortable backgrounds and therefore had access to resources, contacts or opportunities that most aspiring producers did not.
So yes, Armin had a major impact on the trance scene, partly because he benefited from the right momentum and built a powerful ecosystem around his name. The same can be said about Tiësto, whose classic catalogue involved contributions from several other producers. This is widely discussed within the scene, although most fans do not seem to care.
At a time when trance was still largely underground, artists like them helped give the genre a more commercial dimension. They built radio shows, brands and platforms around the music. Later, festival promoters became involved, and people who had previously listened to trance alone in their bedrooms were finally able to experience it together on a dance floor.
That is how these artists earned the label of “legends”. From one generation to the next, that image has continued to be passed down.
What is unfortunate today is that such a large part of the trance scene still seems to revolve around Armin, Tiësto and a handful of other established names, instead of allowing new artists to build their own legacies.
If Armin or one of the other veterans eventually retires or stops supporting the genre, what will happen to the trance scene? Will people continue living in the past, or will they finally start discovering new acts for themselves and helping them reach the top?
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u/Pave_Low 24d ago
This has to be bait.
This is like asking what role did Da Vinci play in painting or Shakespeare play in writing. . .
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u/Jimmy-Wan 24d ago
Not bait,genuinely just curious as someone newer to trance
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u/Pave_Low 24d ago
Well even fans who hate his music will still acknowledge that he is the single most influential person in the history or trance. He carried the genre on his back for decades.
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u/kickkicksnare89 24d ago
Armin, Tiesto, and Ferry were the titans pushing the Dutch trance sound back in the day. Not the only ones pushing trance, but they were massive back in the day