The 1990s

Updated 2 months ago

Individual Years
1990-2 – 1993-5 – 1996 – 1997 – 1998 – 1999

Decade Summaries
Early OnThe 1980sThe 1990sThe 2000sThe 2010sThe 2020s

Introduction

This is where all the groundwork was laid, that would see full fruition in the early 2000s.
Goa Trance developed in Goa, India, exploding on the global scene, reaching its commercial peak in the mid to late 90s.
Ravers proliferate, and although they seem a sideshow at first, as the Internet kicks into high gear, many of them proceed to slowly disrupt all major industries, especially music advertising, and retail.
Early hard trance developed at the Dorian Gray in the Frankfurt airport in Germany, the Omen (Sven Väth‘s Living Room) and Aladdins (AB Goldbach) and across Europe.

In the U..S., Goa trance had been played at Connecticut and Massachusetts raves in ’95, and in Washington at a festival in ’94. The first international goa act on the east coast: Slinky Wizard, April 20, 1996.
Goa Trance officially reached New York in September 1996, with the seminal Return to the Source in Liberty Science Center. The organization became known as Tsunami, and ran biweekly events at Vinyl in TribeCa. Shortly after, Synthetic Sadhus began events in the Marc Ballroom on Union Square, which would be the biggest budget events in NYC, ever.

North American information got out via an email list run by mark@indole.net, and NYC information was published by Jeff via the Brainmachines list which later became TripOutNY, and became the basis for all this history listed on this site. Around the turn of the century, Mark Jeff, and the tristate community of trancers collaborated briefly on the Devotional Ministry of Trance, which organized underground open-air events.

Landmark Events

Innovation

Music

Goa trance started very experimental and rough. In the mid to late nineties, it really spread out globally and started to become known as “psytrance.” It was still developing rapidly by the end of the decade. Another subgenre was the Israeli Nitzhonot, which was kind of braindead and didn’t really go far.

Tech

1991 – Pro Tools 
1992 – MiniDisc 
1994 – Yamaha unveils theProMix 01; 1994 – Propellerheads releases reCycle loop splicing; Iomega Zip drive
1995 – MP3 
1996 – First DVD “Twister” film launched May 10
1997 – Autotune developed September 19; Flat Screen TVs appear
1998 – SoundBlaster Live! developed in August
1999 – Napster in June; SoulseekCubase VST developed August

Drugs

As the NYC trance scene seemingly sprang out of nowhere and pulled in people from the club world and raves, there was nothing to innovate with drugs in psytrance. No surprises here – LSD, MDMA, 2CB, Ketamine, mushrooms, and marijuana were pretty much everything we needed.
Coke was sometimes around, but it was low key. Meth, opiates, PCP, and GHB were definitely looked down upon.

Deaths

Bill HicksTimothy LearyD.M. TurnerSimon CarmanNina Graboi

See more: Memorial

Go to the 2000s

Napster 2023 40x40 Indigo Ico Bigger
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x