Subgenre
Vocal Trance
Definition
Vocal trance is what happened when producers stopped treating vocals as garnish and started writing songs around them. Between 1999 and 2004 it gave classic trance its crossover moment via records like Delerium's Silence, Chicane's Saltwater and iiO's Rapture. The template is a driving 134–140 BPM trance instrumental with a full verse/chorus vocal — usually, though not always, sung by a female lead.
Vocal trance sits between uplifting and pop. Done well, the vocal amplifies euphoria the synths already deliver. Done poorly, it becomes trance-pop. Full pillar page has the canonical records.