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goa trance / goatrance is a form of electronic music and is a style of trance music. It originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the Indian state of Goa and is distinctive, as most forms of trance music were developed in Europe. goa trance / goatrance enjoyed the greater part of its success from around 1994–1998, and since then has dwindled significantly both in production and consumption, largely being replaced by its successor, psychedelic trance or psytrance.

goa trance / goatrance is closely related to the emergence of psytrance during the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s, where the two genres mixed together. In popular culture, the distinction between the two genres remains largely a matter of opinion (they are considered by some to be synonymous; others say that psytrance is more "cybernetic" and that Goa trance is more "organic", and still others maintain that there is a clear difference between the two). These two are, however, quite sonically distinct from other forms of trance in both tonal quality, structure and feel. In many countries they are generally more underground and less commercial than other forms of trance.

goa trance / goatrance is essentially "dance-trance" music (it was referred to as "Trance Dance" in its formative years), the original goal being to assist the dancers in experiencing a collective state of bodily transcendence, similar to that of ancient shamanic dancing rituals, through hypnotic, pulsing melodies and rhythms. As such it has an energetic beat, almost always in 4/4 time and mainly consisting of 16th or 32nd note patterns played in both synth and percussion parts. A typical track will generally build up to a much more energetic movement in the second half then taper off fairly quickly toward the end. The BPM typically lies in the 130 - 150 range, making Goa trance slightly faster than more mainstream trance, although some tracks may have BPMs as low as 110 or as high as 160. Generally 8-12 minutes long, Goa trance tracks tend to focus on steadily building energy throughout, using changes in percussion patterns and more intricate and layered synth parts as the music progresses in order to build a hypnotic and intense feel.

The kick drum often is a low, thick sound with a large amount of sub-bass frequencies, and is thought to be the origin of the term doof, a label for dance music and Goa trance in particular. The music very often incorporates a great deal of effects, much more so than other forms of dance music, and are often created through experimentation with synthesisers.