Trance is said to have begun as an off-shoot of techno in German clubs during the very early 1990s . Frankfurt is often cited as a birthplace of Trance. Some of the earliest pioneers of the genre included Dj Dag (Dag Lerner), Oliver Lieb, and Sven Vath, who all produced numerous tracks under multiple aliases. Trance labels like Eye Q , Harthouse , Superstition , Rising High , FAX +49-69/450464 and MFS Records were Frankfurt based. Arguably a fusion of techno and house , early Trance shared much with techno in terms of the tempo and rhythmic structures but also added more melodic overtones which were appropriated from the style of house popular in Europe's club scene at that time.

This early Trance tended to be characterized by hypnotic and melodic qualities described above, and typically involved repeating rhythmic patterns added over an appropriate length of time as a track progressed, thus creating an effect of hypnotic trance.

At about the same period of time in the early 1990s, a musical revolution was happening in Goa , India . Electronic body music (EBM) bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Front 242 came to Goa and began influencing artists like Goa Gil , Eat Static , Doof , and Man With No Name who heard the psychedelic elements of EBM, expanded on them minus the vocals and guitars to create goa trance . Goa music is heavily influenced by Indian culture and psychedelic drugs , as seen in numerous references to both in track and album titles.