Area 51 formed in 1999 just after the peak of the "Rave Era" in South Africa. During the '90's the music known as 'Trance' had started to evolve away from the harder hopping sounds that they had come to love. Therefore, they opted to keep it alive in their own music, while still incorporating the mellower sounds of the new. Area 51 say that they write 'stories', rather than 'music' and that the imagination of the listener reads them.