Eurobeat

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Eurobeat refers to two styles of dance music that originated in Europe: one is a British variant of Italian [3] Eurodisco-influenced [6] dance-pop, and the other is a hi-NRG-driven form of Italo disco. The former was developed in the 1980s, while the latter was developed starting from the early 1990s and continuing in the following decades, distancing itself from its Italo disco origins as time went on.

Contents

Producer trio Stock Aitken Waterman and pop band Dead or Alive made Eurobeat music more popular in the United States and Southeast Asia, where Eurobeat was historically marketed as hi-NRG (pronounced as "high energy"). For a short while, it also shared this term with Italo disco.

Overview

In the late 1970s, Eurodisco musicians such as Silver Convention and Donna Summer were popular in America. [7]

In the 1980s, a highly polished production with "musical simplicity" at its core. [6] An average British Eurobeat song took very little time to complete. [8] Bananarama's "Venus" and Mel & Kim's "Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend)" were said to be completed in a day, according to Pete Waterman of Stock Aitken Waterman. [8]

In the mid 1980s, Japanese label Alfa Music offered a deal with Italo disco singer, songwriter and producer Mauro Farina in search for music to target to Japanese discoteques which were very few and had limited access to suitable dance music [9] .

In 1990, then small Japanese import record shop Avex [10] , following expansion plans, bought the Super Eurobeat compilation series, which had its first volume that same year, and partnered with newborn Italian label A-Beat-C [11] .

A-Beat-C was the first label to progressively detach the term Eurobeat from being synonymous with Italo disco in Japan, establishing it as a distinct genre.

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"Speedway"
Beginning (0:00-0:31) → riff in Niko's "Speedway", from Super Eurobeat Vol. 101 (released in 2000)
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"Boom Boom Fire"
Megamix-beginning → riff [then cut to] chorus → riff in D.Essex's "Boom Boom Fire" (produced in 1997), from Super Eurobeat Vol. 140 (released in 2003)
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Italian Eurobeat lyrics have varying degrees of complexity and themes and are accompanied by very complex melodies. Many songs produced starting in the mid 1990s feature electric guitars throughout the song, along with a thunderous, highly technical synthesizer riff (also known as the sabi) [12] which can be composed of up to 20 audio tracks layered together [13] . The sabi is heard after the introduction and after the chorus. Songs usually repeat the verse, bridge, and chorus multiple times during the song every time with a different arrangement, keeping the listener eager to discover how the next iteration is gonna be. The introduction can resemble an instrumental rendition of the verse, bridge, or chorus, while the riff can bare close reassembles to an instrumental version of the chorus. The general structure of an Eurobeat song is as follows:

beginning (intro) → sabi → A melo (verse) → B melo (bridge) → chorus → sabi → ending

The intro is the introduction into the song, the riff (also known as the sabi) is the musical part without voices. The A melo, or a-melody is any verse in the song indipendent of lyrics, the B melo is the bridge of the song, and there is a vocal chorus (also known as C Melo or c-melody). There are always (expect for rare cases) 2 verse → bridge → chorus progressions with different lyrics in the 2 verses

Eurobeat song artists are seldom the real name of the singer(s), instead preferring aliases of the same. This practice started in the Italo disco scene where the very low number of available performers forced the authors to came up with multiple names for everyone to give the impression of a bigger team on compilations [14] .

With the musicians' transition to Eurobeat, the practice remained alive. It is common to see singers performing under different aliases (for example Clara Moroni having sung under aliases such as Cherry, Denise, Vicky Vale and many more [15] ) and aliases being performed by different singers in different time periods (for example the Max Coveri alias was first sung by Mauro Farina, then by Massimo Brancaccio, then by Roberto Gabrielli, then by Maurizio De Jorio and more recently by Corrado Beretta). The very few instances where songs have been released under the real name of the singer happened with an equally limited amount of singers such as Annerley Gordon (credited with her full name as well as similar variations like A. Gordon), Gino Caria and Elena Ferretti, all of which also sung under multiple aliases.

Multiple aliases used by the same singer(s) can also be used to separate different styles. For example, both Fastway and Dusty are used by Ennio Zanini but the former focusses on a more typical Eurobeat sound, while the latter is more rock–oriented [16]

Use of the term

British record producer Ian Levine's Eastbound Expressway, released the single "You're a Beat" in recognition of the slower tempo of hi-NRG music emerging from Europe. Many European acts managed to break through under this new recognition, namely the likes of Modern Talking, Bad Boys Blue, Taffy, and Spagna. The term "Eurobeat" was subsequently used commercially to describe the Stock Aitken Waterman–produced hits by Dead or Alive, [17] Bananarama, Jason Donovan, Sonia, and Kylie Minogue which were heavily based on the British experience with Italo disco. During 1986–1988, it was used for specific Italian 1980s Eurodisco imports, such as Sabrina Salerno, Spagna, and Baltimora but was also used in the United States as a catch-all term for UK-based dance and electropop groups of the time such as Pet Shop Boys, purported to have a "European beat", hence Eurobeat. By 1989, with the advent of Eurodance and Euro house, the term was dropped completely in the UK.

In Japan, starting in the mid 1980s, the term Eurobeat used to refer to Italo disco imports from Italy. When Japanese label Alfa Music offered a deal with Italo disco singer, songwriter and producer Mauro Farina, he happily accepted and thus the That's Eurobeat compilation series was born [9] . It's name comes from Farina's answer to a question by a spokesperson of Alfa's. The spokesperson asked in English the name of the genre in which the songs Alfa was interested in belonged, but because they chose songs that Farina's team tucked away worried that they would not sell well in Italy, he did not have an answer ready and so in a hurry he improvised a reply by combining the fact that he was located in Europe and the word beat, which he though was appropriate with the style of those songs, and answered to the spokesperson with that's Eurobeat [9] .

History

United Kingdom

"It's a great hybrid with Motown-style lyrics, an Italian-style melody, and a Eurobeat. It sounds really great on the radio."

—Waterman (1986) on Bananarama "I Heard a Rumour". [8]

The trio of British record producers, songwriters, and former DJs Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman were involved in the British underground club culture, encountering the Black American soul music-focused scene called Northern Soul, Italian pop-Eurodisco, and sped-up Motown Sound-inspired tracks. As underground record producers, they sought to recapture the "nostalgia" of Motown Sound with a hint of campy playfulness where the simplicity of musical structures, like in Italian disco, was preferred. This musical formula was proven to be successful enough to be capitalized on as they had a string of top 10 UK hits in the 1980s to the point of their version of Eurobeat becoming synonymous with British pop music as a whole. [18]

Pete Burns of Dead or Alive regularly fought the production team over "[having to adhere] to their production methods and concepts" which SAW were "quite firm about". Burns went on making a next album, produced by Burns and Dead or Alive drummer Steve Coy, without them, called Nude . Epic (licensed by Sony Europe) was reluctant about releasing the album but it turned out to be so successful in Japan that it was awarded the Japan Record Award Grand Prix for Best International Album of 1989 in the 'Pop' or 'Popular' Category. [1]

Italy and Japan

"Three labels have been with us for years now, and they believed in us. Without them, we couldn't have made it happen."

—Avex Trax's Haji Taniguchi (2000) [19]

Meanwhile, in Japan starting in the mid 1980s, the term "Eurobeat" was applied to all Italo disco music imports. That sound became the soundtrack of the at the time very niece Para Para nightclub culture, which has existed since the early 1980s. Japan experienced Italo disco through the success of the West German group Arabesque, which broke up in 1984. This did not prevent the release of two Italo disco-sounding singles in 1985 and 1986, produced and mixed by Michael Cretu (of Enigma). The later solo success of Arabesque's lead singer Sandra further introduced this sound to Japan. This attracted the attention of many Italo disco producers (mostly Italians and Germans), though by the late 1980s the West Germans had faded out of Italo disco and focused on more popular scenes, mainly trance. At this time Italian singer, songwriter and producer Mauro Farina entered the Japanese scene by introducing the term Eurobeat and selling part of his team's catalog to the Japanese label Alfa Music.

The majority of Italian Eurobeat labels have been based in Northern Italy, in cities such as Lugagnano, Brescia and Mantua (pictured) Dsc 1150 Mantua.jpg
The majority of Italian Eurobeat labels have been based in Northern Italy, in cities such as Lugagnano, Brescia and Mantua (pictured)
Velfarre, a discotheque located in Tokyo, was considered a mecca of Eurobeat during the 1990s and 2000s. Velfarre floor 3.jpg
Velfarre, a discotheque located in Tokyo, was considered a mecca of Eurobeat during the 1990s and 2000s.

The Japanese Para Para dance culture is highly influenced and closely related by Eurobeat. In 1990, then small Japanese import record shop Avex [10] , following expansion plans, partnered with newborn Italian label A-Beat-C [11] , founded the same year by Giancarlo Pasquini and Alberto Contini after a meeting at Contini's house with the two, along with Alessandra Mirka Gatti, and Avex founders Max Matsuura and Tom Yoda [11] in which it was decided that Avex would restart, in the end of 1990, the Super Eurobeat compilation, which was beforehand an Italo disco–based CD series [20] released by the label Beat Freak in the same year [21] .

With A-Beat-C, Time Records and Delta (the latter 2 would join Avex's Super Eurobeat in the following years) the term Eurobeat progressively became its own district genre abandoning the Italo disco synonym definition.

The new Super Eurobeat compilation saw instant success and ignited an explosion of Eurobeat's popularity in Japan. [22]

Eurobeat's sound contains certain instruments that recur throughout most of the genre: a sequenced octave bass, the energetic and heavy use of synths, distinctive brass and harp sounds, and tight, rhythmic percussions in the background, though some songs may be more experimental than others, for example by including distinctively acoustic instruments such as acoustic guitars. The vast majority of sounds are custom-made by the producers and are not stock presets [13] .

Starting in the mid 1990s, electric guitars also started to become more common with varying degrees of sonic presence in the song. From the mid 1990s to the early 2000s, Jennifer Batten worked as composer and electric guitarist with Giancarlo Pasquini and his team at A-Beat-C.

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Megamix-intro of "I Wanna Dance"
"I Wanna Dance", Eurobeat song by Domino, from Super Eurobeat Vol. 90 Anniversary
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The 1996 video game Sega Touring Car Championship first featured Eurobeat as racing music. The 1998 anime series Initial D , based on the manga by Shuichi Shigeno, uses highly-energetic Eurobeat music regularly [23] in its episodes during racing scenes between the characters to accompany the adrenaline of the races, and because of this a narrow set of Eurobeat has come to the attention of some anime fans outside Japan. The series, as well as the Arcade Stage video games by Sega, use a large playlist of Eurobeat songs (for example, the trio of "Deja Vu" by Dave Rodgers, from Second Stage "Running in the 90s" by Max Coveri, from First Stage, Arcade Stage 2 and Special Stage and "Gas Gas Gas" by Manuel from Fifth Stage and Arcade Stage 5; all of which later became internet memes where these songs are played with video footage of rapidly moving objects or people). There are also some Eurobeat songs based on the series itself, such as "Takumi" by Neo, "Speed Car" by D-Team from Fourth Stage, Arcade Stage 4 and Extreme Stage and "DDD Initial D (My Car is Fantasy)" by Mega NRG Man from Fifth Stage. Initial D's successor, MF Ghost, the 2023 anime uses Eurobeat as background music in the same way as its predecessor. Another 2003 anime called Dear Boys , which focuses on basketball, also features Eurobeat during basketball game sequences.

In 1998, Bemani, a branch of the video game company Konami, made a hit video dance machine, Dance Dance Revolution . The game acquired Eurobeat songs from the Dancemania compilation series published by Toshiba EMI. Though there was not much Eurobeat from 2006's SuperNOVA on, the series still features some tracks as of 2021. Other music games in Konami's lineup feature a large number of Eurobeat tracks, including Beatmania , Beatmania IIDX , jubeat , and many more. The popularity of the genre also led Konami to create a Para Para game, ParaParaParadise , though it was less successful than their other series.

Wangan Midnight the Movie, which was a 2009 film adaptation of the manga and anime series of the same name, features some Eurobeat songs, though only in some scenes as it has an original score playing through race sequences. Similarly, the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune arcade games by Namco feature a trance soundtrack, in a similar way to how Initial D has Eurobeat.

J-Euro

Types of music called "J-Euro" (Japanese Eurobeat) include:

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"You (Aggressive Mix)" by Ayumi Hamasaki
Remixed by Bratt Sinclaire, from Ayu-ro Mix
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Para Para

One of the dance moves Eurobeat spawned was para para (パラパラ), a type of Eurobeat music-inspired Japanese youth social dance performed in unison. [28] [29]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Italy is a Eurobeat "Mecca" to either variant of Eurobeat; first produced in Italy [3] and West Germany. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 Arena, James (2017). Europe's Stars of '80s Dance Pop. McFarland. p. 85. ISBN   9781476630144 . Retrieved 2020-01-29.. Relevant pages 29-32 (Pete Burns), Pages 44 & 85 (high-energy music). Page 29 quote: "I got really sick working with them during the making of the Mad, Bad album. I got really, really sick." [...] The Stock Aitken Waterman team was reportedly quite firm about adhering to their production methods and concepts, which Burns said was a major source of friction. "That's why we eventually walked away from them. For instance, there was a lyric from 'Something in My House' [from the follow-up album, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know] where I make a reference to a 'wicked queen.' The actual producer, Mike Stock, stopped me and said I couldn't use the term because it would mean the record is about gay people. I was like, 'Fuck this; it's going on!' They actually wiped the original vocal, but then Pete Waterman came back and said, 'Let [Burns] do it the way he wants to.' There you go."
  2. ↑ Cunningham, Mark "Good Vibrations: A History of Record Production" (Sanctuary Music Library), Alan Parson (Introduction), Brian Eno (Introduction) Sanctuary Publishing, Ltd; 2 edition (1998, Digitized 20 May 2010). ISBN   1-86074-242-4, ISBN   978-1-86074-242-2
  3. 1 2 3 David D. Laitin, Robert Schuman Centre (2000). Culture and National Identity: "the East" and European Integration. European University Institute. Page 14.
  4. ↑ Keizai, Kokusai & Zaidan, Kōryū (cont.) "Japan Spotlight: Economy, Culture & History, Volume 23". Page 24 (Ng Wai-ming: "The Rise of J-Pop in Asia and Its Impact"). Japan Economic Foundation & the University of California. 2004. Quote: "JAPANESE pop music is commonly I referred to as "J-pop", a term coined by Komuro Tetsuya, the "father of J-pop", in the early 1990s. The meaning of J-pop has never been clear. It was first limited to Euro-beat, the kind of dance music that Komuro produced. However, it was later also applied to many other kinds of popular music in the Japanese music chart, Oricon, including idol-pop, rhythm and blues (R&B), folk, soft rock, easy listening and sometimes even hip hop."
  5. ↑ Society for Asian Music (2003). "Asian Music: Journal of the Society for Asian Music, Volume 34, Issue 1". Page 1 ("Japanese Popular Music in Singapore"). The University of California.
  6. 1 2 Ang, Ien & Morley, David (2005). "Cultural Studies: Volume 3, Issue 2". Routledge. pgs. 171, 173, 170. ISBN   9781134957927. "Eurorecords had to have immediate cross-national appeal, musical simplicity was of the essence- a bouncy beat, just one chorus hook, elementary lyrics. The fun of these records was entirely a matter of sound quality, but once a record was a hit it took on a kind of sleazy, nostalgic charm of its own. It was precisely the brazen utility of these records, in short, that gave them gay disco consumer appeal too.[...] Eurodisco also had an obvious element of camp -British club audiences took delight in the very gap between the grand gestures of Eurosingers and the vacuity of their songs."
  7. ↑ Krettenauer, Thomas (2017). "Hit Men: Giorgio Moroder, Frank Farian and the eurodisco sound of the 1970s/80s". In Ahlers, Michael; Jacke, Christoph (eds.). Perspectives on German Popular Music. London: Routledge. ISBN   978-1-4724-7962-4.
  8. 1 2 3 BMI: The Many Worlds of Music. Broadcast Music, Incorporated, 1986. p. 17.
  9. 1 2 3 Farina, Mauro; Gelmetti, Laurent; Arduini, Roberto (2023-07-17). "Ripartiamo dalla Musica - Ripartiamo dalla Dance" [Let's restart with music - Let's restart with dance music]. youtube.com (in Italian). Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  10. 1 2 "History of the Avex". avex.com. Avex Group. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 "ABEATC EUROBEAT SERIES VOL.1". bandcamp.com. Dave Rodgers Music. Retrieved 12 September 2025. ABeatC is a brand created in 1990 when Tom Yoda (AVEX), Max Matsuura (AVEX), Alberto Contini, Giancarlo Pasquini (Dave Rodgers) and Alessandra Gatti (Domino) had a very important meeting in Contini's house. …
  12. ↑ "Eurobeat Creation Theory: Synth Riffs/"Sabi"s". Odyssey Eurobeat. 2010-08-06. Archived from the original on 2015-11-07. Retrieved 2019-10-22.
  13. 1 2 Jan "SSC" Budín (2023-09-03). "What Makes Eurobeat Special?". bandcamp.com (Podcast). Neo Retro Commentary. Delta Music Industry. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  14. ↑ Pasquini, Giancarlo (2019). van Vuuren, Matt (ed.). "Dave Rodgers Fan Meeting: Q&A Session" (Interview). Maharaja Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan.
  15. ↑ "Cherry". eurobeat-prime.com. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  16. ↑ "Fastway/Dusty About". scp-music.com. SCP Music. Archived from the original on 2006-05-06.
  17. ↑ Kreisler, Lauren. "Inside The Hit Factory: Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  18. ↑ Manning, Sean (2008). "Rock and Roll Cage Match: Music's Greatest Rivalries, Decided". Crown/Archetype, Aug 26, 2008. Page 69. ISBN   9780307449658.
  19. ↑ McClure, Steve. "Midem 2000: JAPAN: Execs Stress Dance & Urban". Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.). Jan 22, 2000. Page 80. ISSN 0006-2510. Quote: "[T]o maintain an existing relationship with our clients we want to show our special appreciation to our collaborators for the success of 'Super Eurobeat Volume 100,' which has sold more than a half-million units since being released in August," says Avex's Haji Taniguchi. [...] Taniguchi says the three companies to which Avex feels especially grateful for their support over the years are A-Beat C, Time, and Delta, all of which are from Italy."
  20. ↑ Various - Super Eurobeat Vol. 1 - Extended Version, 1994, retrieved 2023-03-09
  21. ↑ Various - Super Eurobeat Vol. 1 - Time Compilation, 21 January 1990, retrieved 2023-03-09
  22. ↑ "ユーロビートの基礎知識 PowerGun". triplei.hp.infoseek.co.jp. Archived from the original on 17 May 2006. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  23. ↑ Stuckmann, Chris (2018) "Anime Impact: The Movies and Shows that Changed the World of Japanese Animation". Vincent R. Siciliano segment. Mango Media Inc. ISBN   9781633537330.
  24. ↑ Bakuren, List of J-EURO Original Tracks Archived 2008-10-10 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
  25. ↑ "Empress of Pop - TIME". Time . Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  26. ↑ Tsutaya, J-Euro Non-Stop Best > Summary Archived 2019-01-10 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
  27. ↑ Avex Trax, J-EURO (in Japanese)
  28. ↑ Karen Ma (1996). "The Modern Madame Butterfly: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Cross-cultural Relationships". Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN   9780804820417. Quote: "[T]he para-para girls-young women in their late teens and early twenties dancing in unison in Japanese dance steps to the sound of fast-tempo Euro-beat. Para-para dancing is not a new invention: it dates back to the early eighties."
  29. ↑ Roland B. Tolentino, Jin Hui Ong, Ai Yun Hing (2004). "Transglobal Economies and Cultures: Contemporary Japan and Southeast Asia". Page 241. University of Michigan & University of the Philippines Press. ISBN   9789715424196.
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