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Eurobeat refers to two styles of that originated in : one is a British variant of Italian -influencedAng, Ien & Morley, David (2005). "Cultural Studies: Volume 3, Issue 2". Routledge. pgs. 171, 173, 170. . "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." , and the other is a -driven form of . 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 origins as time went on.

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 (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 were popular in America.
(2025). 9781472479624, Routledge.

In the 1980s, a highly polished production with "musical simplicity" at its core. An average British Eurobeat song took very little time to complete. 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.

In the mid-1980s, Japanese label offered a deal with singer, songwriter and producer in search for music to target to which were very few and had limited access to suitable dance music.

In 1990, then small Japanese import record shop , following expansion plans, bought the compilation series, which had its first volume that same year, and partnered with newborn Italian label .

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

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 throughout the song, along with a thunderous, highly technical riff (also known as the sabi) which can be composed of up to 20 layered together. 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 a Eurobeat song is as follows:

Eurobeat song artists are seldom the real name of the singer(s), instead preferring aliases of the same. This practice started in the 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.

With the ' transition to Eurobeat, the practice remained alive. It is common to see singers performing under different aliases (for example having sung under aliases such as Cherry, Denise, Vicky Vale and many more) and aliases being performed by different singers in different time periods (for example the Max Coveri alias was first sung by , then by Massimo Brancaccio, then by Roberto Gabrielli, then by Maurizio De Jorio and more recently by ). 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 (credited with her full name as well as similar variations like A. Gordon), and , 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 but the former focusses on a more typical Eurobeat sound, while the latter is more –oriented


Use of the term
record producer '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 , Bad Boys Blue, Taffy, and . The term "Eurobeat" was subsequently used commercially to describe the Stock Aitken Waterman–produced hits by Dead or Alive, , , Sonia, and which were heavily based on the British experience with Italo disco. During 1986–1988, it was used for specific Italian 1980s imports, such as , , and but was also used in the as a catch-all term for UK-based and groups of the time such as Pet Shop Boys, purported to have a "European beat", hence Eurobeat. By 1989, with the advent of 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 imports from . When Japanese label offered a deal with singer, songwriter and producer , he happily accepted and thus the That's Eurobeat compilation series was born. Its name comes from Farina's answer to a question by a spokesperson of Alfa's. The spokesperson asked in the name of the 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 and the word beat, which he though was appropriate with the style of those songs, and answered to the spokesperson with that's Eurobeat.


History

United Kingdom
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 , 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.Manning, Sean (2008). "Rock and Roll Cage Match: Music's Greatest Rivalries, Decided". Crown/Archetype, Aug 26, 2008. Page 69. .

of Dead or Alive regularly fought the production team over "having 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.

(2025). 9781476630144, McFarland. .
. 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 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."


Italy and Japan
Meanwhile, in Japan starting in the mid-1980s, the term "Eurobeat" was applied to all music imports. That sound became the soundtrack of the at the time very niche 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 (of Enigma). The later solo success of Arabesque's lead singer 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 . At this time Italian singer, songwriter and producer entered the Japanese scene by introducing the term Eurobeat and selling part of his team's catalog to the Japanese label .

The Japanese dance culture is highly influenced and closely related by Eurobeat. In 1990, then small Japanese import record shop , following expansion plans, partnered with newborn Italian label , founded the same year by Giancarlo Pasquini and after a meeting at Contini's house with the two, along with Alessandra Mirka Gatti, and Avex founders and in which it was decided that Avex would restart, in the end of 1990, the compilation, which was beforehand an –based CD series released by the label in the same year.

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

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

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

Starting in the mid-1990s, also started to become more common with varying degrees of sonic presence in the song. From the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, worked as and with Giancarlo Pasquini and his team at .

The 1996 video game Sega Touring Car Championship first featured Eurobeat as racing music. The 1998 series , based on the by , uses highly-energetic Eurobeat music regularlyStuckmann, Chris (2018) "Anime Impact: The Movies and Shows that Changed the World of Japanese Animation". Vincent R. Siciliano segment. Mango Media Inc. . 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 , use a large playlist of Eurobeat songs (for example, the trio of "Deja Vu" by , 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 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 Ds successor, , the 2023 anime uses Eurobeat as background music in the same way as its predecessor. Another 2003 anime called , which focuses on basketball, also features Eurobeat during basketball game sequences.

In 1998, , a branch of the video game company , made a hit video dance machine, Dance Dance Revolution. The game acquired Eurobeat songs from the compilation series published by . 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 , , , and many more. The popularity of the genre also led Konami to create a game, , though it was less successful than their other series.

Wangan Midnight the Movie, which was a 2009 film adaptation of the , 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 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:

  • Eurobeat songs made in Italy, covered by Japanese artists with Japanese lyrics. This type of "J-Euro" appeared first in the early 1990s. Notable artists of this type of "J-Euro" have included MAX, D&D, V6, Dream, and the "Queen of J-pop" .Bakuren, List of J-EURO Original Tracks

  • J-pop songs made in Japan, remixed in the style of Eurobeat by Italian Eurobeat producers. This type of "J-Euro" appeared first on the 1999 issue of Super Eurobeat, Vol. 100, with several tracks of this type of "J-Euro" by MAX, Every Little Thing, and . This type of "J-Euro" has been popular in the scene since around 2000.Tsutaya, J-Euro Non-Stop Best > Summary launched the Super Eurobeat Presents : J-Euro series in 2000. This series included Ayu-ro Mix 1, 2 and 3, plus a fourth remix album missing the "Super Eurobeat" tag featuring , Euro Every Little Thing featuring Every Little Thing, Hyper Euro MAX featuring MAX, Euro global featuring globe, Euro Dream Land featuring Dream, J-Euro Best, J-Euro Non-Stop Best,, J-EURO etc.
  • Eurobeat songs made in Japan, and sung by Japanese artists themselves. This type of Eurobeat has always been present since the 2000s, but only started to gain attention once the scene began promoting songs in this style. Most songs are anime remixes or J-pop covers, which has led to some calling it an anime boom. Eurobeat labels that showcase this type of J-Euro are A-One, Akiba Koubou INC/Akiba Records, Eurobeat Union, Fantasy Dance Tracks, Plum Music, Sound Holic, SuganoMusic, TTL Sound, Takanashi Koubou and more.


Para Para
One of the dance moves Eurobeat spawned was パラパラ, a type of Eurobeat music-inspired Japanese youth social dance performed in unison.Karen Ma (1996). "The Modern Madame Butterfly: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Cross-cultural Relationships". Charles E. Tuttle. . Quote: "The 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."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. .


See also


Notes
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