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. Both forms were developed in the 1980s.
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 early freestyle music and Italo disco.
In the 1980s, a highly polished production with "musical simplicity" at its core — from Bubblegum Pop-like lyrics, catchy (in some cases Italian, in other Eurodisco-like) melodies, to "elementary" song structures — 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]
Eurobeat lyrics and melody are very simple. Italo disco, sometimes fast and happy music like EDM, with a sequenced octave bassline. Many feature guitars as a beginning section, followed by a thunderous, highly technical synthesizer riff[9] which is then repeated after the chorus. Songs usually repeat the verse, bridge, and chorus multiple times during the song. The beginning is typically like an instrumental rendition of the verse, bridge, and chorus, while the riff is a lot like an instrumental version of the chorus.
beginning (intro) → synth → A melo (verse) → B melo (bridge) → chorus → synth → C melo → ending
The intro is the introduction into the song, the synth (also known as the sabi) is the musical part without voices. The A melo, or a-melody is the first verse in the song, the B melo is the bridge of the song, and there is a vocal chorus. There is also a C melo after the first chorus, as well as another A/B melo variant after the second sabi.
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,[10]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 in the UK.
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.[11]
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
"By the Italians, for the Japanese"
"Three labels have been with us for years now, and they believed in us. Without them, we couldn't have made it happen."
Meanwhile, in Japan in 1985, the term "Eurobeat" was applied to all continental-European dance music imports. These were mainly Italian and German-produced Italo disco releases. That sound became the soundtrack of the Para Para nightclub culture, which has existed since the early 1980s. Japan experienced Italo disco through the success of the 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 Germans had faded out of Italo disco and focused on more popular scenes, mainly trance. In Japan, this music is called "Eurobeat", "Super Eurobeat", and "Eurobeat Flash".
The majority of Eurobeat labels have been based in Northern Italy, including Lugagnano, Brescia and Mantua (pictured)Velfarre, a discothèque located in Tokyo, was considered a mecca of Eurobeat during the 1990s and 2000s.
The Japanese Para Para dance culture is influenced by Eurobeat.
In the early 1990s, Eurobeat's popularity was gradually decreasing in Japan. Two Japanese men, namely Masato "Max" Matsuura the owner and a managing director of Avex a small import record shop at the time, decided to release a compilation CD. They went to Italy and met Giancarlo Pasquini (later known as Dave Rodgers), then a member of the Italo disco band Aleph. Together they restarted in the end of 1990 the Super Eurobeat compilation, which was beforehand an italo-disco based cd series[13] released by Beat Freak Label in 1990,[14] a compilation CD which saw instant success and re-ignited Eurobeat's popularity in Japan.[15] Avex also collaborated with foundational Eurobeat labels A-Beat C, Time, and Delta long after Eurobeat's mainstream popularity peak.[12]
Eurobeat's sound (in the Japanese market) is its main link to its Italo disco origins, where it was just one of many different experiments in pure electronic dance. There are certain synth instruments that recur across the entire genre: a sequenced octave bass, the energetic (sometimes wild) and heavy use of synths, distinctive brass and harp sounds, and tight, predictable percussion in the background.
The anime series Initial D, based on the manga by Shuichi Shigeno, uses Eurobeat music regularly[16] in its episodes during racing scenes between the characters, and because of this it has come to the attention of some anime fans outside Japan. The series, as well as the video games by Sega, use a large playlist of Eurobeat songs (for example, the trio of "Deja Vu" by Dave Rodgers, "Running in the 90s" by Max Coveri, and "Gas Gas Gas" by Manuel Caramori). There are also many Eurobeat songs based on the series itself, including: "Takumi" by Neo, "Speed Car" by D-Team and "DDD Initial D (My Car is Fantasy)" by Mega NRG Man. Initial D's successor, MF Ghost, uses Eurobeat as background music in the same way as its predecessor. Another 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 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:
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" Namie Amuro.[17]
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 para para 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.[tone] 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.
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.[21][22]
^Italy is a Eurobeat "Mecca" to either variant of Eurobeat; first produced in Italy[3] and Germany.[3]
^ abArena, James (2017). Europe's Stars of '80s Dance Pop. McFarland. p. 85. ISBN9781476630144. 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."
^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). ISBN1-86074-242-4, ISBN978-1-86074-242-2
^ abcDavid D. Laitin, Robert Schuman Centre (2000). Culture and National Identity: "the East" and European Integration. European University Institute. Page 14.
^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."
^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.
^Ang, Ien & Morley, David (2005). "Cultural Studies: Volume 3, Issue 2". Routledge. pgs. 171, 173, 170. ISBN9781134957927. "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."
^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. ISBN978-1-4724-7962-4.
^Manning, Sean (2008). "Rock and Roll Cage Match: Music's Greatest Rivalries, Decided". Crown/Archetype, Aug 26, 2008. Page 69. ISBN9780307449658.
^ abMcClure, 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."
^Stuckmann, Chris (2018) "Anime Impact: The Movies and Shows that Changed the World of Japanese Animation". Vincent R. Siciliano segment. Mango Media Inc. ISBN9781633537330.
^Karen Ma (1996). "The Modern Madame Butterfly: Fantasy and Reality in Japanese Cross-cultural Relationships". Charles E. Tuttle. ISBN9780804820417. 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."
^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. ISBN9789715424196.
