Итало диско жанрының тарихы

Music genre
the music genre

Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then current underground dance, pop, and electronic music, both domestic and foreign (hi NRG, Euro disco) and developed into a diverse genre. The genre employs electronic drums, drum machines, synthesizers, and occasionally vocoders. It is usually sung in English, and to a lesser extent in Italian and Spanish. The origin of the genre's name is strongly tied to marketing efforts of the ZYX record label, which began licensing and marketing the music outside Italy in 1982. Italo disco faded in the early 1990s and then split into many genres (Eurobeat, Italo house, Italo dance).

The term "Italo", a generic prefix meaning Italian, had been used on pop music compilation albums in West Germany as early as 1978, such as Italo Top Hits on the K Tel label and the first volume of Italo Super Hits on the Ariola label. There is no documentation of where the term "Italo Disco" first appeared, but its origins are generally traced to Italian and other European disco recordings released in the West German market. Examples include the phrase "Original Italo Disco" on the sleeve of the West German edition of "Girls on Me" by Amin Peck in 1982, and the 1983 compilation album The Best of Italo Disco. These records, along with the Italo Boot Mix megamix, were released by Bernhard Mikulski on his ZYX label, who was therefore credited with coining the term "Italo disco". The Best of and Boot Mix compilations each became a 16 volume series that culminated in 1991. Both series primarily featured disco music of Italian origin, often licensed from independent Italian labels which had limited distribution outside Italy, as well as songs in a similar style by other European artists. The presenters of the Italian music show Discoring (produced by RAI) usually referred to Italo disco tracks as "rock elettronico" (electronic rock) or "balli da discoteca" (disco dance) before the term "Italo disco" came into existence.

Canada, particularly Quebec, produced several remarkable Italo disco acts, including Trans X ("Living on Video"), Lime ("Angel Eyes"), Rational Youth ("City of Night"), Pluton & the Humanoids ("World Invaders"), Purple Flash Orchestra ("We Can Make It"), and Tapps ("Forbidden Lover"). Those productions were called "Canadian disco" during 1980–1984 in Europe and hi NRG disco in the U. S.

In English speaking countries, it was called Italo disco and hi NRG. In Mexico the style is known just as "disco", having nothing to do with the 1970s genre. West German productions were sung in English and were characterized by an emphasis on melody, exaggerated production, and a more earnest approach to the themes of love; examples may be found in the works of: Modern Talking, Fancy, American born singer and Fancy protégé Grant Miller, Bad Boys Blue, Joy, Silent Circle, the Twins, Lian Ross, C. C. Catch, Blue System and London Boys. During the mid 1980s, spacesynth, a derivation of Italo disco, developed. It was mostly instrumental, featured space sounds, and was exemplified by musicians, such as: Koto, Proxyon, Rofo, Cyber People, Hipnosis, Laserdance and Mike Mareen (whose music inhabited the spacesynth/hi NRG overlap).

As Italo disco declined in Europe, Italian and West German producers adapted the sound to Japanese tastes, creating "Eurobeat". Music produced in this style is sold exclusively in Japan due to the country's Para Para culture, produced by Italian producers for the Japanese market. The two most famous Eurobeat labels are A Beat C Records and Time Records. One traditional Italo disco label, S. A. I. F. A. M., still produces Eurobeat music for Japan. Around 1989 in Italy, Italo disco evolved into Italo house when Italian Italo disco artists experimented with harder beats and the "house" sound.

A big comeback of German disco began in 1998, when Modern Talking reunited. Rete 4 channel in Italy, Hits 24, Goldstar TV, and ProSieben channels in Germany, and the program Nostalgia on Spain's TVE channel started to broadcast Italo disco. Several online radio stations, like Radio Stad Den Haag (Netherlands), stream the genre. The renewed popularity inspired re releases and new mixes by many of the original Italo disco record labels. ZYX Records has released many new CD mixes since 2000. Panama Records and Radius Records have re released Italo tracks on vinyl. Northern European labels I Venti d'Azzurro (Netherlands) and Flashback Records (Finland) have produced unreleased demos, new versions of old hits, and new songs. A number of new Italo disco artists have emerged and have been featured on the ZYX Italo Disco New Generation discs: Birizdo I Am, Boris Zhivago, D White, Estimado, Italove, Mirko Hirsch, Nation in Blue, Siberian Heat, among many others. Italo disco is also one of the major influences to the sound of the synthwave genre. Synthwave and Italo disco revival artists are often featured on the same mixtapes, playlists, and labels.