Eurobeat

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.[9]

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]

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. The Italians went on to create a new sound especially for Japan, but it was virtually unknown in the rest of the world. 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.

In the early 1990s, Eurobeat's popularity was gradually decreasing in Japan. Two Japanese men, 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 released the first Super Eurobeat, a compilation CD which saw instant success and re-ignited Eurobeat's popularity in Japan.[11] Avex also collaborated with foundational Eurobeat labels A-Beat C, Time, and Delta long after Eurobeat's mainstream popularity peak.[10]

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. These sounds are layered with vocals and natural instruments (guitar and piano are common) into complex, ever-shifting melodies that burst with energy.

The anime series Initial D, based on the manga by Shuichi Shigeno, uses Eurobeat music regularly[12] 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 use a large playlist of Eurobeat songs including some by Dave Rodgers, like "Deja Vu" and other artists such as Max Coveri with songs like "Running in the 90s". (Many of these songs also became memes.) There are also many Eurobeat songs based on the series itself, including: "Takumi" by Neo, "Speed Car" by D-Team, "Initial D Hell" by Dave Rodgers and "DDD Initial D (My Car is Fantasy)" by Mega NRG Man. In the movie version of this anime (Legend 1 Awakening, Legend 2, and 3) there is no Eurobeat and it has been criticised by fans for this reason. The songs used in the films are instead modern-day J-rock songs.

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. Over time, DDR has featured Eurobeat songs on-and-off in their song lists. However, their number has dwindled due to efforts to make DDR more marketable to North American markets. Currently, there has been a push to add more Eurobeat into DDR, most recently with the addition of Super Eurobeat tracks in the latest arcade release, Dance Dance Revolution X2. Other music games in Konami's lineup feature a large number of Eurobeat tracks, including Beatmania, Beatmania IIDX, StepMania,[12] jubeat, and many more. The popularity of the genre also led Konami to create a Para Para game; ParaParaParadise.

There have been three types of music called "J-Euro" (Japanese Eurobeat);

1. 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.[13]

2. 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 Ayumi Hamasaki.[14] This type of "J-Euro" has been popular in the para para scene since around 2000.[15] Avex Trax 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 Ayumi Hamasaki, 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,[16]

3. 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.

Eurobeat labels that showcase this type of J-Euro are A-One, Akiba Koubou INC/Akiba Records, Eurobeat Union, Fantasy Dance Tracks, Plum Music, SuganoMusic 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.[17][18]