Euro-disco
| Euro disco | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1970s, Europe (particularly France, Germany and Italy) |
| Typical instruments | |
| Derivative forms | |
| Subgenres | |
Euro disco (or Eurodisco) is the variety of European forms of electronic dance music that evolved from disco in the later 1970s; incorporating elements of pop, new wave and rock into a disco-like continuous dance atmosphere. Many Euro disco compositions feature lyrics sung in English, although the singers often share a different mother tongue.
Euro disco derivatives generally include Europop and Eurodance, with the most prominent subgenres being space disco of the late 1970s and Italo disco of the early 1980s. The genre has declined in popularity after 1985 in preference to electronic rock and Hi-NRG, with a small revival of Italo disco in the late 1990s.
Euro disco is largely an offshoot of contemporary American music trends going far back to the early times of jazz, rock, soul, funk and disco. In the 1950s and 1960s, besides the big American influence, the French/Italian-created pop music offshoots with a dance-oriented sound, became prevalent in Europe. 1950s and 1960s Europop hits spread around France, Italy and Germany, because of the French Scopitone and the Italian Cinebox/Coilorama Video-jukebox machines. Another root is the Eurovision song contest, especially in the 1970s.
The song "Waterloo" by Swedish pop group ABBA, which won the 1974 Eurovision song contest, is a typical example of a 1970s European pop/disco song (Europop), with a dance manner. The success was huge and many European producers instantly produced many pop hits that did not necessary sound the same, but kept that dance manner. With that created, in a very short period of time, a whole new commercial music industry in Europe was met in the demand for social dancing music. The discofox dancing style was a result of this.
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