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 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2011) |
| Italo disco | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1970s – early 1980s, Italy |
| Derivative forms | |
| Other topics | |
Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco)[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] Italo disco faded in the early 1990s and then split into many genres (Eurobeat, Italo house, Italo dance).
- ^ McDonnell, John (1 September 2008). "Scene and heard: Italo-disco". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
- ^ "Italo disco's eternal evolution". DJ Mag. 26 July 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
- ^ Folklore that ZYX boss Bernhard Mikulski coined the term Italo-disco in 1983 was long published on Wikipedia, but is unsubstantiated; to date, reliable third-party documentation has not been found to support whether ZYX label boss Mikulski himself named it, or whether ZYX was even the first to publish the term; it could just as easily have been a descriptor people were already using before someone at ZYX picked up on it.