Hi-NRG, Love it... or loathe it..

[Energyguy]

Had lunch with a couple of DJ friends the other day. We got chatting about the various forms of dance music that have evolved since the "heady" days of 70`s disco. When I brought up the topic of 80`s HINRG/Eurobeat one of my pals said "It was the low point of 80`s dance music". I argued that it has had a huge influence on todays pop/dance music scene and, even though it was responsible (some would say) for the whole PWL onslaught that seemed to dominate the charts at the time, it was great, catchy dance music.
Unfortunately, he was not convinced...

[FranceJoliFan]

HINRG has classics and duds like any other style of music. But I can't imagine life without Vivian Vee, Passengers, Taffy, Phyllis Nelson, Dead Or Alive, Company B., Lime, Lisa, and so many others.

Plus I always got a thrill finding many of these songs on aerobic dance compilations. They were better than many greatest hits packages.

[Magnifique]

Originally Posted by Energyguy

Had lunch with a couple of DJ friends the other day. We got chatting about the various forms of dance music that have evolved since the "heady" days of 70`s disco. When I brought up the topic of 80`s HINRG/Eurobeat one of my pals said "It was the low point of 80`s dance music". I argued that it has had a huge influence on todays pop/dance music scene and, even though it was responsible (some would say) for the whole PWL onslaught that seemed to dominate the charts at the time, it was great, catchy dance music.
Unfortunately, he was not convinced...

Oh gawd!

The HI NRG era was great. Well, for certain people a song at 130 BPM was tooooo fast at that time, but look to what type of music (and high BPM's) they dance to today...

[QUINNY]

Your friends were wrong.

As a rule, I found Italo Disco was the worst, closely followed by Hi-NRG.

[marmite7]

Originally Posted by QUINNY

Your friends were wrong.

As a rule, I found Italo Disco was the worst, closely followed by Hi-NRG.

Wrong way round Quinny

How can you deny Carol Jiani on Hit N Run Lover or Ask Me, or Sarah Dash with Lucky Tonight or even Sylvester - Do You Wanna Funk?

Hi-nrg in feel, but with soul & passion!

Just listen to Fancy's - Come Inside, then play Love Unlimited Orchestra - Welcome Aboard and tell me they don't have the same feel.

One disco & one Hi-nrg. Both with stripped down vocals & a repetitive beat, but both sublime.

Perhaps you're basing your opinion on those records which "crossed over" and by default could be discribed as commercial cheese, and that would be like comparing Ottawan's - Hand's Up with Inner Life's - Ain't No Mountain High Enough.

Hetro discos were different to gay clubs back in the early to mid 80's, with (imho), more emphasis on dancing in the gay clubs. The girls may have danced in the straight clubs, but the guys were only there to pull at the end of the night, when the three slowies came on (Another thread somewhere....!)

From the minute you walked into a gay club back then, the beat was insistent and relentless, with no naff DJ breaking to say "Happy birthday Sharon" or "Here's the latest from Junior / Shalamar / Goombay Dance Band" etc etc etc et al. (There is a God!!!)

Sure there were some crap hi-nrg tracks (disposable stocking fillers), but there were even more disco-fillers too - the tried n the tested, the bog-standards & run o the mills.

And then again..............perhaps you just had to be there

Hi-nrg was made for dancing, not listening and without it there wouldn't be the dance music of today, the raves of the late/early 90's or mega clubbing as we now know it.


In a nutshell........................it's your age

[Magnifique]

Well said, marmite7!

Hi Quinny,
As a rule, I found Hi NRG was the best, closely followed by Italo Disco music. And I stilll love it to death.

[FranceJoliFan]

This genre is SO worth defending. It was an explosion of DIY music. Where producers could create a full sound with just a synthesizer and a diva. But it wasn't all one-button programming. These people created catchy hooks and driving beats. And kept dance music fresh.

I especially enjoyed hearing it evolve into the Robert Miles/Dreamland sound. It all captures a special place in time. And I've had a lot of fun dancing to it all.

But best of all, it doesn't detract from other styles of dance music. It's just part of the progression. A very influential one.

[Dayna]

Being born in 1960..
1 was in my 20's all through the 80's even though my passion is Disco mainly because that was the music I heard when I was 16 and like Alice going through the looking glass as I discovered myself and life Thats the music I fell into like you fall into a cloud in a dream ~!! Hi NRG is just a continuation of the music that I loved ..It might have had different flavors but it was the closest thing to my passion that there was I LOVE IT.. I Love Dance Music period..I'm basically a Diva addict and Hi NRG certainly has Diva's...I love House music too........I draw the line at Techno or tribal that holds no intrest for me.. I need my DIVA"S.. when music stops having Diva's I'm DONE~!! .It will be all about my 70's Disco-80's Hi NRG collection...which I pretty much listen to all the time anyway.. So to say Hi NRG was the lowpoint in dance music is Ignorant to say the least. If anything it saved dance music.

[Energyguy]

Thanks for all your contributions to this hot topic ! One thing that has always struck me about the HI-NRG scene was how "creative" it was. Many of the good tracks were produced by very talented producers/DJs and, unlike many of todays modern tracks, they were original songs (unlike the many cover versions we get nowadays). The hi-nrg scene was instrumental in kickstarting successful careers for many female divas, who, would probably have found it difficult to achieve any form of success in the industry. It opened many doors...

[SandraDee]

Sure, hi-nrg may have lacked the lush classiness & musicianship of late 70s disco with it's sometimes tinny synth/drum machine sound but one has to admit that for sheer on-the-floor excitement not many records of any genre can match Eastbound Expressway's 'Primitive Desire' or Divine's 'Native Love', to pick 2 examples off the top of my head. Many hi-nrg records had immense charm & character despite their electronic sound (many didn't too!), which you couldn't really say about the programmed, soul-less stuff that gets released these days. It always annoyed me how hi-nrg, like it's previous incarnation Euro-disco, got slagged off by the funkier DJs & music press. Thank goodness sites like this exist that back up what I always thought: they were wrong!

[Energyguy]

Originally Posted by SandraDee

Sure, hi-nrg may have lacked the lush classiness & musicianship of late 70s disco with it's sometimes tinny synth/drum machine sound but one has to admit that for sheer on-the-floor excitement not many records of any genre can match Eastbound Expressway's 'Primitive Desire' or Divine's 'Native Love', to pick 2 examples off the top of my head. Many hi-nrg records had immense charm & character despite their electronic sound (many didn't too!), which you couldn't really say about the programmed, soul-less stuff that gets released these days. It always annoyed me how hi-nrg, like it's previous incarnation Euro-disco, got slagged off by the funkier DJs & music press. Thank goodness sites like this exist that back up what I always thought: they were wrong!

Some good points miss Sandra I recall reading many reviews in the more "soul orientated" music mags of the 80`s and you could guarantee they would never give the hi-nrg releases a positive review. It was either down to some kind of "snobbery" or perhaps it was some kind of homophobia due to the popularity of this genre of music in the gay clubs?

[Charlie Windle]

Originally Posted by marmite7

Wrong way round Quinny

How can you deny Carol Jiani on Hit N Run Lover or Ask Me, or Sarah Dash with Lucky Tonight or even Sylvester - Do You Wanna Funk?

Hi-nrg in feel, but with soul & passion!

Just listen to Fancy's - Come Inside, then play Love Unlimited Orchestra - Welcome Aboard and tell me they don't have the same feel.

One disco & one Hi-nrg. Both with stripped down vocals & a repetitive beat, but both sublime.

Perhaps you're basing your opinion on those records which "crossed over" and by default could be discribed as commercial cheese, and that would be like comparing Ottawan's - Hand's Up with Inner Life's - Ain't No Mountain High Enough.

Hetro discos were different to gay clubs back in the early to mid 80's, with (imho), more emphasis on dancing in the gay clubs. The girls may have danced in the straight clubs, but the guys were only there to pull at the end of the night, when the three slowies came on (Another thread somewhere....!)

From the minute you walked into a gay club back then, the beat was insistent and relentless, with no naff DJ breaking to say "Happy birthday Sharon" or "Here's the latest from Junior / Shalamar / Goombay Dance Band" etc etc etc et al. (There is a God!!!)

Sure there were some crap hi-nrg tracks (disposable stocking fillers), but there were even more disco-fillers too - the tried n the tested, the bog-standards & run o the mills.

And then again..............perhaps you just had to be there

Hi-nrg was made for dancing, not listening and without it there wouldn't be the dance music of today, the raves of the late/early 90's or mega clubbing as we now know it.


In a nutshell........................it's your age

Hi Marmite 7

Getting a bit worried here, are you always right? Agree with you on tracks like Lynda Hayes-Don't you love me anymore, Joanne Daniel-After the rainbow, Peppermit-Light a night, Joy St James-Dance....plus the posts on house tracks and now this topic. From now on I'm going to post DITTO to all your posts.

[QUINNY]

Originally Posted by Energyguy

Some good points miss Sandra I recall reading many reviews in the more "soul orientated" music mags of the 80`s and you could guarantee they would never give the hi-nrg releases a positive review. It was either down to some kind of "snobbery" or perhaps it was some kind of homophobia due to the popularity of this genre of music in the gay clubs?

Could they have just thought it was not worthy in their eyes?

To my ears, generally the records were ultra formulaic (it was almost as if they went into the studio and just turned the drum machine to 130 BPM without any other thought...I know not all were @ 130 BPM, but I hope you get my drift), cheap sounding in many instances, lacking any real emotion and boring. THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD does not a great dance track make.

There were exceptions of course, but I for one, couldn't have put up with it for more than half an hour, tops, before I would go quietly mad.

[Mixmachine]

Originally Posted by SandraDee

Sure, hi-nrg may have lacked the lush classiness & musicianship of late 70s disco with it's sometimes tinny synth/drum machine sound but one has to admit that for sheer on-the-floor excitement not many records of any genre can match Eastbound Expressway's 'Primitive Desire' or Divine's 'Native Love', to pick 2 examples off the top of my head. Many hi-nrg records had immense charm & character despite their electronic sound (many didn't too!),

Your description is right on, there were many great songs that came out of this genre, but for the most part it was all "music by number" or "cookie cutter" stuff that didn't deserve much attention and was quickly and rightfully forgotten.

I used to spin many of the "better ones" (spent lots of $ buying many High Energy duds as imports) in many different clubs but found out that spinning any longer than +/- an hour of "High energy" was a dance floor buster, after a while they all began to sound the same, no matter how much the latest Diva was screaming off her lungs, even classics like Searchin', "so many man", and Bobby 'O' stuff to name a few got tired pretty fast after a while.

Hetro discos were different to gay clubs back in the early to mid 80's, with (imho), more emphasis on dancing in the gay clubs. The girls may have danced in the straight clubs, but the guys were only there to pull at the end of the night, when the three slowies came on (Another thread somewhere....!)

Sorry Marmite, this is probably true only in your neck of the woods

In any case I disagree with many of this perceptions that have been disseminated on the NET and here about Straight clubs and "dancing" , and I visited straight clubs from the Miami area to NYC and LA.

Many today claim that Gay clubs had better taste 'cause they played all this "Obscure Hit" music to pack floors that other clubs didn't.. well, I beg to differ..

in my personal experience patrons on this clubs danced to just about anything with a beat, including many times the flip side of bad records. ( I remember DJs reporting on their charts the Flips of records they got fresh a week before , this Djs just had to show every one in the Pool how good they were at breaking songs, if you know what I mean)

Spinning in this clubs was much easier for a DJ, not only you could spin just about all the music --- good and bad--- of the type available at the moment in your bin (not much programming skill needed), but they all sounded the same and were produced at about the same BPM, making DJ mixing a breeze..

On the other hand spinning --- in the 80’s--- for a more musically "selective" crowd required more programming skills and knowledge of different types of grooves/music ( Classic Disco, Heavy Funk, Lite funk, soulful boogie, techno Funk, Freestyle, House, High energy, New wave, Salsa, Raggae) in order to give the crowds a more varied musical palette that would not bore them to tears with the same beat all night long.

Djs in Straight clubs had to be good at picking the 'cream" of the crop from the latest releases arriving at the Pools, and when introducing “new music” to the club they had to program it very carefully to avoid crashing the dance floor, not to mention, one had to be very creative to be able to switch from one genre to another several times during the night without sending everyone home.

Mixing all night long the same type of music created by the same handful of producer at the same BPM required not much effort or skills. but Hey, that's just my opinion, YMMV

[kdavid13]

To paraphrase one of my favorite anthems "Hi-NRG lives !!!"

I could not imagine ; having ignored this great genre of music.Being a diehard disco fan ; I also branched into R&B circa 1981 during the great explosion of indie records like the ones on Prelude,West End & co.

But when I discovered Hi-NRG ; it brought back many of the things I loved about disco : the catchy songs,the wailing divas and the 4 on-the floor beats.

Buying everything on Record Shack,Proto,Passion,Moby Dick,Power,Megatone became almost like a religion... LOL

As in any other genre of music ; there were duds and stuff I couldn't stomach but the overall flow of music brought me great pleasure.

Lime,Carol Jiani,Miquel Brown,Earlene Bentley,Divine,Hazell Dean ; plus the productions of Ian Levine,Ian Anthony Stephens,Denis Lepage represent a great chapter in dance music.

I remember reading an interview with Levine in which he mentioned that many purists and Djs didn't consider his records as "soul music" ; despite the soul sisters on vocals and the Motown pastiche of certain of his songs.

I understand that it is not for everyone ; but it's still a VERY bright spot in my musical journey.

On my iPod ; I have 2 whole Hi-NRG folders full of these classics...And I add more & more every day.

So long live the beats and SEVENTH AVENUE ;o)
LOL