The term Italo Disco was coined by Bernhard Mikulski, the founder of ZYX Records (Germany) in 1984, when ZYX released their first volume of "The Best Of Italo Disco". When I use this term here, I refer to disco music produced in Italy in the 80's by Italian composers and musicians. Most people use Italo Disco to describe all dance music produced in Europe during that period.

In order to explore the roots of

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"For me personally [Marcello D'Azzurro], Italo-Disco became more significant with productions like those from Klein & MBO, GARY LOW, BO BOSS; later followed by GAZEBO, RYAN PARIS, SCOTCH, P.LION, SAVAGE, etc."

There is no shortage of opinions trying to explain why

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I would like to offer you some interesting information that was gathered in conversations and personal correspondence with people "in the know": former Dee Jays, record collectors, and fans of Disco music.

"...Here in the USA (Miami, Florida) many Italian songs were club hits with the Latin crowds, (like Gazebo, Ryan Paris 'Dolce Vita', Tom Hooker's 'Looking for love', Marx & Spencer 'Stay' etc. ) but I must say this music was not well regarded by many locals, including many club patrons and club owners. The similar monotonous synthetic electronic sound (new at the time), coupled with uninspiring, subdued, soul less robot-like vocal performances could have bored you to death after 45 minutes or so, in my area most 'Italo Disco' records experienced a quick club death never to be heard or spun again...

Some of the old school ( at the time ) Hustle dancers liked this music because of the similarity to 'Disco', and many songs were not bad at all, but as 'Freestyle', 'Hip-Hop' and 'House' took off, and the fresh generations moved in, spinning 'Italo Disco' was a sure way to clear the floor..."

Italo Disco never sounded quite "right" to the ears of American clubbers. That strange music did not have a lot of hit-making assets: the beat was often too slow to dance; melancholy, dark and moody songs were just too much to handle, very strong accents only amplified often meaningless lyrics. However, in spite of all those obvious limitations,

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Nobody cared about the lyrics! The English was poor but that was not a problem. Many Dee Jays-turned-singers couldn't really sing and speak English at all, so it was not an unusual practice to manipulate the voice by computers or using a vocoder with overdubs etc.

"...At the beginning of the 80's, in the US disco was considered "dead" thanks to the infamous "disco sucks" campaign (Chicago, IL) and some other nice fires. Maybe that was true for the music, since then it began to change with the introduction of electronic drum machines and a huge use of synths (Prince was musically born that time). Hip hop was growing stronger and Electro was the new thing in black music.

Europe never experienced "disco sucks" phenomenon and disco (or, call it as you like it) was at the top of it popularity. Most FM radios used to have disco-dance oriented airplay, and the music (mostly mainstream) was well-known by everyone.

That was the time when many Italian Dee Jays began experimenting with keyboards and synthesizers, playing keyboards slowly with just one finger and then elevating the speed with computers. Many young musicians were able to make some "easy money" with low cost & fast consuming products."

"...Most of the Italo-Disco records were produced by Dee Jays-turned-musicians that had little or no knowledge of music, but their ears, or otherwise by studio session men (mainly keyboardists). Most of them worked under nicknames. This was a decadent time for all of us old school Dee Days... The

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"...Another important reason for the rise of

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"We went through "Italo sucks" phenomenon in the 80s, but now, twenty years later, Italo has carved its own place in dance music history. And what a place it is!..." Italo was short lived in Italy and was swept away by House music in the beginning of 1985-1986, but it has been pivotal in the development of House music itself. Many "old school" Chicago tapes recorded around 84-85 have plenty of Italo in them. Italo-Disco survived to the new millennium and became a collector's choice. Even if one does not like it, one must admit it has its own place in dance music history.

One last point: "Italo" is a definition of a sound, but it does not identify Italian disco productions of the earlier years (Change, Peter Jacques Band, DD Sound, Easy Going), that were done by musicians, or even of later periods (like Double Dee's "Found Love" from '89), that were done mostly by those Dee Jays who had learned how to actually play musical instruments... "

" Many of the Italo tracks that appeared on previously posted top 100 list are strictly domestic affairs, keeping to their borders within Italy, and never seen the light of US or UK disco clubs. I believe also that many of the late 70s/early 80s singles were actually quite regional. Most of the tracks are from North of the Po Valley in the richer and more industrialized section of Italy and from what I gather in the last few years of the 80s, were very difficult to find and buy in the south, even in Rome from independent mainstays like Claudio Donato's 'Goody Music' Record store.

All of the major record labels tended to be Northern too. Time and Media in Brescia, Memory in Mantova (and now the location of Dave Rodgers A Beat-C, SAIFAM in Verona, Expanded, first in Udine, then Bologna, to say nothing of Baby, Discomagic and all the distributors in Milan. The only ones I can think of in Rome are X-Energy, Discoclub/ACV and long dead Cat Music (the Micioni's label) and Flying in Naples..."
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, known as Pet Shop Boys

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spoke about Italo Disco with Record Mirror in December 1985: "...It used to be regarded as utterly tragic... that "boom clap boom clap boom clap - clap clap", that's what I particularly like about Euro-Disco And normally they have very good tunes as well. The other thing it that it's very sad. They have very sweet tunes, like Savage's "Don't Cry Tonight". A lot of the records we like are Italian. The other thing about Euro-Disco records it that they always sound like they're dead cheap. I think that's their appeal. They're a bit like punk records - they go in and get very excited by the most banal sounds. We're very attracted to banal sounds and rhythms. They'll quite often be a sound that is the sound of the moment, and every record will have that sound. At the moment, there's that vocal that goes "oh woah oh". This summer, on every Italian record, there was at least one "oh woah oh". I think that's been the theme for 1985. RAFF's "Self Control" started it, which of course was originally an Italian disco record, and Laura Branigan covered it. And of course, Baltimora used it. That was the ultimate "oh woah oh" record. It was very clever the way that was the foundation of "Tarzan Boy". Before that, the syndrome was a popular sound. But they're constantly changing, these Euro records. And they normally have very good female vocalists, in the same way a lot of hi-NRG and Bobby O records do. The male vocal aren't usually very good. ... Often the lyrics are very banal, there's this great one called "Capsicum" that's a green pepper isn't it. And the chorus goes "Capsi capsicum oh woah oh". That is brilliant. The banality of them often makes them strangely moving, somehow. I don't think a lot of people will appreciate things like this. The thing is, of course, that this music is terribly unhip in Europe. We go abroad and they think we're absolutely insane; they say "You do not like Simple Minds?" They can't believe we like "capsi capsicum". I think part of the delight of it in my case is liking something obscure that's obscure for the sake of it. I think I genuinely like it, actually. I like it because it's obscure and also because it's fantastically unfashionable."

As it happened to Disco music earlier,

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is experiencing renaissance these days, more than twenty years after it's original debut. We see more and more Italo-Disco shows & parties, some Italo musicians are coming out from 'retirement', countless record collectors relentlessly searching the Internet and eBay for their coveted vinyls. Some record labels committing their resources to reissue long lost Italo tracks. One example is "I Love Disco Diamonds" series reissued on CD by Blanco Y Negro (Producer - Rafa Carmona, who is a relentless promoter of Italo sound from Spain). Some fans are going as far as releasing self-financed "old-style-Italo-Disco" projects. . . Today's technology helps to expend to boundaries: Internet radio has caught the

Italo Disco links