Why Is 80s Italo Trendy And 90s Europop Not?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The subject line sez it all frankly!

I am assuming - from the evidence of my ears - that the one is no better than the other. How did Italo become such a buzzword? Do you like it? If so why? (Please do not be defensive and assume I do not like it!!)

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

There's the time factor obv but I'm not sure how untrendy 90s Europop actually is: some of the er sillier stuff (Scatman or Eiffel 65 for instance) may never come back into vogue but I think - esp with the current rave revival - that a lot of it, starting with the more credible stuff like Altern8 but certainly not excluding 2 Unlimited and N-Trance - would go down v well at dance-friendly hipster parties these days.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

That's the ravier end though mostly - I see no huge signs of a revival for Dr Alban, Twenty-four seven, Captain Hollywood Project, Leila K, and certainly no real evidence of crate-digging going on.

I think the commercial success means it's more likely to go along the Guilty Pleasures lines than the "fashionable secret influence" lines though.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

With genres with that much commercial success is it really necessary to crate-dig? (Did 90s Europop even exist as an underground phenomenon?) Maybe it's too...silly a genre for crate-digging to be an appropriate response. I have no idea what kind of reputation italo had at the time though!

I think it's still too early for such widespread trendy-acceptance though - if italo is the revival du jour then Europop is still a few years away.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

There was a lot of stuff which hit in Europe but not the UK, and presumably an even bigger lot of stuff which was designed to hit in Europe but didn't.

I'm not sure how commercially successful Italo was at the time - I'm also not sure how "Italo" it was, I suspect most European club music blended into one at the time.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

90s Europop has been HUGE at the Young Persons Indie Disco for well over a year now. My erstwhile DJing partners Gareth and Ollie played an entire set of the stuff at big indie allnighter the Insomniacs Ball earlier this year that started with Mr Vain and culminated in 600 indie kids boshing entirely unironically to Set You Free and No Limit.

If anything its the 80s revival that's now gone out of fashion, although italo will always be cool due to the crate-digging factor that RickyT points out upthread.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's always gone down v.well when I've played it too. I dunno if this is quite what I'm getting at though - maybe I should have phrased my question "Why don't hipsters like D4n S3lzer like Dr Alban album tracks dammit?"

I think you're right that Europop will hit/is hitting big as part of a general 90s revival, and any crate digging will follow behind that.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

There's an underlying sadness to a lot of italo, even some of the faster stuff, that gives it a broader emotional range then most 90s Europop as well, and that appeals to the hipsters. Really, I think it's the silliness aspect that's the stumbling block here.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you're right, this is why I can never quite love a lot of italo - it goes all wimpy on you too often.

Obviously the Pet Shop Boys, who I adore, are Italo through and through, including the wimpiness and the really thin vocals. So I'm a slight hypocrite.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

and this is why it is regaining popularity then, ie IT EQUALS INDIE...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Tho I think Dr A genuinely does have a broad emotional range!

Doctor Bombay less so maybe.

For underlying-sadness Europop the peerless Midi Maxi and Efti are what you need tho.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Surely Midi Maxi and Efti are already beloved of hipsters if that ILM thread is anything to go by?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The last time I looked at it it only had about 2 answers!

I only know about them cos Mark passed on a recommendation from Frank K though.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

It might be a different thread about an individual song, perhaps. I remember MUCH LOVE anyway.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

"Why don't hipsters like D4n S3lzer like Dr Alban album tracks dammit?"

Just too cheesy? And yeh too populist I suppose. I can sympathise as I wasn't that keen on much of the Europop at the time (thought 'Mr Vain' and 'Rhythm Is A Dancer' were merely 'alright' etc.

Big Euro hits like 'Pump Up The Jam' seem popular with everyone tho - somehow the commercial success doesn't hinder this - presumably people see it as less cheesy, and Ya Kid K's rapping took on this endearing quality as opposed to just 'naffness'? Leila K hasn't managed this because 'Got To Get' doesn't allude to 'hardcore' (or, uh oh, minimal) dance styles in the way 'Pump Up The Jam' did perhaps.

[acute-records.livejournal.com]

sorry I didn't see this till now. Maybe by now you've heard enough other stuff, but italo means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In the widest sense it goes back to early euro-disco from the 70s all the way to pop hits of the 80s. Through the filter of DJs and importers in the states, the only italo that got "hipster cred" was the stuff that DJs in NY, Chicago, SF etc were playing, which mostly was either the classic disco stuff (Macho, Kasso, Peter Jacques Band, Change) or, especially in Chicago and Detroit, the more minimal/electronic stuff, which has as much to do with New Wave, Synth-pop and Electro-funk as it does with disco. My exposure to Italo was through the records you'd find in american dj shops and what you'd hear on old radio and live recordings. Klein + MBO, Scotch, Pineapples, Gay Cat Park etc. My interest in italo-disco brought me to the more popular stuff, but most of it didn't take. Sure I can see the similarities, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

Likewise, it's obvious to me that some of the most euro-pop club hits of today are clearly related the hipster italo obscurities of yesterday, but they're not necessarily the same either.

To say not liking Tarzan Boy is just snobbery...that only works if you Tarzan Boy sounds exactly like Spacer Woman or Mr. Flagio. Other then those all being "italo-disco", there's a world of difference there.