Eurobeat

Eurobeat refers to two styles of dance music that originated in Europe: one is a British variant of Italian Eurodisco-influenced dance-pop (this type is only sold in Japan), and the other is a hi-NRG-driven form of Italo disco. Both forms were developed in the 1980s.
The Japanese Para Para dance culture is influenced by Eurobeat. Eurobeat music often accompanies anime, which made the genre more popular in the US, where Eurobeat was historically marketed as hi-NRG (pronounced as "high energy"). For a short while, it also shared this term with early freestyle music and Italo disco.
The Eurobeat and Super Eurobeat genres are used and often associated with the main soundtrack for the anime Initial D, which is about Japanese mountain pass street racers. Many Eurobeat artists such as Dave Rodgers, Manuel, Dr. Love, and others have songs featured throughout the anime. Some popular songs associated with the anime include "Deja Vu", "Running in the 90s", "Gas Gas Gas", and "Don't Stop the Music".
Characteristics.
A highly polished production with "musical simplicity" at its core — from Bubblegum Pop-like lyrics, catchy (in some cases Italian, in other Eurodisco-like) melodies, to "elementary" song structures — an average British Eurobeat song took very little time to complete. Bananarama's "Venus" and Mel & Kim's "Showing Out (Get Fresh at the Weekend)" were said to be completed in a day, according to Pete Waterman of Stock Aitken Waterman.
Classic Eurobeat-style
Both variants are not recognized by the complexity of their lyrics. Tempo and style vary, sometimes resembling "slower" Italo disco, sometimes "fast and happy" music like happy hardcore, with a sequenced octave bassline. Many feature guitars as a method of "Sabi", or a beginning section, followed by a thunderous, highly technical synthesizer riff which is then repeated after the chorus. Songs usually repeat the verse, bridge, and chorus multiple times during the song. The beginning is typically like an instrumental rendition of the verse, bridge, and chorus, while the riff is a lot like an instrumental version of the chorus.
Use of the term.
British record producer Ian Levine's Eastbound Expressway, released the single "You're a Beat" in recognition of the slower tempo of hi-NRG music emerging from Europe. Many European acts managed to break through under this new recognition, namely the likes of Modern Talking, Bad Boys Blue, Taffy, and Spagna. The term "Eurobeat" was subsequently used commercially to describe the Stock Aitken Waterman–produced hits by Dead or Alive, Bananarama, Jason Donovan, Sonia, and Kylie Minogue which were heavily based on the British experience with Italo disco. During 1986–1988, it was used for specific Italian 1980s Euro disco imports, such as Sabrina Salerno, Spagna, and Baltimora but was also used in the United States as a catch-all term for UK-based dance and electropop groups of the time such as Pet Shop Boys, purported to have a "European beat", hence Eurobeat. By 1989, with the advent of Eurodance and Euro house, the term was dropped in the UK.
History.
United Kingdom.
"The New Motown".
The trio of British record producers, songwriters, and former DJs Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman were involved in the British underground club culture, encountering the Black American soul music-focused scene called Northern Soul, Italian pop-Eurodisco, and sped-up Motown Sound-inspired tracks. As underground record producers, they sought to recapture the "nostalgia" of Motown Sound with a hint of campy playfulness where the simplicity of musical structures, like in Italian disco, was preferred. This musical formula was proven to be successful enough to be capitalized on as they had a string of top 10 UK hits in the 1980s to the point of their version of Eurobeat becoming synonymous with British pop music as a whole.
Pete Burns of Dead or Alive regularly fought the production team over "[having to adhere] to their production methods and concepts" which SAW were "quite firm about". Burns went on making a next album, produced by Burns and Dead or Alive drummer Steve Coy, without them, called "Nude". Epic (licensed by Sony Europe) was reluctant about releasing the album but it turned out to be so successful in Japan that it was awarded the Japan Record Award Grand Prix for Best International Album of 1989 in the 'Pop' or 'Popular' Category.
Italy and Japan.
"By the Italians, for the Japanese".
Meanwhile, in Japan in 1985, the term "Eurobeat" was applied to all continental-European dance music imports. These were mainly Italian and German-produced Italo disco releases. That sound became the soundtrack of the Para Para nightclub culture, which has existed since the early 1980s. Japan experienced Italo disco through the success of the German group Arabesque, which broke up in 1984. This did not prevent the release of two Italo disco-sounding singles in 1985 and 1986, produced and mixed by Michael Cretu (of Enigma). The later solo success of Arabesque's lead singer Sandra further introduced this sound to Japan. This attracted the attention of many Italo disco producers (mostly Italians and Germans), though by the late 1980s the Germans had faded out of Italo disco and focused on more popular scenes, mainly trance. The Italians went on to create a new sound especially for Japan, but it was virtually unknown in the rest of the world. In Japan, this music is called "Eurobeat", "Super Eurobeat", and "Eurobeat Flash".
In the early 1990s, Eurobeat's popularity was gradually decreasing in Japan. Two Japanese men, the owner and a managing director of Avex, a small import record shop at the time, decided to release a compilation CD. They went to Italy and met Giancarlo Pasquini (later known as Dave Rodgers), then a member of the Italo disco band Aleph. Together they released the first "Super Eurobeat", a compilation CD which saw instant success and re-ignited Eurobeat's popularity in Japan. Avex also collaborated with foundational Eurobeat labels A-Beat C, Time, and Delta long after Eurobeat's mainstream popularity peak.
Eurobeat's sound (in the Japanese market) is its main link to its Italo disco origins, where it was just one of many different experiments in pure electronic dance. There are certain synth instruments that recur across the entire genre: a sequenced octave bass, the energetic (sometimes wild) and heavy use of synths, distinctive brass and harp sounds, and tight, predictable percussion in the background. These sounds are layered with vocals and natural instruments (guitar and piano are common) into complex, ever-shifting melodies that burst with energy.
The anime series "Initial D", based on the manga by Shuichi Shigeno, uses Eurobeat music regularly in its episodes during racing scenes between the characters, and because of this it has come to the attention of some anime fans outside Japan. The series as well as the video games use a large playlist of Eurobeat songs including some by Dave Rodgers, like "Deja Vu" and other artists such as Max Coveri with songs like "Running in the 90s". (Many of these songs also became memes.) There are also many Eurobeat songs based on the series itself, including: "Takumi" by Neo, "Speed Car" by D-Team, "Initial D Hell" by Dave Rodgers and "DDD Initial D (My Car is Fantasy)" by Mega NRG Man. In the movie version of this anime (Legend 1 Awakening, Legend 2, and 3) there is no Eurobeat and it has been criticised by fans for this reason. The songs used in the films are instead modern-day J-rock songs.
In 1998, Bemani, a branch of the video game company Konami made a hit video dance machine, "Dance Dance Revolution". The game acquired Eurobeat songs from the "Dancemania" compilation series published by Toshiba EMI. Over time, DDR has featured Eurobeat songs on-and-off in their song lists. However, their number has dwindled due to efforts to make DDR more marketable to North American markets. Currently, there has been a push to add more Eurobeat into DDR, most recently with the addition of Super Eurobeat tracks in the latest arcade release, "Dance Dance Revolution X2". Other music games in Konami's lineup feature a large number of Eurobeat tracks, including "Beatmania", "Beatmania IIDX", "StepMania", "jubeat", and many more. The popularity of the genre also led Konami to create a Para Para game; "ParaParaParadise".
Subculture.
J-Euro.
There have been three types of music called "J-Euro" (Japanese Eurobeat);
Para Para.
One of the dance moves Eurobeat spawned was , a type of Eurobeat music-inspired Japanese youth social dance performed in unison.