Electronic HI NRG Music Relax

Electronic HI NRG Music For You

Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy")[1] is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

As a music genre, typified by a fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the four-on-the-floor pattern), reverberated "intense" vocals and "pulsating" octave basslines, it was particularly influential on the disco scene. Its earliest association was with Italo disco.

Rock-oriented,[2] heavily synthesized and, compared to regular disco music, devoid of "funkiness."[2] Tempo ranges between 120 and 140 beats per minute[3] although typically it is around 127.[4] Lyrics tend to be overtly campy, tongue-in-cheek, sexually suggestive with double entendres[5] but also occasionally sentimental or maudlin.[6] Rhythm is characterized by an energetic, staccato, sequenced synthesizer sound of octave basslines or/and where the bass often takes the place of the hi-hat, alternating a more resonant note with a dampened note to signify the tempo of the record.[7][8] There is also often heavy use of the clap sound found on drum machines.

One form of hi-NRG, as performed by Megatone Records artists and Ian Levine, is any uptempo disco and dance music, whether containing octave basslines or not, that often features covers of "classic" Motown hits (Boys Town Gang) and torch songs, is often "theatrical" in performance, featuring female (and male) musicians with facetious diva[9] personas and male musicians sometimes in "drag" (Sylvester, Divine), cabarets/musical theater (Vicki Sue Robinson, Sharon Redd). This style, that Stock Aitken Waterman were influenced by,[10] had a large cult following among LGBT club-goers in the 1980s, especially San Franciscan black and white gay men.[9]

A second form, a precursor of Italian/Japanese "Eurobeat", with influences on techno[11] and early Chicago house, primarily focuses on its characteristic sequenced "octave-jumping basslines" above anything else and in this form hi-NRG managed to surge into mainstream with Stacey Q, Kim Wilde, and Laura Branigan. The octave basslines are also found in electroclash and in both cases may be traced to synthpop[12] and even further back to Giorgio Moroder ("I Feel Love").[13]