How Italo Disco Made Us All Dance Real Slow

These Italo Disco Tracks Show Us That Dance Does Not Necessarily Equal HI-NRG.

By 1982, Italo disco producers had lost interest in the acoustic, funky grooves of the ’70s in favor of music made mostly with synths. It was the rise of DJs in the role of producers, which yielded tracks that were easier to make and definitely less expensive to put together in the first place. With its glacial and distant sounds and its nimble production timeline and cost, electronic music promised to satisfy the demands of the youth hitting the dance floor. It became an “attire” used to dress both new and older acts in need of a career revamp, aiming for quick radio play and record sales. This was the year in which Italian disco shed its older skin and morphed into Italo disco, heavily influenced by the sounds of Northern Europe and facilitated by the commercial accessibility of instruments.

This new electronic music also reflected a different way of experiencing the dance floor. If, in the late ’70s, discotheques were sanctuaries of communal pleasure, places where people could meet and share the joy radiated by music that was itself uplifting and exuberant, the early ’80s, by contrast, were years of individuality, marked by the rise of the ego in both aesthetic and cultural terms. It was also the period of fragmentation into musical subgenres and cultural subtrends, with each country around the world producing their own variation of disco and then dance music.

So discotheques became places where different emotions scattered onto the dance floor like a large puzzle of the human soul, taking on different musical shapes and atmospheres. A sought-after mood was a gradient of melancholia, which varied in intensity but relying on a very specific BPM range, approximately 100 to 108, while still carrying the beat, and most importantly the synth sounds (TR-808, TR-909, Jupiter-8, Juno-60, Prophet-5) typical of the Italo disco scene.

Here are some of our favorite slow Italo disco tracks that make us dance and dream and received some commercial success when released.

Savage – “Don’t Cry” (1983)

For hardcore fans of Italo disco, Roberto Zanetti is a name that rings many bells. Under the stage name Savage, Zanetti’s productions gained considerable popularity in Italy as well as across Europe, and he applied the formula to several other records he produced.

Rose – “Magic Carillon” (1984)

Also created by Zanetti, Rose’s “Magic Carillon” continues the tradition of melancholic melody laid over brazen synths and drums. The vocals of Stefania Dal Pino add an eerie vibe throughout the entire track, which over the years has gained the status of an iconic record to own on vinyl.

Valerie Dore – “The Night” (1984)

Considered one of the staples of Italo disco, “The Night” features the voice of Dora Carofiglio from the band Novecento. The dreamy vibe of the song, paired with its dubious English lyrics, makes it a perfect dance-floor mood setter.