Hi-NRG

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Hi-NRG (High Energy) is a type of electronic dance music which was popular in nightclubs in the early 1980s and remains popular today.

Contents

[edit] Description

The name "Hi-NRG" comes from the Evelyn Thomas's Disco hit, "High Energy" (1984), produced by Ian Levine. Hi-NRG is typified by an energetic staccato sequenced synthesizer sound 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). There is often heavy use of the clap sound found on drum machines. DJ Patrick Cowley first made Hi-NRG music popular at the The EndUp in San Francisco in 1982. During 1984 the music began to crossover into the mainstream pop charts in the United Kingdom and the United States, largely due to the success of the Record Shack record label.

Record Shack also enjoyed chart success with tracks by Break Machine and an unlikely comeback single by Eartha Kitt ("Where Is My Man", 1984) which proved to be a massive hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Stock Aitken Waterman were Hi-NRG producers at the start of their career, working with Divine and Hazell Dean, and producing the most successful Hi-NRG track, Dead Or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", which reached number one in the UK. Hi-NRG was largely superseded by House music but still enjoys an underground following, usually in the form of Hi-NRG versions of mainstream pop hits. The more modern sound of Hi-NRG that emerged during the 1990's is a major force in the Club/Dance music world thanks to mainly two essential Hi-NRG artists, Kristine W and Abigail. Its basic production has remained nearly the same. However, the rhythms and synths used sound different as it is usually edgier.

Many of the Hi-NRG tracks produced in Europe at the time qualify doubly as examples of Italo disco (i.e., Taffy, Magazine 60, , Roni Griffith, etc.) and discofox (i.e. Linda Jo Rizzo, Lian Ross, Modern Talking, Fancy, Lift Up, Blue System, Bad Boys Blue.)

[edit] Artists

[edit] Records

All of these records reached the Hi-NRG charts in the 1980s:

  • Bianca - Midnight Lover
  • Bodyheat - No! Mr Boom Boom (Diamond Records
  • Crystal In The Pink - Back To You
  • Celena Duncan - Questions And Answers (Nightmare Records)
  • Barbara Doust - If You Love Somebody
  • Sisley Ferre - For You (Hotsound Records)
  • Fun Fun - Could This Be Love
  • Samantha Gilles - Stop
  • Havana - Satisfy My Desire (Wow Records)
  • Carol Jiani - Turning My Back And Walking Away (Nightmare Records)
  • Lanei - Love Bites (Opium Records)
  • Lime - Gold Digger (TSR Records)
  • Lisa - Rocket to Your Heart (Moby Dick Records)
  • M&H Band - Popcorn
  • Marsha Raven - I Like Plastic
  • Man To Man - Hard Hitting Love (Nightmare Records)
  • Midnight Sunrise - This Is A Haunted House (Nightmare Records)
  • Modern Rocketry - I Feel Love Coming (Megatone Records)
  • Off - Electrica Salsa (Ton Son Ton Records)
  • Linda Jo Rizzo - Perfect Love
  • Shooting Party - Safe In The Arms Of Love
  • Sandra - Everlasting Love (PWL remix) (Virgin Records)
  • Helena Springs - Paper Money (Atlantic Records)
  • Scherrie Payne- I'm Not In Love (Megatone)
  • Scherrie Payne - One Night Only (ALtair)
  • Scherrie Payne - Chasing Me Into Somebody Else's Arms (Nightmare Gold)
  • Scott Stryker - Science Fiction
  • T-Arc - Undercover Lover (ZYX Records)
  • Linda Taylor - Every Waking Hour (Nightmare Records)
  • Tuillio De Piscopo - Stop Bajon (Primavera) (Greyhound Records)
  • Vivien Vee - Heartbest (X-Energy Records)
  • XS-S - I Need More (VCN Records)
  • Laura Branigan - Shattered Glass (Altanic Records)

[edit] Number Ones

These records reached Number One in the Hi-NRG charts compiled by James Hamilton and Alan Jones in Record Mirror

  • Eria Fachin - Savin' Myself (Power Records - 1987)
  • Man To Man - Who Knows What Evil? (Nightmare Records)
  • Kim Weston - Signal Your Intention (Nightmare Records - 1987)
  • Evelyn Thomas - No Win Situation (Nightmare Records - 1987)
  • Michelle Goulet - Over And Over And Over (Island Records America - 1988)

[edit] Cover Versions in the Hi-NRG style

[edit] Record Labels

Record labels that most frequently appeared in Record Mirror's Hi-NRG chart are as follows:

  • Bolts Records
  • Flea Records - Italy
  • Hi Tension Records - Belgium
  • Macho Records - Italy
  • Megatone Records
  • Nightmare Records
  • Passion Records
  • Time Records - Italy
  • X-Energy Records - Italy
  • MRK Records - NYC
  • ZYX Records - Germany

[edit] Source

  • Jones, Alan and Kantonen, Jussi (1999) Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Disco. Chicago, Illinois: A Cappella Books. ISBN 1-55652-411-0.

[edit] External links

Disco
Bright disco - Dance-punk - Disco polo - Euro disco - Hi-NRG - House - Italo disco - Spacesynth
Artists - Discothèque - Nightclub - Orchestration - Other electronic music genres
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