Italo house (often simply referred to as "Italian" or "Italian house" in the UK) is a form of

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

originating in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Typically popular in Italy,

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

since the late 1980s, it fuses

and

Italo disco Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the early 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, p ...

. The genre's main musical characteristic is its use of predominantly

electronic piano An electronic piano is a keyboard instrument designed to simulate the timbre of a piano (and sometimes a harpsichord or an organ) using analog circuitry. "Electronic Piano" was also the trade name used for Wurlitzer's popular line of electric ...

chords in a more lyrical form than classic

Chicago house Chicago house refers to house music produced during the mid to late 1980s within Chicago. The term is generally used to refer to the first ever house music productions, which were by Chicago-based artists in the 1980s. History and origins Disco ...

records. The best known example is

Black Box In science, computing, and engineering, a black box is a system which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs (or transfer characteristics), without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is "opaque" (black). The te ...

's "

Ride on Time Ride may refer to: People * MC Ride, a member of Death Grips * Sally Ride (1951–2012), American astronaut * William Ride (19262011), Australian zoologist Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Ride'' (1998 film), a 1998 comedy by Millicen ...

", but the genre became very popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s for the uplifting and anthemic tunes against the background of indie-dance.

History

"Italo-house" as it became known in the early 1990s was a happy, euphoric sound; pioneered essentially by the production stable of

Gianfranco Bortolotti Gianfranco Bortolotti (; born 2 May 1959) is an Italian electronic music producer and manager of Media Records and Media Studio. He was a member of Cappella, and 49ers who had several hits, and Fits of Gloom, who had a UK No. 47 hit with "Heave ...

, whose alter egos included

Cappella Cappella may refer to: * Cappella (band), Italian electronic music group * a cappella, unaccompanied singing People with the surname * Felix Cappella (1930-2011), Canadian race walker * Scipione Cappella (fl. 18th century), Italian painter See ...

, R.A.F., East Side Beat, and the 49ers. Records produced in Italy dominated the UK dance charts of 1990/91 with tunes including Asha's "JJ Tribute" (lead vocals by Joyce Chung), DJ H's "Think About", Last Rhythm's "Last Rhythm", and Jinny's "Keep Warm" signifying the uplifting, happy vibe. Artists such as

K-Klass K-Klass are a British electronic music group from Wrexham, Wales and Chester, England, who are based in Manchester, England. Its original members were Andy Williams, Carl Thomas, Russ Morgan and Paul Roberts. In 1991, K-Klass signed with the ...

Bassheads Bassheads was a British house duo from Wirral. This consisted of Nick Murphy and Eamonn Anthony Deery (Desa). The group had a big European hit with "Is There Anybody Out There?" History Murphy and Deery started to produce house music in Nick Murp ...

, and

Felix Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

built on the Italian piano sound to create uplifting tunes still played out today, although the pioneers of the sound such as DJ Sasha have long since left the happy vibe of piano house to concentrate on other styles.

References

House Music scenes House music genres {{Music-genre-stub

History

See also

References