Hi-NRG
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Hi-NRG is a type of electronic dance music popular in nightclubs in the early 1980s. It is typified by an energetic staccato sequenced synthesizer sound where the bass often takes the place of the hi-hat. There is often heavy use of the clap sound found on drum machines. During 1984 the music began to crossover into the mainstream pop charts in the United Kingdom, largely due to the success of the Record Shack record label.
The style is often associated with gay promiscuity, thus Miquel Brown's "So Many Men, So Little Time" and Hazell Dean's "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)", whilst typically sung by women, are actually aimed at gay men. It is also associated with camp excess and gender bending by artists such as Divine and Pete Burns. The defining Hi-NRG track is Evelyn Thomas' "High Energy", produced by Ian Levine (Jones and Kantonen, 1999).
Record Shack also enjoyed chart success with tracks by Break Machine and an unlikely comeback single by Eartha Kitt. 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Hi-NRG was largely superseded by house music.
Other Hi-NRG musicians include:
- Earlene Bentley
- Eastbound Expressway
- Laura Pallas
- Barbara Pennington
- Seventh Avenue
- Sylvester and producer Patrick Cowley
- Tony De Vit
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Source
- Jones, Alan and Kantonen, Jussi (1999) Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Disco. Chicago, Illinois: A Cappella Books. ISBN 1556524110.