Aggressive Eurobeat: A thing of the past?

[drnrg]

Megan188

I don't really think most people are that excited in Go 2 anymore, to be honest, anyway. Back in 2005-2007, all of their songs stood out and brought something fresh and new to the title. Nowdays, their songs, while still good in my opinion, tend to sound tend to sound very similar to each other, probably because most of them tend to linger around the very overused Bb minor key or somewhere around there.

That's an interesting point to concider. In fact I decided to start a new topic, because it seems we are getting less & less of it. Lately the Aggressive Eurobeat trax that graced the 150-190 have all but vanished. case in point no Eurogrooves nor Delta will be featured on 206. Actually it's only HRG and SCP that release that one aggressive trax and I think that's because they get showcase more than one song. Can the aggressive fast Eurobeat or Racing Eurobeat become a thing of the past.

[Megan188]

Go 2 is kind of just one style of "aggressive eurobeat". Their songs involve a lot of guitars, shouting, and, nowadays, the Bb minor key. If you take something like Bad Bad Bad, for example, it's also a more "aggressive" track, but in a completely different way. There aren't lots of guitars, the tune is a lot more melodic, and the key is a lot more distinct (it sounds more like D minor, a far less common signature in eurobeat).

The reason I tend to generally prefer aggressive eurobeat over aishu eurobeat is that the aishu style isn't done effectively nearly as consistently for me. I do love quite a few songs in this style, such as Stephy Martini's I Belong To You and Christine's Story Of My Life. However, most songs are either produced to sound stale and repetitive (i.e., there's too much emphasis on the percussion and not the melody) or they're just really uninteresting and generic.

If you really pay attention, lyrics tend to be a lot more interesting and creative for labels such as Delta, SinclaireStyle, and Saifam, while the ones that have produced the most "aishu" tracks, A-Beat C and Time, are more prone to re-using the same cliche words in their music over and over again. You can only find such beautiful phrases as "I need your passion", "you are my desire," or "love, devotion, and ecstasy" to be fresh and interesting for so long, so for me at least, it's the music itself that needs to lead the song, but as I stated before, most aishu songs aren't great with that.

Take two of my favorite Elena Ferretti songs, My World (2006) and Your Love Is Melody. Both of these songs have incredibly beautiful and well-done melodic structures, and represent exactly what "aishu" eurobeat should be for me. Looking at another song from the same vocalist, say, Linda's Another Desire (from SEB 186), that track really doesn't have anything special to offer. The melodic structure doesn't have any unique twists like My World's breathtaking extended phrase during the chorus and the lyrics are about as boring as you can get, with cliche excerpts such as "Another passion like a fire/sweet desire", "Love devotion & surrender", and "Like a romance with you and me". To be honest, they don't really even make any coherent sense as a whole; they're just a bunch of overused lines that sound like they were quickly thrown together. If this song is trying to convey any "beautiful" feelings, it sure isn't doing much of that, as pretty much the only positive thing I can say about it is that the production is good. Basically, aishu eurobeat needs far more songs like My World + Your Love Is Melody, and far fewer ones like Another Passion.

[ryosuke63]

I love both styles, but it takes more work to create more melodically powered songs, so I voted for the latter.
Take A-Beat C's songs from the early 90's. Call Me by Queen Of Times and Heartbeat by Brian Ice are perfect examples.
Also, some of the lesser-known labels produced some great melodic tracks, like Everytime You Want by Trisha and Mystery Of Our Love by Christy (one of my favorite eurobeat tracks of all time.)
That said, I agree with Megan that aishu doesn't work a lot of the time like it used to, so I really voted for Aishu with GOOD, beautiful melodies in mind (take the examples I provided.)

[pokecapn]

Eurobeat in general has pretty sparse production, so when you remove the high bpms, aggressive melodies, and testosterone lyrics, it sounds very empty.

The aggressive songs are what got me into italo disco and eurobeat, and they're the reason why I've stayed into it.

[Jay]

The poll is strange. Why are we forced to like one style of eurobeat over the other? If you look at my last.fm top 50, there's a nice mix of both aggressive and aishu material there. They balance each other out nicely. If I had to listen to aggressive OR aishu eurobeat all day every day, I would become sick and tired of that style very quickly.

As for the topic at hand, it's far too soon to say whether aggressive eurobeat is "dying." I think you're slightly overreacting, drnrg, as you've based this topic on one thing Megan188 said - she's not the voice of the entire eurobeat community, just remember that. Yes, eurobeat is slowing down and some people may not be as interested in aggressive eurobeat anymore for various reasons, but those are hardly legitimate reasons to start planning the funeral. Based on the samples, 206 doesn't sound any different to, say, 191 in terms of their even blend of aggressive, aishu and in-between material. Why the fuss?

So what if Manuel or any other typically "aggressive" artist releases an aishu song? I remember when a huge uproar ensued after Manuel released 'All the Best', with some people fearing this was the beginning of the end for aggressive eurobeat. A similar thing happened again when Go 2 released 'Music Come On!' Obviously, Manuel and Go 2 had many more aggressive songs in their répertoires that came shortly after those songs. I don't know why, but people here absolutely hate it and start fearing for the worst when their favourite eurobeat artists deviate from their usual formula. Some of you need not be so resistant to change and just accept that eurobeat is an amorphous and ever-changing entity, like all music. Transformation is always inevitable.

The reason I tend to generally prefer aggressive eurobeat over aishu eurobeat is that the aishu style isn't done effectively nearly as consistently for me. I do love quite a few songs in this style, such as Stephy Martini's I Belong To You and Christine's Story Of My Life. However, most songs are either produced to sound stale and repetitive (i.e., there's too much emphasis on the percussion and not the melody) or they're just really uninteresting and generic.

If you really pay attention, lyrics tend to be a lot more interesting and creative for labels such as Delta, SinclaireStyle, and Saifam, while the ones that have produced the most "aishu" tracks, A-Beat C and Time, are more prone to re-using the same cliche words in their music over and over again. You can only find such beautiful phrases as "I need your passion", "you are my desire," or "love, devotion, and ecstasy" to be fresh and interesting for so long, so for me at least, it's the music itself that needs to lead the song, but as I stated before, most aishu songs aren't great with that.

How can you say these problems are exclusive to aishu eurobeat? There are plenty of aggressive eurobeat songs that sound stale, repetitive, uninteresting and generic. I know, you all saw this coming, but look at HRG. All of their songs follow the SAME structure, end in the SAME way, and have the SAME incomprehensible lyrics. Here's a little experiment for you to try: listen to the last 10 seconds of every HRG song produced since the 160s. Notice how they all end the same? To me, that's the epitome of stale, repetitive, uninteresting and generic. It's nigh impossible for HRG to surprise me anymore because of these reasons. And, guess what? 99% of HRG's songs are aggressive!

You're attacking aishu from the wrong angle. These problems that you've outlined - staleness, repetitiveness, cliche lyrics, etc. - are not exclusive to aishu or aggressive eurobeat. It's not even a problem exclusive to "aishu-heavy" labels like A-Beat C and Time, as you've argued, because HRG is the perfect counterexample to that. Rather, these problems boil down to the labels per se and have nothing whatsoever to do with which style these labels prefer.

[Megan188]

I brought up the lyrics example mainly because it's a little more important, in my opinion, to make aishu eurobeat work because songs in that style, for me, tend to make you focus more on the deeper aesthetics of the track instead of just the catchy, fast-paced energy. With that style, the song itself exposes itself a lot more and it isn't just about the fast, energetic pace.

Nonetheless, I think the music itself has more to do with aggressive songs usually working better. Looking at it closer, Bad Bad Bad's lyrics are actually very generic, but it doesn't really matter for that song, since the production and melody are so fresh and interesting that they're able to completely dominate over the lyrics for me. You're right, there definitely are some very generic "aggressive" songs. However, for me, it's usually easier for me for a more energetic eurobeat song to pass because it often doesn't need to be as creative in order to work.

[drnrg]

Well, as always ,the topic has been taken to another level. First off, nobody was forced to choose one or the other. I didn't even vote. Second of all, I'm not overreacting. It's clear that the kinda style AVEX has been choosing nowadays is geared more towards the Italo/Aishu/Eurodance; whatever you wanna call it, but the faster more aggressive tracks have taken a beackseat. Weather we want to admit it or not; the beat has cooled down a little. Think about it, HRG Attack released a few Juno compilations with new songs. Crazy World Of Franz Tornado and Cream that are prime examples of songs with an overall aggressive theme. Still Avex opted or maybe, asked HRG to produce newer songs with less BPMs, so much that they have made a complete 360 degree turn and produced dsongs like "It's All Up To You" and the new Michelle Rose song on 206. I'm not complaining; I'm just saying that The Agressive Eurobeat songs from the past have become the minoraty on the current SEB cd trend.

Some of you might add or subtract a song. depending on your defination of aggressive Eurobeat.

SEB 201.
1. Super Eurobeat
2. Rock Beating Wild
3. Nightrain
4. In Your Car

202
1. Ready Forever
2. DReam Lover
3. Go Shinkansen!
4. My Hot Guitar
5. Playboy
6. New Technological World

203(this one had the magoraty)
1. Freedom
2. My Dream
3. Waiting For Your Hero
4. Toy Boy
5. The Snake Around
6. Take This Way
7. Diabolik

204
1. Face The Race
2. Squeeze Me
3. Bang Bang
4. Cataclysim Night
5. Heat Me Up

205
1.The Race Is A Game
2.Your Barbie Girl
3. Plastic
Even the last two Take A look In My Heart remixes are pure Aishu Eurobeat.

206(based On Samples)
1. Freedom Ride
2. Louder & Faster
3. On The Top Again(i'm pretty sure if they only had two slots, that this ong would have been omitted)
4. It's Like A Fire(to early to tell since we all agree it sounds more like a chiklet song)

now take 195 for example;
1. Burning With Fire
2. Ultra Ma-Hi delux
3. King Of The World
4. Stop City Lover
5. Hurricane Man
6. Rock You
7. Monsters Ready
8. Wild Boy Bad Love
+ mixes always give the aggressive style feel, just because of them being nonstop.

Again I'm not complaining and I rather like the new post 200s style, but don't tell me you don't hear the difference?

Let's see if 207 features the return of Eurogrooves and DELTA or if we will get new Mad Cow, GO2 or Chris Stanton?


Megan188

Take two of my favorite Elena Ferretti songs, My World (2006) and Your Love Is Melody.

Intersting to see that two of your prefered Elena Ferreti trax originaly appeared around the same TIME. late 80s. Your Love Is A Melody closely follows Rose- I Wanna Be Your Love.

[Jay]

now take 195 for example;
1. Burning With Fire
2. Ultra Ma-Hi delux
3. King Of The World
4. Stop City Lover
5. Hurricane Man
6. Rock You
7. Monsters Ready
8. Wild Boy Bad Love
+ mixes always give the aggressive style feel, just because of them being nonstop.

Again I'm not complaining and I rather like the new post 200s style, but don't tell me you don't hear the difference?

Oh please. You've chosen the ONE album from the 190s that's flooded with speedy/aggressive material to try and prove your point - it's the anomaly of the bunch. You've proven nothing by doing this since you've disregarded 191/192/193/196 in your calculations - albums which contain virtually the same number of aggressive songs as 201-206, and therefore disprove your claim that aggressive eurobeat is dying. I know how incredibly attractive it can be to utilise certain pieces of evidence and exclude others to fit one's own agenda, but I have to say that the only arguments you'll win through these means are against likeminded people.

By the way, there are far more aggressive songs on 201 than the ones you've listed. How can you call "Your Barbie Girl" aggressive eurobeat but not "You Are My Wonder"? I'd even classify "When the Sun Goes Down" and "Power of My Love" as aggressive, but that's more debatable.

[para_rigby]

What really defines aggressive eurobeat though? Shouting, guitars? Testosterone, maybe?

It's a bit silly on the poll to just have aggressive and aishu as the two big styles. Eurobeat grew on me with a steady diet of Go Go Girls, Lolita, Kiki & Fancy (I call it the Campy style) so there is another area to look at.

Take GO2 for instance...everybody was pretty huzzah with their earlier works, but who talks about "Spitfire", "Purple Emotion", or "Don't Turn It Off" (I personally like Superstar, but that's just me) as pieces they really adore? I liked the premise of these shouting, guitar songs, but they lost quality.

I once adored Powerful T, but again, he lost his edge with me after all these "driving" themed songs (imho, his last great song was Original Sin from the 150s).

Everything on this subject is subjective...aishu and aggressive eurobeat have never been my style. Maybe 7A is just looking for a new direction or sound to take the series to.

It's rambling, but it's what I'm thinking.

[zoupzuop2]

Aishu has been around for just as long as "aggressive" Eurobeat; why on earth would one be 'over' in contrast to the other? As long as an artist feels their work should be expressed in an aggressive mode, there will be that style, just as much as aishu will exist if they want to express it in a more mellow mode.

Of course, there are specific tropes such as Go2's Bb minor situation. Hopefully these can be evaded in time, but overall no approach to any given genre will be discarded entirely.

[the_ditz]

I personally don't care what classification a song is given. For me, the important factors are the melody and the overall production.

On one hand, you get great "aggressive" sounding tracks like Spirit Go Wild by The Snake or Ultra Mi-Ha Deluxe by Project 2, but in the same "style", you can have really poor tracks where the testosterone just proves too much (Plastic suffers from that in my opinion - the chorus holds no real melodic appeal).

On the other hand, I can't deny that there are certain Aishu tracks that I adore (mainly from SCP - Pamsy's So Fragile and Ace's Wait For You are just amazing!) But in the same breath, I can't forgive all the abominations such as Spanish Affairs by Helena and Valentine's Day by Angie Sweet.

If I was forced to choose one style that I was more likely to enjoy more than the other, I'd probably have to go for the more aggressive sound as that gets my blood pumping and is the style that got me into Eurobeat in the first place. But I look deeper than the general style of a song before dismissing it. That's why I've become such a ragin Pamsy fanboy!!

[pokecapn]

Spitfire owns, Don't Turn It Off is one of my ringtones, Mi-Ha is it's own style of eurobeat called 'worthless'.

[drnrg]

Jay

By the way, there are far more aggressive songs on 201 than the ones you've listed. How can you call "Your Barbie Girl" aggressive eurobeat but not "You Are My Wonder"? I'd even classify "When the Sun Goes Down" and "Power of My Love" as aggressive, but that's more debatable.

I completely forgot that Queen 26 song. You have further proved my own point to myself by reminding of that song and bringing to my attention Yo Shine and Ken Blast; which do have fast riffs.
That would make it a nice 7 Aggressive(faster style) songs on 201 as opposed to 205 which possible 4 difinate 3 agreesive trax. That's my point.


and just so there is no more confusion as to what I conceider Aggressive Eurobeat; I thought I would include this breakdown of an Aggressive song's musical structure. the number one aspect deviding the two styles would have to be the riff/Chord progression,whatever you wanna call it.. Next would be vocal delivery and finally lyrical theme.

I'll see what 206 and up has to offer before I make any more assumptions.

[ryosuke63]

In other news, I find it amusing I am the only 1 in 11 who voted Aishu.