On one of the Italo Disco forums on Discogs, a user posted his thoughts on a track by The Hasbeens, a new group featuring Alden Tyrell.

Another user replied, saying that the forum should be used for discussing "real" Italo Disco, instead of new releases. In his words: "Yeah, it's a great record but this board was meant to expand our knowledge about original Italo-Disco from back in the days, no nu-skool-italo-disco or call it what you want..."

Yet another user replied, saying that it was interesting to name a new track, because in this case, it contains a lot of Italo-clichés (which is a good thing, in case you're wondering), and could therefore be discussed with other new, similar sounding stuff.

I agreed to some degree, but also felt that user #2 had a valid point, so I asked the question: if we start discussing nu-italo, how do we know where to draw the line?

That also leads to having to define what 'Italo Disco' is, exactly, and when a song is, or is not Italo Disco. Does the term describe a mindset? A concept? A musical approach? The technology that was available?

Regardless of what the new song sounds like, none of the above exists today in the same form.

To me, 'Keep Fooling Yourself' by The Hasbeens sounds much more "authentic" (as Italo Disco) than 'Make The World Go Away' (the song the original poster mentioned) or some of their other songs (you can listen to both on their Myspace profile). To keep the forum-discussion flowing properly (and "correctly", if that's ever a possibility) we'd therefore have to hand-pick songs by each artist.

I also added that Sally Shapiro is definitely not nu-italo...unless "nu-italo" is as vague of a term as "nu-rave"...

Furthermore, Italo Disco, when used to describe the "old" releases, contains countless different songs and approaches and techniques -- i.e. there isn't really any one way of "copying" the style and make something sound Italo-ish.

However, the tricky part is this: when you take a genre, any genre, Italo Disco in this case, and decide to extract some ideas or concepts, you are instantly stopping the growth and the internal transformation that the artists at that time were a part of.

In other words: The Hasbeens decide to make a "new" Italo song, but I think that ultimately they cannot do anything but create nu-italo (which is perfectly fine). See, they listen to a few particular songs, get their ideas together, and make a track. But if they want to create "real" Italo Disco, they'll have to figure out when Italo Disco ended. Let's say in 1987? Then The Hasbeens would have to pick one of the last "real" released Italo songs and CONTINUE on from that point -- not copy or use that style as reference. Otherwise they are making nu-italo...makes sense?

Music is about transformation, and I bet that the majority of artists--regardless of what you think about their release--were trying to create a NEW hit, not repeating what had been done before.

We are copying this style because we love it, and it's nostalgic, and honest, and beautiful...but they had a different goal altogether. We want to recreate the past; they were trying to create the future.

Here is a glimpse of the future, anno 1986:

Panorama - The Key Of Your Life
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