The Eurobeat Thread

Unfortunately, the series just concluded. A lot like The Simpsons, the franchise began around the very beginning of the 1990s and had a record-breaking run. Its final installment, SEB 250, came out this past September. However, the eurobeat genre is still very much alive independently. Also, Avex states they still plan on releasing eurobeat compilations in the future, but they’ll just be under a different format, likely through a series of spin-offs.Totally agreed! It’s quite a mish-mash of various European dance genres taken to the extreme! So long as your ears can keep up with the fast tempos and frenetic synth layers, you’ll be in for quite a wild adventure of melodic electronic musicThat’s a really cool song! I love how it sets this really darkly elegant atmosphere as a foundation for an anthem of hope.

This question is quite relative, depending on whether you're coming from a commercial angle or just an artistic one. In general, eurobeat had two particularly big booms of popularity in Japan, first during the mid-'90s, which was when the genre first established its distinct identity as a fast-paced, synthy dance genre, distinct from Italo disco and S/A/W. This coincided with the second para para boom. During the mid-1990s, Namie Amuro (one of the biggest J-Pop singers of all time) got her start as a solo artist performing Japanese-language covers of Italian-produced eurobeat songs, such as "Try Me", "Season (Loving Now)" ("太陽のSEASON"), and "Burning Love" (”ハートに火をつけて”). The girl group MAX also debuted with an album comprised entirely of eurobeat covers, despite mostly transitioning towards post-new jack swing later in their career (i.e., they had a Japanese cover of "Larger Than Life" by the Backstreet Boys, essentially following the same tradition as their Japanese-translated eurobeat songs like "Tora Tora Tora" and "Get My Love!").

Overall, however, eurobeat's height in popularity was undoubtedly the Y2K era. Not only was there a third para para boom around this time, which bolstered the success of the Para Para Paradise compilation series, but the eurobeat genre was now being regularly featured in the Initial D anime. During this period, eurobeat was so big in Japan that some albums, such as Super Eurobeat 110 and the collections of eurobeat remixes of songs by Ayumi Hamasaki (one of the most successful J-Pop artists of all time, who was also at the height of her fame) sold over 100,000 copies.

Eurobeat has been completely niche, even in Japan, since the mid-2000s. It does now have an international cult following thanks to the Internet and also the spike in western interest in Japan, but Avex, the company that releases most mainstream eurobeat compilations, has not embraced this and continues to be rigidly old school in its handling of the genre, even in spite of its dismal sales.

As for quality, I would personally say the genre was at its very best in the late 1990s, or roughly SEB 74 to SEB 99 (plus Euromach 1 and Euromach 2). At this point in time, compositions were more epic and aggressive than ever before, but more importantly, the major labels had drastically refined their production techniques since the mid-90s, when genre first really established its voice. Backdrop percussion now tended to dominate the mix less, while more emphasis was put on the weight of the hit drums and also ensuring that the synth and vocal melodies were as prominent as possible. It was this era that produced several of the most famous eurobeat songs of all time, such as "Night of Fire", "Running in the '90s", and "Space Boy", but even beyond those, there are lots of gems to be found during the aforementioned era of SEB, plus some of the later entries of the Eurobeat Flash compilation series.

That said, while I feel the late '90s showcased classic eurobeat at its quintessential finest, the quality does vary depending on which label you're focusing on. For example, Delta, which made "Running in the '90s", was especially strong in the early 2000s, in my opinion, as that was when their songwriting was most original, concerned less with following rote norms and focused much more on using the speedy edge of the eurobeat genre to their artistic advantage. By contrast, Time records were at a low point in the early 2000s, when a loss of previous writing talent resulted in their production style sounding bland and plastic and their lyrics being completely inane in most cases; Time was actually at their best around 1994 and 1995, when their stable of creative talent was enormous, resulting in their songs having a dark edge, sonic complexity, and lyrics that actually had something of interest to say. For example, "Give Me Back My Money" from SEB 51 (December 1994) is an angrily eloquent piece where the narrator scolds his partner for wasting her money without regard for her lover, whereas Time songs made around 2001 would more likely than not just randomly toss words like 'fire', 'desire', 'passion', 'ecstasy', 'power', etc. without any concern for originality or even logic.

I would also give special mention to the mid-2000s as one of the most artistically diverse and exciting times for eurobeat. While the genre was falling out of commercial favour in Japan, it simultaneously started to experiment a little, more often than not to bold success. It was during this time that Super Eurobeat produced such classic tracks as "So Fragile" by Pamsy, "Super Striker" by Go 2, "Switch!" by Melissa White & Ace, "Disco Energy" by Bombers, "Freedom" by Jackson 'O, "Yeah!" by Christine, and several other songs that each had a distinct identity and weren't just a collection of eurobeat stereotypes. If you want a stepping stone album to get you into eurobeat at-large, I definitely recommend anything from the 150s, 160s, or 170s decade of Super Eurobeat, as that was the period that warmed me up so that I could eventually get more into older, more traditional eurobeat.
Yes! Absolutely you should! There's such a vast, open world for you to explore should you step forward! If you have a craving for electronic music that excites, then you can't go wrong with eurobeat!
For a solid installment of "classic" eurobeat, I would probably point to SEB 85, SEB 87, or SEB 88. Whenever I think of the eurobeat genre as a whole, these are basically the first albums that pop into my mind. They're all home to many of the biggest songs of the entire genre. SEB 85 contains "Take Me Like a Wild Boy", "Be My Babe", "Eurobeat", "Running in the '90s", "Don't Stop the Music", and "My Only Star" (I personally also have a serious soft spot for "Purify Your Love" and "Never Say Never"). SEB 87 is home to "Baby Queen Seventeen", "Space Boy", and "You Can Light My Fire", but really is a fantastic compilation  across the board and possibly my favourite of the entire series. On SEB 88, you'll find "Boom Boom Fire", "Tico Tico", "Don't Stand So Close", "I Wanna Dance", and "Sex All Over the Phone", as well as plenty of deeper cuts that I think are worth checking out, such as "Captain America" and "Too Fast for Love"; this may be the most diverse SEB from the 1990s, so it's a really good one, and probably the best starting point out of these three.

If you're looking for a more modern eurobeat album with sparklier production and a wider range of influences, however, I'd probably point to SEB 167 and SEB 175. 167 is a little weaker during the second half, but for the most part, it's a goldmine of delicious surprises, from the speedy joyride "Chemical Love", to the giddily carefree "Yeah!", to the spicily catchy "Listen to My Heart", to the disco-flavoured "Get Up and Move It", to the emotionally packed "Walking in the Shadow", to the smoothly infectious "Disco Energy", and many more. As far as Super Eurobeat albums go, that's probably the one where each track feels most distinct. SEB 175, on the other hand, is a power-packed blast that showcases each of the numerous labels at their strongest. The inaugural anthem "Futureland" sets the exciting tone for the entire rest of the album, on which every song adds something solid to the mix through different means.