Hi-NRG

1977 - Its RIse

1989 - Its Fall

Explore Our List of Hi-nrg artists

or immerse yourself in the history of HI-NRG while you listen to our playlist…

Have you heard of Hi-NRG but have no idea what it means and how the music genre that championed the gay club in the 80s came to be?

If you were born in the 80s, 90s, or 2000, you were too young to experience this phenomenon first hand; however, this detailed article is a history lesson for Gen Z and Millennials who wants to know more about Hi-NRG, and for the baby boomers looking to read more about the music of the old times and get that nostalgic rush.

5 minutes on the history of HI-NRG music

The 70s was the golden era for disco music. However, after the disco demolition night in 1979, disco seemed dead and buried. However, for clubs and those who frequent them, there is no way the night ends shortly after the birth of Hi-NRG.

What is Hi-NRG music?

Hi-NRG (short for and pronounced as high energy) is a more elevated bpm style of disco music that originated in the United States and was very popular in the 80s, especially in gay clubs. It was essentially gay disco music, the Vogue of the Moog.

Ian Levine, a HI-NRG DJ, the in-house DJ at Heaven Nightclub in its early years and subsequently a record producer, defines HI-NRG as "melodic, straightforward dance music that's not too funky."

This genre is characterized by its heavily synthesized, rock-oriented power vocals and devoid of funkiness compared to traditional disco music. The tempo of a standard HI-NRG ranges between a bpm of 120 to 140, but it is usually around 127 BPM (beats per minute).

HI-NRG evolved from disco, retaining the four-on-the-floor kick drum and prioritizing strong melodies, staccato, and sequenced synthesizer octave bass lines, but also having a harder, more rock-like sound, with pop vocals and snare hits on the 2s and 4s. It was particularly influential on the disco scene, and its earliest association was with Italo disco.

The lyrics of songs in this genre are known to be tongue-in-cheek, campy, sexually suggestive with double entre, and also overly sentimental in most cases. However, for the gay club, it doesn't matter what it sounds like as long as it's analog.

How did Hi-NRG come about?

San Francisco, late 70's: in city clubs, DJ and producer Patrick Cowley with a pronounced passion for synthesizers, invents HI-NRG, an augmented, synthetic, and sexual version of disco that prefigures house. A fundamental transition in the history of dance music and the American gay scene's soundtrack, the first prominent representatives of this music genre include exceptional extroverted artists such as the drag queens Divine and Sylvester.

The term "High energy" was coined after one Donna Summer interview about her single "I Feel Love," a mostly electronic, relatively high-tempo Euro disco song devoid of a strong funk component. In the interview, she said that the song "I Feel Love" became a hit because it has a high-energy vibe. After that interview, "high-energy" was used to describe high-tempo disco music and was then stylized as HI-NRG. Eurobeat, dance-pop, and freestyle artists such as Shannon, Waterman & Stock Aitken, Freeez, Taylor Dayne, or Michael Sembello were also labeled "HI-NRG" when sold in the United States.

Patrick Cowley Pioneering HI-NRG

Cowley was only 21 when he decided to leave his hometown Buffalo, located on the East Coast of the United States in New York State, to hitchhike to San Francisco like the heroes of the Beat before him.

With a long tradition of tolerance and counter-culture - the city hosted hippie movements like the Summer of Love, Flower Power, and the beatnik movement. San Francisco at the time also had Harvey Milk as mayor, the emblematic city of gay liberation, and every day, without money and just a suitcase, young gays arrive coming from all over the continent with the promise of a better life in mind.

Patrick Cowley was a tall sexy guy, hipster look - plaid shirt, tight jeans, and mustache (You don't stay in the closet for long just to come out with no fashion sense) before time, Cowley moved to the West Coast to study music at the City College of San Francisco. There he became passionate about early synthesizers like the Buchla, Serge, or Mellotron. However, above all, to finally experience his sexuality and assert it, even if it means (so that they are well aware) send his family postcards from the bay of SF on which he has roughly drawn penises with a felt-tip pen!

He quickly finds a small job as head of lighting at one of the biggest gay clubs in the city, where he will meet Sylvester, a flamboyant, androgynous, and provocative local star. A colorful madwoman, with a vocal timbre, imbued with magic and for whom he will produce a handful of hits, including the classics "You Make Me Feel(Mighty Real)," "Dance (Disco Heat)" and "Do You, Wanna Funk."

It was 1978. The young American producer Patrick Cowley, fascinated by synthesizers and other drum machines, decides to retouch, remix and deliver his version of Donna Summer's I Feel Love track. With its mechanical rhythm and its high orgasmic groans ranks as a work of art and has become one of Eurodisco's absolute musts.

Only recorded on audiotape initially, then on white vinyl for DJs who demand this floor-filler to heart and shouts, this unofficial remix of I Feel Love - which many consider superior to the original - leaves its creator cold.

The Italian producer Giorgio Moroder will wait until 1982 to give in to the pressure and authorize this highly psychedelic version intended for the general public. A way of giving a second life to this absolute dancefloor hit, but above all, the official birth certificate of HI-NRG. A gay, synthetic, and sexual variation of the disco where Patrick Cowley will become the most talented of the precursors.

Music that smells of sex and drugs

Music inspired by producers like Cerrone or Moroder and groups like Tran-X and Lime abandoned classical instruments and the long sobs of violins to 100% synthetic. Music that smells of sex and drugs and which has made physical and sexual performance its philosophy.

The whole San Francisco scene at the time revolved around dope, and all gay clubs played music that went hand in hand with drug use. With "Menergy," indeed his most famous piece, Cowley lays the foundations for what will become the new sound of San Francisco gay clubs. Where can you dance in California? San Fran-Disco, sorry, couldn't resist.

HI-NRG Commercial Success

In the year 1983 in the United Kingdom, music magazine 'Record Mirror' started publishing a weekly HI-NRG Chart and HI-NRG entered the mainstream. Hits such as Evelyn Thomas's "High Energy" and Hazell Dean's "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)" in the United Kingdom made the pop and dance charts, including the US dance charts.

In the mid-1980s, HI-NRG producers like Levine, SAW, and Bronski Beat entered the dance and pop charts, working with many artists. Stock Aitken Waterman had two of the most successful HI-NRG singles ever with their productions of Dead or Alive "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)."

In the late 1980s, HI-NRG reached its peak as American music magazine Dance Music Report published HI-NRG charts and related industry news.

Decline In Popularity

At the height of this absolute hedonism period where everything seems possible, a new disease, AIDS, appears. HIV, among other things, decimates the gay community and signals the end of the party. The growing popularity of House music in the clubs since 1986 is also a contributing factor. Ironically, House music gets it's influence from HI-NRG and Italo Disco. By the year 1990, house and techno had overthrown HI-NRG in popularity.

HI-NRG music is still being played and produced in different ways. Remixes are being produced and vocals being rerecorded from many mainstream pop hits, some with. And Later in the 1990s, HI-NRG and house hook up and birth NU-NRG.