Stylistic origins
•
• Electronic music
• new wave
• Italian popular music
• space disco[1]
• Hi-NRG
• synth-pop
• post-disco
• electronic rock
• disco
progressive music

Cultural origins

Late 1970s – early 1980s, Italy

Derivative forms

• Eurobeat
• Italo house
Italo dance

Subgenres

Spacesynth

Fusion genres

Eurodance
Freestyle

Italo disco (sometimes hyphenated, such as Italo-disco, subjected to varying capitalization, or abbreviated as Italo) is a music genre which originated in Italy and was mainly produced from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. The origin of the genre’s name is strongly tied to marketing efforts of the ZYX record label, which began licensing and marketing the music outside Italy in 1982. Italo disco faded in the early 1990s.
Italo disco evolved from the then-current dance music (including hi-NRG) and developed into a diverse genre. The genre employed drum machines, synthesizers, and occasionally vocoders and was usually sung in English, and to a lesser extent, in Spanish as well.