Primer: Giorgio Moroder - The Father of Modern Dance

If you are looking for the one key influence that predominantly drives most modern electronic music, look no further than Giorgio Moroder.  Through the seventies and the eighties, Moroder worked with Donna Summer (producing several albums including mega hit "I Feel Love" in 1977), Philip Oakey of the Human League, Sparks, Blondie, Japan, Eurythmics, David Bowie, and many many more.  Moroder's sound can be found in film from the time period as he scored the Midnight Express, Scarface, The NeverEnding Story, amongst others.  Hell, he even wrote the theme song for Over the Top (you know the movie where Sylvester Stallone competes in arm-wrestling competitions) which was performed by Kenny Loggins.  Moroder also developed his own sound essentially creating the genre known as Italo-Disco.

Moroder's original work combines sounds from Krautrock, R&B, Disco and more.  His work from 1977, From Here to Eternity, is light years ahead of his time as techniques from the album would appear in music throughout the seventies/eighties and re-appear in the 2000's.  LCD Soundsystem's debut and subsequent follow-up the Sound of Silver draw heavily from Moroder's work.

 

In Utopia, you can hear the subtle mix of electronic music with a hint of the R&B human element which drives works from modern bands like LCD Soundsystem, Cut Copy, Hot Chip, Free Blood, Holy Ghost!, etc.  At this point, it's worth repeating that Moroder's Utopia came out in 1977!  Before disco, before Gary Numan discovered synthesizers, before Factory Records came into existence, Kraftwerk had just wrapped up Radio-Activity and had yet to release Computer World or the Man-Machine, we're talking early early stuff.  Listen to some early LCD Soundsystem below and see if you can hear the influence.

While many people know of Moroder, not many people know of the extent of influence.  We'll most likely continue to touch on Giorgio, but go forth and pay homage to him by listening to the music.