Eurobeat refers to two styles of dance music that originated in Europe: one is a British variant of Italian[3] Eurodisco-influenced[6] dance-pop, and the other is a hi-NRG-driven form of Italo disco.

Many feature guitars as a beginning section, followed by a thunderous, highly technical synthesizer riff[9] which is then repeated after the chorus.

Many European acts managed to break through under this new recognition, namely the likes of Modern Talking, Bad Boys Blue, Taffy, and Spagna.

The term "Eurobeat" was subsequently used commercially to describe the Stock Aitken Waterman–produced hits by Dead or Alive,[10] Bananarama, Jason Donovan, Sonia, and Kylie Minogue which were heavily based on the British experience with Italo disco.

During 1986–1988, it was used for specific Italian 1980s Eurodisco imports, such as Sabrina Salerno, Spagna, and Baltimora but was also used in the United States as a catch-all term for UK-based dance and electropop groups of the time such as Pet Shop Boys, purported to have a "European beat", hence Eurobeat.

The trio of British record producers, songwriters, and former DJs Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman were involved in the British underground club culture, encountering the Black American soul music-focused scene called Northern Soul, Italian pop-Eurodisco, and sped-up Motown Sound-inspired tracks.

As underground record producers, they sought to recapture the "nostalgia" of Motown Sound with a hint of campy playfulness where the simplicity of musical structures, like in Italian disco, was preferred.

Two Japanese men, namely Masato "Max" Matsuura the owner and a managing director of Avex a small import record shop at the time, decided to release a compilation CD.

They went to Italy and met Giancarlo Pasquini (later known as Dave Rodgers), then a member of the Italo disco band Aleph.

[12] Eurobeat's sound (in the Japanese market) is its main link to its Italo disco origins, where it was just one of many different experiments in pure electronic dance.

Wangan Midnight the Movie, which was a film adaptation of the manga and anime series of the same name, features some Eurobeat songs, though only in some scenes as it has an original score playing through race sequences.