Italo Pop

I can't answer your questions, OP, but I adore this song:

R1 Op here. There’s something I really love about the structure of Italian pop songs. The verses kind of meander and are sung/spoken but each subsequent chorus ratchets up the emotion to an almost ludicrous height that is somehow balanced by something genuine in the rough huskiness of the singer’s voice

[quote]How should I understand Patty Pravo and Loredena Berte? Do they have any easy analogues in American popular culture?

Well, they're gay icons in Italy. And their appeal covers all ages. I really don't think they can be compared with anyone in American culture. Maybe you could compare Berte with someone like Bonnie Tyler? Remember her? That type of singer.

Patti Pravo had a Warhol, Bowie kind of thing going. She had lots of charisma, a real star.

Here she sings of her desire for a threesome (with a woman). A great song, huge hit in Italy:

R3 Are these songs known by everyone in Italy? They don’t have that many views of YouTube, but I can’t tel if that’s because they’re not popular or because they’re from a time before the internet

R4 OMG they are iconic songs, played everywhere.

Also Italy had/has so many TV variety programs and so singers get great coverage.

No one tops the UK of course, and Sweden did produce ABBA and so on, but other than that, IMHO no other Euro country can top Italy for its rich history of pop music.

Here's Mina, sort of Italy's Streisand. This classic tune is from 1960. Dig the early 60s euro-beatnik look.

[quote]IMHO no other Euro country can top Italy for its rich history of pop music.

UK. Obv.

Mina's mega hit "Grande, Grande, Grande".

R5 are these songs understood only in the context of pop music, or is there a connection to more traditional Italian folk music?

R8 Italians were doing pop music a hundred plus years ago. Listen to the great "Canzone Napolitana". Listen to ‘O sole mio" (late 1800s) no wonder it became Elvis' "It's Now or Never". So many of those songs sound like modern pop melodies. There is a strong thread from those Neapolitan songs to a lot of modern Italian music. Of course there has also been great influence from the Anglosphere but there is still a distinct Italian sound.

Anyway listen to some light Italian jazz...one of my favorites, the great Pino Daniele.

This is a pretty fun song that went viral on tiktok a year or two ago.

Yes, sir?

OP, here's the shortcut. Amazing, in a life changing sort of way.

Boobs boobs boobs, I'm looking for a good time!

[quote]OP, here's the shortcut. Amazing, in a life changing sort of way.

Another amazing vocal. This time by Mango.

La regina

[italic]Drag Race Italia[/italic] had some fun Italo Pop lip syncs.

I love Italo Pop! But after “I don’t care” their career sorta fizzled.