Giorgio Moroder
Italy, 1969–now
Italian producer and composer. His production of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' (1977), built on a sequenced Moog, is regarded as a foundational record of electronic dance music. He also won three Academy Awards for film music.
MusicRoots documents 1 artist who influenced Giorgio Moroder and 15 artists Giorgio Moroder influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Giorgio Moroder?
- Wendy Carlos — Carlos's Switched-On Bach is what made Moroder take the synthesiser seriously; the sequenced Moog pulse he built under Donna Summer on 'I Feel Love' (1977) comes out of it.
Which artists did Giorgio Moroder influence?
- Patrick Cowley — Cowley extended Giorgio Moroder's pulsing electronic disco ('I Feel Love') into the faster, synth-driven hi-NRG sound.
- Space — Moroder's electronic disco production was the dancefloor engine of space-disco — 'Magic Fly' rides his innovations.
- Laura Branigan — Branigan's breakthrough 'Gloria' was cut in the Eurodisco style Moroder pioneered — the electronic dance-pop template of her sound.
- Madonna — Moroder's electronic Euro-disco — the Donna Summer machine sound — was the sonic bedrock of Madonna's early hi-NRG pop.
- Daft Punk — Daft Punk enshrined Moroder as their founding father on Random Access Memories — 'Giorgio by Moroder' is built around his spoken life story.
- Frankie Knuckles — Moroder's machine-disco — 'I Feel Love' above all — was the raw material of Knuckles's Warehouse sets and the sound house music grew from.
- Pet Shop Boys — Moroder's machine disco was the Pet Shop Boys' founding sound — 'West End Girls' chases 'I Feel Love', and their hi-NRG debut came via Bobby Orlando in that lineage.
- Kavinsky — Moroder's soundtrack work is the direct model for OutRun: the track 'Protovision' quotes the American Gigolo score.
- Yellow Magic Orchestra — Moroder's sequenced disco was the other electronic pole of YMO's sound — the four-on-the-floor machine pulse under their pop.
- Modern Talking — Dieter Bohlen's productions were built on the electronic disco template Giorgio Moroder pioneered — the pulsing Euro-disco machinery under Modern Talking's hits.
- Corona — 'The Rhythm of the Night', produced by Italy's Robyx, blends Eurodance with Italo dance and Italo-house — the Italian electronic-disco lineage Giorgio Moroder founded.
- Justice — Giorgio Moroder's pulsing electronic disco is part of the disco lineage Justice fold into their maximalist dance sound.
- Goldfrapp — Giorgio Moroder's throbbing electronic disco is directly referenced in Goldfrapp's Moroder-esque basslines.
- Boney M. — Boney M.'s glossy Euro-disco sits squarely in the pulsing disco sound Giorgio Moroder pioneered.
- Hans Zimmer — Zimmer came up through synth-pop and shared a house with Giorgio Moroder and Harold Faltermeyer; Moroder's electronic production shaped Zimmer's early synthesizer-driven scoring.