In an unusual moment of collective fanbase PMS, I’d like to take a moment away from the anger and frustration that may be going on and simply praise Eurobeat for what it is and where it’s headed. For all the changes that are taking place, I suppose it’s a worthy investment of time to sit down and take stock of what’s happening and what’s yet to happen.

Since SEB 199 was released, producers were allowed to return to a more “classic” style, one that was more akin to one of the previous Para “Booms” (don’t ask me which; I know very little about the Parapara world). Since then, we’ve seen what I would say is a great improvement over the sounds of previous SEB installments, and some great music that I for one am willing to hear more of. (No, I’m not just saying this because I was in one such installment; SEB 201 would’ve been one of my favorites regardless. Neverending Love is on my miiind~) I think 7A should at least be given her dues for taking SEB in a positive direction.

And even if not for that, we should be very excited that there are new releases to speak of. SEB could have ended on 200, a nice round number. Instead, we see more releases, with the plans of releasing in new locations. We see releases on international iTunes, continuing steps in the right direction (hopefully these steps are part of a journey whose end includeds international SEB releases as a whole).

Even if not for that, we have the same producers still in the game. Dave Rodgers recently alerted 7A that he will be starting a new label, Sun Fire Records. For all we knew, it could have been rock-exclusive and we could have lost one of the greatest Eurobeat minds of all time. Instead, we have a fresh new approach from a renowned producer. No, the business world of Eurobeat is NOT perfect right now, but it’s in pretty decent shape and I see few signs of it going otherwise.

This is, of course, nitpicking for trees inside of a larger, still-lush forest; the fact that Eurobeat is still being made by ANYone is a true sign of its joy. Anyone can make dance music, only slightly fewer could make Italo/”Euro”. We have a steadily increasing base of fans and fan-producers coming in (doujin circles and fans eager to contribute to the Eurobeat world), in a genre that is truly unique. Sure, you can have any song with a dance beat, and you could set it to 150+ bpm, but would it be Eurobeat? “Max 300″ from Dance Dance Revolution is technically 150 BPM (it’s the stepchart that’s at 300), but I would argue that it is not, in fact, Eurobeat. No, Eurobeat is something more coherent, more sublime. I’ve yet to hear similar synth brass, “upstroke” stabs, the same ‘woody’ bass fused in any other dance genre. Sure, some forms of J-Pop use them, but that’s usually within the knowledge that they’re taking their cue from Eurobeat first. Sure, you can get an “upstroke” beat anywhere, but… no other genre can execute it in quite the same way. No other genre has the same sense of humor, the same compositional ardence, the same feeling on any level. It’s NOT the most adaptive genre for remakes of other songs, a theory I’ve tested a few times. But, isn’t that just a sign of how truly unique the genre is? It contains such similar elements, but we get such a new result from them.

I have this odd joy of relating Eurobeat producers/composers with bakers; they take ingredients (in most cases the same KINDS of ingredients— flour, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips, etc.— but the ingredients themselves differ from the other labels) and create new audio “cookies”, if you will, that taste so different from other baked goods anywhere else. Anyone can make an audio “cookie”; few could make a sugar-topped, juuust-chewy-enough Hi-NRG Attack cookie.

It’s not all flowers and butterflies, I’m aware of this. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any, either; ours is a genre that has stood the test of time in more than one way. It could have lasted for 10 years (long for any genre) and faded out. Shoot, it could’ve done that for 20 (the genre is approximately as old as I am… go figure). No, what Eurobeat has that any high-caliber fandom has, is a fanbase that contributes back to it. Take any big franchise or successful book, or even a famous painting, and chances are you’ll find people creating new things from that work or world, testing their creativity parallel to the original creator’s. That’s why you find writings on Shakespeare’s plays, explorations of art 300+ years old, entirely new games based off existing ones (from Mario to Touhou). Eurobeat thrives on such a system, as well.

What a genre we’ve got, ladies and gentlemen. I raise a toast to Eurobeat, a genre that has lasted so long and still continues— may it continue to strike inspiration and joy, perhaps even a little laughter sometimes, into the hearts of many as it has for years.

Cheers.