Oldies But Goldies--->Euro-Disco

The term "Disco" in Europe, existed long before the Eurodisco and the (US) Disco music styles but had a different meaning. It used in Europe during the 60s, as a short alternative to Discoteque. Discotheques, existed in France since the early 50s and spread around Europe during the 60s. In Europe (and partly Canada), "Discotheques" and "Disco" was what at the time called "Clubs" in the UK. Even today (2007), the term Disco-Club exist as an alternative name for the mainstream clubs in Center, Southern and Eastern Europe. In Italy and Spain, the term "Discoteka" or "Discotheque" means mainstream clubs. In Greece, the term "Discotheque" describe the Retro-Clubs. In Germany, Poland and Romania, the term "Disco" is still used to refer to "Dance Clubs
1970s
The term Euro-Disco was used for the first time during the mid 1970s to describe the non-UK based disco productions and artists such as Swedish group ABBA, the German group Boney M, the French Cerrone and Ottawan ,the British Amanda Lear, etc.
1970s Eurodisco soon had spinoffs and variations. The most notable spinoff is Space Disco, a crossover of Eurodisco and US'Hi-NRG Disco. Another popular variation, with no specific name, appeared in the late 1970s: a "Latin"-like sound added to the genre, which can be heard in Italy's Raffaella Carra and France's Gibson Brothers.

1980s
In 1984, the German Disco artists Modern Talking and Bad Boys Blue, became popular in Central, southern and eastern Europe and established a German variation of the "Italo-disco" sound, that was danced in the discofox 1970s style. That style became very well known in East Europe and remained popular until the early 1990s. In the late 1980's, Italian disco artists Spagna and Sabrina combined Italo-disco and Eurobeat elements and became popular in Europe with euro-disco songs charting in many European countries.
Britain's most famous contributors to the 1980s euro-disco music were during the mid/late 1980s. ThePet Shop Boys and the Stock/Aitken/Waterman production team are notable examples. This team produced slickly-produced music by singers such as Rick Astley and Kylie Minogue and conquered the airwaves. The S/A/W hits called Eurobeat in Europe but marketed as "Hi-NRG" in USA.

1990s
By the early 1990s, Eurodisco was influenced by the appearance of Disco-rooted genres such as House, Acid and the Electro (pop/dance/synth) music styles, and replaced (or evolved) on other music styles. "Eurohouse" and Italo-NRG are the most notable ones and connected directly with the Italo-Disco music scene. In America, especially for the Eurohouse style, they use the earlier term of "Eurodance" to describe this 1990s evolution of "Eurodisco"
Technically speaking, the last form of Eurodisco, is French House, a music style that was released in France during the mid 1990s and widespread slowly in Europe.
2000s
By the mid-late 2000s, Euro disco saw renewed interest. Artists such as Irene Cara, Berlin and the late Laura Branigan saw a surge in popularity, especially in places where it was not commercially successful after 1984, such as N America and S America. The most notable Euro disco artist to rise during this decade is Mark Ashley. His most recent single, "Give Me a Chance" became his most successful single yet, making the Top 40 of the Austrian Pop chart.

European Hip Hop

European hip hop is hip hop music created by European music artists. Hip hop is style which appeared on the music scene in the United States during the mid-1970s, and soon became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. Due to this success, it has gained worldwide popularity, especially in Europe where many diverse and unique styles of hip hop have been created. Hip-hop from non-European countries is described in World hip hop and articles dedicated to hip-hop from each country.
Romanian hip hop is currently growing in popularity in Romania. The sound is similar to that of Spanish and most Latin acts. The main theme is politics, based on anti-system protest, and social, underlining the rich-poor gap and the low quality of the new, post-Communist, enriched class. Bucharest is the main center, since most of other bands/rappers from outside the city would still come there for recording.
Once dominated by BUG Mafia (Bucharest Underground Mafia), the market is currently the fiefdom of Paraziţii. An important and unexpected moment in Romanian hip hop history was the support Morometzii gave to Traian Băsescu and his centrist political alliance during 2004, through the anti-system (in fact against the then-ruling Social Democratic Party) songs România, trezeşte-te! and În luptǎ cu Puterea .
2006 was a great year for Romanian hip hop, especially for the underground scene. Independent labels as Hades Records or Facem Records finally got out of the box with albums that soon reached the stores at a national level. Also a big step in the evolution of Romanian hip hop was the Summer Jam 2006 hip hop festival that also took place in Bucharest. Created and supervised by Hades Records/Hades Events, Summer Jam was the first of its kind and size in Romania, bringind together more than 20 artists and bands over 2 days of show, including DJ contests, breakdance shows, streetball contests and a lot of high quality hip hop. The producers of the show said that much more is to be expected for 2007's edition.

Streetball

Streetball is an urban form of basketball, played on playgrounds and in gymnasiums across the world.Most times only one side of the court is used, but otherwise the rules of the game are very similar to those of professional basketball. The number of players in a game, or a run, may range from one defender and one attacker (known as one on one or mano-a-mano) to two full teams of five each.
Streetball is a very popular game worldwide, and some cities in the USA have organized streetball programs, such as midnight-basketball , as a way to keep young people out of trouble and avoid problems such as juvenile crime and drugs. A lot of cities even host their own weekend-long streetball tournaments. Hoop-It-Up and the Houston Rockets Blacktop Battle are two of the most popular. Recently, streetball has seen an increase in notoriety and exposure in media due in part to television shows such as ESPN's "Streetball" and "City Slam", as well as traveling exhibitions such as the AND1 Mixtape Tour and Ball4Real.
Streetball is often generalized as a "pick-up game", where players may or may not know one another, and is mostly recreational. But recent years has seen the rise of organized streetball crews, such as AND1. With AND1 setting the precedent, many crews train as a team specifically for streetball and often play in friendly matches(exhibitions). Some crews present slickly produced videos and DVDs for sale or available on sites like YouTube displaying highlights, dunks, and tricks. Streetball teams like Ruff Ryders, Terror Squad, and others which compete in summer leagues, such as EBC, tend to play a more "serious" game with less tricks, as the stakes are higher the games not being exhibitions.