Giovanni Giorgio Moroder is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance music. His work with synthesizers had a large influence on several music genres such as hi-NRG, Italo disco, synth-pop, new wave, house and techno music.
Moroder at First Avenue, Minneapolis, in 2018
Moroder's Musicland Studios was located in the basement of the pictured Arabella Hochhaus High-Rise Building.
Moroder with his longtime collaborator Donna Summer and her husband Bruce Sudano. On the left is Moroder's wife Francisca Gutierrez.
Moroder at Melt! Festival 2015
Synth-pop is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly the Krautrock of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a distinct genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late 1970s.
The Prophet-5, one of the first polyphonic synthesizers. It was widely used in 1980s synth-pop, along with the Roland Jupiter and Yamaha DX7.
Kraftwerk, one of the major influences on synth-pop, in 1976
Yellow Magic Orchestra in 2008
Gary Numan performing in 1980