Terminology
The term New Beat was first used in the USA during the early '80s. At the time, this New Beat music was a contemporary genre to techno from Detroit and house from Chicago, although not intrinsically linked. The Americans at the time used the term to describe those music styles that they never heard before. It was the new beat of the time, the new sound, very different from Hi-NRG disco, New Wave, synthpop, and rap. The term was soon replaced by other terms, so virtually any U.S. hits once described as "New Beat" are today considered a part of another music style, most of the time simply house or techno.
The second time that the term New Beat was used, was in Europe. It first appeared in Belgium around 1987, to describe a local music style that mainly developed out of 'Bodybeat' heralded by the early formation of Front 242 and other such acts as Praga Khan and Lords of Acid. When MTV Europe began in the summer of 1987, it brought the term to the UK. In the UK, the term New Beat was used in 1987–1988 for various local acid house/techno rave productions, to point out that this was a new sound of dance music and a less commercial alternative to UK's Eurobeat. Eurobeat was at the time used in the UK for the Stock Aitken Waterman productions. Eventually, the term became mainstream, especially between the summer of 1989 and the summer of 1990, but faded fast after Eurohouse took over. Because of the relation of "New Beat" and acid house in the UK during 1988, the later commercial "New Beat" European productions sported the Smiley as a symbol of love in the British related markets. Various British "New Beat" productions eventually migrated to the 'Bacalao' scene in Valencia, Spain.
Before the term New Beat began to fade (during 1990-1991), it was used one last time to describe many Belgian and German dance groups like Technotronic, Snap!, Confetti's, The Adventures of Stevie V, MC Sar & the Real McCoy and Twenty4Seven on the minor European (and related) markets (Greece, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Southern France). The term in this case was used again like the way it was used in the U.S., almost a decade before to describe the overall "new" dance sound of the time and not so much a music style. It was generally used to fill the "gap" between 80s Euro disco and 90s Euro-house.
U.S. fans of 90s Eurohouse (in the U.S. the term "90s Eurodance" is used) testify that the term New Beat was also used for a short while during the early 90s, to describe various early 90s imports on the USA market, like 2 Unlimited, Quadrophonia, T99, etc.
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