Giorgio Moroder

One of electronic music's seminal producers, Giorgio Moroder created some of the great early disco records and helped shape modern pop music with his brand of euphoric, glitter ball melodies and hypnotic trance beats. Born in Ortesi, Italy, Moroder moved to West Germany in his teens and cut his teeth playing stand-up bass in local bands, before producing German acts and eventually building his own studio in Munich called Musicland. Coming to attention in Europe with early single Looky Looky, his hit Son Of My Father became the first UK Number 1 single to use a synthesizer and his production partnership with Pete Bellotte started to break new ground. Together they crafted Donna Summer's iconic disco anthems Love To Love You Baby and I Feel Love; as well as producing Blondie's Call Me, Phil Oakey's Together In Electric Dreams and tracks by Elton John, Barbara Streisand, Janet Jackson and David Bowie. Moroder won three Academy Awards for his work on soundtracks to the movies Midnight Express (1978), Flashdance (1983) and Top Gun (1986), while his solo albums From Here To Eternity (1977), E=MC2 (1979) and Innovisions (1985) proved hugely influential on people like Gary Numan, LaRoux and Daft Punk.