Programme notes
Sabrina - Boys 1988
Summary
A 1987 single by Sabrina Salerno, an Italian singer working in the Italo disco and hi-NRG style that dominated European dance floors in the late eighties: programmed synth bass, a bright repetitive hook, and a vocal delivered more as attitude than performance. It became her signature record across Europe.
Why it matters
Italo disco was one of the routes by which European electronic pop fed into house and later dance music, and Sabrina was among its most visible faces at the commercial peak. The record is also a clear artefact of how the era sold pop: the song and the video were a single package, and the video did most of the work.
Controversy
The poolside video is remembered largely for a wardrobe malfunction, and that moment drove much of the song's notoriety and airplay. It's a fair example of how eighties pop marketed young women — the clip's fame rests on an incident rather than on the record.