The genre knew moderate mainstream popularity in Europe, despite being the icon of British and American LGBT communities around 1983-85, while opposing both eurodisco and electro on the dance scene. Starting late 1980s, hi-NRG (along with funk) also served as basis for the more popular house music genre (notably diva and acid house).

Some Hi-NRG compositions became prominent in 2010, when the style underwent a considerable revival  and many of Hi-NRG's electronic elements were incorporated into the modern dance sound. Artists or bands such as Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Trans X, Bobby O, Ke$ha, Mike Posner, María Daniela y su Sonido Lasser, The Ting Tings, Hyper Crush, La Roux, Robyn etc.

In 1977, Donna Summer was interviewed about her single "I Feel Love", which was a mostly electronic, relatively high-tempo disco song without a strong funk component. In the interview, she said "this song became a hit because it has a high-energy vibe".  Following that interview, the description "high-energy" was increasingly applied to high-tempo disco music, especially songs dominated by electronic timbres.  The tempo threshold for high-energy disco was around 130 to 140 BPM. In the 1980s, the term "high-energy" was stylized as "Hi-NRG". Eurobeat, dance-pop, and freestyle artists like Shannon, Stock Aitken Waterman, Taylor Dayne, Freeez or Michael Sembello were also labeled as "Hi-NRG" when sold in the United States.

In the 1980s "Hi-NRG" referred not just to any high-tempo dance music, but to a specific genre, only somewhat disco-like. However, Hi-NRG is typified by an energetic, staccato, sequenced synthesizer sound with octave basslines or/and where the bass often takes the place of the hi-hat,[6] alternating a more resonant note with a dampened note to signify the tempo of the record. There is also often heavy use of the clap sound found on drum machines.

Ian Levine, one of Hi-NRG's pioneering DJs & producers in the UK, defines Hi-NRG as "melodic, straightforward dance music that's not too funky."  Music journalist Simon Reynolds adds "The non funkiness was crucial. Slamming rather than swinging, Hi-NRG's white European feel was accentuated by butt-bumping bass twangs at the end of each bar."

In 1983 in the UK, music magazine Record Mirror began publishing a weekly Hi-NRG Chart. Hi-NRG entered the mainstream with hits in the UK and US pop and dance charts, such as Hazell Dean's "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)" and Evelyn Thomas's "High Energy".  In the mid-1980s, Hi-NRG producers in the dance and pop charts included Ian Levine and trio Stock Aitken Waterman, both of whom worked with many different artists. Stock Aitken Waterman had two of the most successful Hi-NRG singles ever with their productions of Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (UK #1 & US #11 in 1985) and Bananarama's "Venus" (US #1 & UK #8 in 1986).  They also brought the genre full circle, in a sense, by writing and producing Donna Summer's 1989 UK and US hit "This Time I Know It's For Real" (UK #3 and US #7).

American music magazine Dance Music Report published Hi-NRG charts and related industry news in the mid to late 1980s as the genre reached its peak.  By 1990, with Hi-NRG going mainstream its popularity started to wane in the gay clubs, however, house music and eurodance started to supersede Hi-NRG in popularity in many danceclubs. Despite this, Hi-NRG music is still being produced and played in various forms, including many remixed versions of mainstream pop hits, some with re-recorded vocals. Later in the 1990s, Nu-NRG music was born. It is a fusion of Hi-NRG and Trance