Since the earliest music companies began at the end of the 19th century, many record labels have come and gone, been taken over or merged. Some have been owned by retailers, DJs, agents or managers, others by artists or vast media, electronics and film companies. From A&M Records, to Motown, to ZTT, The A-Z of Record Labels explores the colourful history of one of the most important aspects of popular music. recording it. From classical to soul, jazz to rock, folk to rap, every record label has its own successes, its own agenda and its own story. Those stories are collected here in The A-Z Of Record Labels, offering an insight into one of the most important parts in the history of popular music.
Return to the glamorous decade that brought the world Footloose and The Breakfast Club, when legwarmers and shoulder pads were all the rage and nightclubs blasted classic tunes by Spandau Ballet and Wham! With hundreds of entries from A-Team, aerobics, Rick Astley, and Amadeus to Weird Science, yuppies, The Young Ones and ZZ Topp, be prepared to relive the punk, the glam, and everything in between using this complete guide to the most extravagant and fun decade of the 20th century.
This book describes the emergence of DIY punk record labels in the early 1980s. Based on interviews with sixty-one labels, including four in Spain and four in Canada, it describes the social background of those who run these labels. Using the ideas of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this book shows how the field of record labels operates. The choice of independent or corporate distribution is a major dilemma. Other tensions are about signing bands to contracts, expectations of extensive touring, and use of professional promotion. There are often rivalries between big and small labels over bands that have become popular and have to decide whether to move to a more commercial record label. Unlike approaches to punk that consider it a subcultural style, this book breaks new ground by describing punk as a social activity. One of the surprising findings is how many parents actually support their children's participation in the scene. Rather than attempting to define punk as resistance or commercial culture, this book shows the dilemmas that actual punks struggle with as they attempt to live up to what the scene means for them. Book jacket.
Record Label Marketing provides clear, in-depth information on corporate marketing processes, combining marketing theory with the real world "how to" practiced in marketing war rooms. This industry-defining book is clearly illustrated throughout with figures, tables, graphs, and glossaries. Record Label Marketing is essential reading for current and aspiring professionals and students, and also offers a valuable overview of the music industry. Record Label Marketing... * Builds your knowledge base by introducing the basics of the marketing mix, market segmentation and consumer behavior * Gives you the tools necessary to understand and use SoundScan data, and to successfully manage the budget of a recorded music project * Presents vital information on label publicity, advertising, retail distribution and marketing research * Introduces you to industry resources like NARM, RIAA, and the IFPI * Offers essential marketing strategies including grassroots promotion and Internet/new media, as well as highlighting international marketing opportunities * Reveals how successful labels use video production, promotional touring and special products to build revenue * Looks to the future of the music business-how online developments, technological diffusion, and convergence and new markets are continually reshaping the industry This guide is accompanied by a website, www.recordlabelmarketing.com, which offers interactive assignments to strengthen your knowledge as well as updates on the latest news, industry figures and developments.
"The Strachwitz Frontera Collection is the largest repository of commercially produced Mexican and Mexican American vernacular recordings in existence. It contains more than 130,000 individual recordings. Many are rare, and some are one of a kind. Although border music is the focus of the collection, it also includes notable recordings of other Latin forms, including salsa, mambo, sones, and rancheras. More than 40,000 of the recordings, all from the first half of the twentieth century, have been digitized with the help of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and are available online through the University of California's Digital Library Program. Agustin Gurza explores the Frontera Collection from different viewpoints, discussing genre, themes, and some of the thousands of composers and performers whose work is contained in the archive. Throughout he discusses the cultural significance of the recordings and relates the stories of those who have had a vital role in their production and preservation. Rounding out the volume are chapters by Jonathan Clark, who surveys the recordings of mariachi ensembles, and Chris Strachwitz, the founder of the Arhoolie Foundation, who reflects on his six decades of collecting the music that makes up the Frontera Collection."--Publisher description.
