Their collection amounted to a vast 15,000 jazz and blues releases accumulated in a period when the average record collection was a small stack of scratchy shellac discs stashed in a cupboard. Ahmet studied music at Georgetown University, in Washington, DC, and both brothers collected records. They were obsessed with jazz, the music of the era. Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun were the sons of Turkey’s first Ambassador to the United States and as hip as could be in the 40s.
This ought to be on record: Atlantic launches in New York CityĪtlantic Records started with love. Atlantic delivers the music that matters, and always has.
#ATLANTIC RECORDS EMERGE FULL#
It moved from jazz music to R&B, practically invented soul music, embraced the rock revolution it helped inspire, made disco matter and gave contemporary R&B an outlet – practically coming full circle in the process. But the label has been nimble and flexible. Atlantic has had its share of shocks: major artists leaving the deaths of its founders its musical focus falling from fashion scandals, legal issues and all the rest. Three quarters of a century in such a volatile business could never pass without incident. Atlantic Records is where Bruno Mars rubs shoulders with Aretha Franklin, where Solomon Burke shakes hands with Cardi B, Cream meets Kream, and Lizzo stands with LaVern Baker. While other aspirants have faded, Atlantic thrives, with a roster the envy of other labels, and an awe-inspiring back catalogue. They were following, consciously or otherwise, Atlantic’s blueprint, and that plan turned a one-room business run by a couple of music nuts into a major company. Motown, Island, Virgin – all were built on trying to get the music right above all else, because if you achieved that, success would ensue.
Delivering the music that matters: Atlantic Records’ legacyĪtlantic Records was highly creative from the start. And its legacy and influence continues to loom large over the industry today. And the greatest of these labels is Atlantic Records, which has enjoyed – yes, enjoyed – a 75-year history of making hits from music its founding fathers loved and would continue to love, were they still around. Their success is built on sound, not a fetish for dollars. These corporations are highly creative because it’s in their DNA from the get-go. And the best of them were launched by people obsessed by music, who prized it above all other forms of art. At the very least, they began with a founder who was interested in music. Besides, most major record labels did not start out as highly monetised enterprises. But major labels have to be creative to thrive, otherwise they would always be outsmarted by younger, leaner companies able to react to every nuanced development in music. A certain snobbery surrounds record companies: the story goes that small is creative and big kills creativity.
0 kommentar(er)
