Geffen Records
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Geffen Records | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Parent company | Universal Music Group |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Founder(s) | David Geffen |
| Distributing label | Interscope Records (US) |
| Genre(s) | Various |
| Country of Origin | US |
| Location | Santa Monica, California |
| Website | Official site of Geffen Records |
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group. It also had a subsidiary, DGC Records.
Contents |
[edit] Company history
[edit] Beginnings
The label was founded in 1980 by music industry impresario David Geffen who, in the early 1970s, had formed Asylum Records. Geffen stepped down from Asylum after being diagnosed with a cancerous cyst but, following confirmation that the growth was benign, returned to work and struck a deal with Warner Bros. Records to create Geffen Records. Warner provided 100 percent of the funding for the label's operations, while Geffen retained 50 percent of the profits, and distributed its records. (International distribution outside the US and Canada, meanwhile, moved from WEA in 1982 to CBS until 1990.)
Geffen Records' first signee was disco superstar Donna Summer, whose gold-selling album The Wanderer became the label's first release in 1980. The label followed it up with Double Fantasy by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was Lennon's first album of all-new material in several years. Two days after it entered the charts, Lennon was assassinated in New York City. Subsequently, the album went on to sell millions and gave Geffen its first number one album and single.
As the 1980s progressed, Geffen Records continued to sign a handful of established music icons, including Elton John, Cher, Don Henley, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Peter Gabriel. Toward the end of the decade, the company also began making a name for itself as an emerging rock label, thanks to the success of Whitesnake (US and Canada only), Guns N' Roses and the mainstream comeback of 1970s rockers Aerosmith. This prompted Geffen to create DGC Records to operate as a subsidiary label. DGC focused on more progressive sounds, and would later embrace the emergence of alternative rock, with influential acts like Nirvana, The Nymphs and Sonic Youth.
[edit] Geffen's acquisition by MCA
After a decade of operating through Warner, when its contract with the company expired, David Geffen sold the label to MCA, Inc. (later renamed Universal Music Group) in 1990. The deal ultimately earned him an estimated $1 billion in cash and stock, and an employment contract that ran until 1995. Following the sale, Geffen Records operated as one of Universal's leading independently-managed labels. Geffen stepped down as head of the label in 1995 and collaborated with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg to form Dreamworks SKG, an ambitious multimedia empire dealing in film, television, books, and music. Geffen Records would distribute releases on the new operation's DreamWorks Records subsidiary.
[edit] Interscope-Geffen-A&M
UMG acquired PolyGram in 1998, resulting in a corporate reorganisation of labels. Geffen Records, along with A&M Records, was subsequently merged into Interscope Records. Although Geffen continued to exist as its own imprint, it was now reduced in size and stature to fit into the greater expansion of Interscope. Geffen's DGC division, meanwhile, ceased operations and was absorbed into Interscope and Geffen.
By 2000, despite Geffen Records no longer being independently operated within UMG and taking a more submissive position behind Interscope, it continued to do steady business—so much so that in 2003, UMG folded MCA Records into Geffen. Geffen had been substantially a pop/rock label, but the takeover of MCA led to a more diverse roster, with former MCA artists like Mary J. Blige, The Roots, Avant, and Common now featured on the label. Meanwhile, DreamWorks Records also folded, with much of that company being absorbed by Geffen as well.
Geffen's absorption of the MCA and Dreamworks labels, along with its continuing to sign new multi-platinum acts like Nelly Furtado, Ashlee Simpson and Snoop Dogg, as well as the recently signed rap artist The Game, have boosted the company to the extent that it is now gaining equal footing with the main Interscope label, leading some industry insiders to predict that it might revert to operating as a dominant imprint at UMG again soon.
