| Interscope Records | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Universal Music Group |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Founder | Jimmy Iovine Ted Field |
| Distributor(s) | Interscope-Geffen-A&M (In the US) Polydor Records (Outside the US) |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Location | Santa Monica, California |
| Official Website | interscope.com |
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.
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Interscope was founded in 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Interscope Communications' Ted Field with financial support from Atlantic Records (which owned a 53% stock in the label). Initially it was distributed by the Atlantic Records subsidiary East West Records America. A&R Executive John McClain and producer Beau Hill were also part of the original founding team.
The original focus of the label was on hip-hop and urban music, but by the mid 2000s its range began to expand, to extent where its roster would be as wide ranging to include the industrial rock artist Nine Inch Nails (Nothing Records), shock rocker Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit, Helmet, No Doubt and later the Latin artist Kings Of Flow[1] in a unique partnership with Los Angeles based indie Latin label.[2]
Following UMG's acquisition of PolyGram in 1998, Geffen Records and A&M Records were merged into Interscope. In 2004, DreamWorks Records was merged into the Interscope-Geffen-A&M group bringing over artists including Blink-182, Papa Roach, Rise Against, Nelly Furtado, Lifehouse, AFI, The All-American Rejects, Jimmy Eat World and Rufus Wainwright (the artists were divided between Interscope and Geffen, with most going to the latter). In 2005 Interscope launched a new imprint called Cherrytree Records, for emerging artists; beginning with group The Lovemakers and later including Far East Movement, Feist, Flipsyde, Tokio Hotel, Mindless Behavior, JoJo, Roscoe Dash, Culice Damani, and Robyn. Lady Gaga is with Interscope, but no longer with Cherrytree as of 2011[update].
In May 2007 Interscope announced a joint-venture partnership with Justin Timberlake to create a new recording label called Tennman Records, with the first artist being Esmee Denters. On October 12, 2011, South Korean girl group Girls' Generation, in association with SM Entertainment's United States-subsidiary, SM Entertainment USA, officially signed for Interscope for the release of the English-language version of their upcoming third Korean studio album, The Boys.[3][4][5]
Rapper Ice Cube has criticized Interscope for its use of Tupac Shakur's music in his song "Child Support". Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has also criticized Universal Music Group for overcharging for his album Year Zero in Australia. When he asked why it was so much, they replied "you've got a core audience that's gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that [...] True fans will pay whatever".[6] Nine Inch Nails is now a part of their own record label The Null Corporation and no longer associates with Interscope.
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