Punk rock emerged in the 1970s partly to protest the commercialism of the recording industry. While some bands were making money off their own music, others were being bought and sold by record labels. This led to a number of artists breaking away from the industry and creating their own bands, some of which would go on to become mega-sellers.
After the rise of punk rock, the music industry grew even more commercial. This led to the creation of a lot of different record label companies and a number of different record labels, such as B-side, Epic, Elektra, and MCA.
These record labels came in all shapes and sizes: some were the old moneyed types who bought and sold the bands on offer, some were the new moneyed types who bought and sold the bands for themselves, and some were simply the record companies that let bands do what they wanted.
Most of the bands on the punk record labels were either signed to one or more of the many different record labels. The original label, which also had a publishing arm, was called B-side. At the time it was owned by a guy called Alan Wilder, who had previously owned a number of other labels and some other companies. Wilder bought B-side in 1973 with the intention of becoming a record label.
That’s right. B-side was the record company that actually sold the music and that gave the band what they wanted. With Wilder as owner it was obvious that B-side would soon be sold, and in 1975 the label was sold to another guy, David Berman. Berman eventually sold it to a guy named Barry Gibb who in turn sold it to Chris Blackwell, the CEO of Virgin.
Virgin was a company that specialized in consumer electronics and had a music division. Not exactly the most appropriate company to start a record label from. That’s a huge mistake. The fact that it’s a mistake is a given, but we’re about to go and show the difference between the two companies.
Virgin was a company that specialized in consumer electronics and had a music division. Not exactly the most appropriate company to start a record label from. Thats a huge mistake. The fact that its a mistake is a given, but were about to go and show the difference between the two companies.
We were at Virgin Music’s headquarters at the time. Virgin Music’s music division was also called the Virgin/Polygram music business, which has always had a somewhat unfortunate association with “virgin” in the past. But when I say “not exactly the most appropriate company to start a record label from,” I mean that it didn’t have any history of making music, or even having any musical talent.
In the 1980s VirginMusics had a major record label called Virgin Records. Back in the day Virgin Records was owned by the much more famous Virgin Records, makers of rock records. VirginMusics was originally just the marketing division. But the VirginMusics music division took over the record label in the late eighties, and then Virgin Records became Virgin Music, which is still the division that owns and produces music today.
For many people, punk rock was a reaction to the commercialism of the recording industry. It had a punk edge to it, with a punk attitude. And there is no way to say this without sounding like a broken record, but there is a connection between punk rock and the early music scene in the 1970s.
