維京唱片
維京唱片(Virgin Records) 是英國 一間唱片公司，由理察·布蘭森和Nik Powell於1972年創立。其後被百代唱片收購，至2006年和百代唱片旗下另一品牌Capitol唱片合併，組成Capitol Music Group.
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[编辑] Kraut- & Prog-rock origins
Branson & Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin in London, specialising particularly in "krautrock" imports, before turning their business into a fully-fledged record label. The name Virgin, according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from a colleague of his when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin - as they were all new to business - like "virgins".
The original Virgin logo (known to fans as the "Gemini" or "Twins" logo) was designed by English artist and illustrator Roger Dean: a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed serpent and the word "Virgin" in Dean's familiar script.
The first release on the label was the classic progressive rock album Tubular Bells by multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield in 1973. This was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream (which went Top 10), and The Faust Tapes and Faust IV by Faust. The Faust Tapes album retailed for 49p (the price of a 7" single) and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band to reach number 12 in the album charts.
[编辑] Post-punk rebranding
雖然維京是英國progressive rock早期的一個重要品牌， the 1977 signing of the Sex Pistols, who had already been asked to leave both EMI and A&M, reinvented the label as a new wave outpost. Afterwards they signed groups like Human League, Culture Club, Gillan, Simple Minds, and less successful bands like Shooting Star, the Motors, Holly and the Italians and Fingerprintz. A short-lived subsidiary label, Dindisc, had Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and The Monochrome Set during its brief 1980-81 existence. Similarly, Virgin Front Line became one of the UK's most successful reggae labels in the late '70s and early '80s.
The current Virgin logo (known informally as "The Scrawl") was created in 1982 as a hasty doodle on a cocktail napkin; rather than hiring the graphic designer, Branson simply paid him for the napkin.
The group Genesis recorded various albums for this record company beginning with 1983's self-titled effort (Virgin reissued the group's prior albums, which had originally been released on the Charisma label in the UK).
After several false starts licensing its bands to American labels like Epic (Culture Club, Holly and the Italians & Shooting Star), Atlantic (Genesis, Julian Lennon) and A&M (UB40, Human League, Breathe), Virgin Records opened up its American division, Virgin Records America, in 1987. Virgin Records America's releases were distributed by WEA with arrangement from Atlantic Records until 1992. Prior to the formation of Virgin Records America, its artists were licensed in the United States to labels such as CBS, A&M, Warner Bros. Records, and others.
[编辑] 百代唱片的收購
百代唱片於1992年6月以10億美元收購維京唱片。[1][2], with a special non-competition clause that would prevent Branson from founding another recording company during the five years following the agreement (see the final paragraph in E.U. Merger Decission IV/M202 of 27.04.1992). It now faces competition from Branson's new label: V2 Records. Branson sold Virgin Records to fund Virgin Atlantic Airways which at that time was coming under intense anti-competitive pressure from British Airways. (In 1993 BA settled a libel action brought by Branson, giving him £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline).
After being acquired by Thorn EMI, Virgin launched several subsidiaries like Realworld Records, Innocent Records, blues specialty label Point Blank Records, and Hut Records, and continued signing new and established artists like Brooke Valentine, Beenie Man, Korn, Geri Halliwell, The Rolling Stones, The Exies, The Smashing Pumpkins, We Are Scientists, Darren Hayes, The Kooks, Bubba Sparxxx, Sharissa, Bossman, Zeitia Massiah, Lenny Kravitz, Meat Loaf, Purple Ribbon All-Stars, Placebo, Janet Jackson(Contract ends in 2006), Daft Punk, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Massive Attack, Neneh Cherry, Blur, the Chemical Brothers, Shape:UK, Juliet, the Spice Girls, Melanie Chisholm (1995-2003), Gorillaz, Paula Abdul, Brooke Allison, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Angela Via, N.E.R.D. and recently RBD and Bizzy Bone and Fat Joe, Virgin EMI put a bid in for NUsOuNd Records but the CEO of that company has rejected Virgin's offer most likely because it has deals with some ex Virgin clients including The Spice Girls and Paula Abdul.
[编辑] 和Capitol的合併
經過母公司一連串的重組後，同屬百代的Capitol唱片和維京唱片於2006年合併，組成Capitol Music Group。[3]
Stepping down as chief executive of Capitol Records was Andy Slater, per the announcement, with Jason Flom, former executive of Virgin, taking the reigns as Chairman and CEO of the newly created company.
[编辑] 參見
[编辑] 外部鏈結
- virginbrand.com Unofficial blog of the Virgin Group
- Virgin Records - art label design & artists at www.collectable-records.ru*[4] Virgin Records' official website
- 維京音樂台灣網站 已和母公司百代音樂(台灣)網站合併
- EMI 百代音樂(台灣)網站
