Jive Records is a record label based in New York City
, owned by Sony
Music Entertainment, and operating under the Zomba Label Group. Jive is
primarily known for a string of successes in the eighties with
hip hop and
rap
artists, and in
teen pop and
boy bands in the nineties. The word "jive" was
inspired by Township Jive, a form of
South
African music and dance. Jive operated as an independently
managed label until 2002 when Bertelsmann Music Group acquired the
remainder of Zomba for US $2.74 billion, which was at the time the
largest-ever acquisition of an independent label with major-label
distribution.
History
Inception
Zomba, Jive's parent company, was
formed in the mid seventies as a publishing and management company
on Willesden Street in London
and their
first client was a young Mutt
Lange. Initially, co-founders
Ralph Simon and
Clive
Calder wanted to stay away from record labels, choosing to
focus on their songwriters and producers while allowing other
established labels to release the material.
Later in the
seventies, Zomba opened offices in the United States
where Calder began a business relationship with
Clive Davis, whose Arista Records began releasing material by
Zomba artists.
Hip Hop and Rap in the Eighties
When Calder and Simon started Jive Records in 1981, Davis was
having trouble pushing rock acts in
North
America, and thought that this could be a role for Jive to fill
with its Mutt Lange connection. The labels early roster included,
Tight Fit,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Billy Ocean and
Samantha
Fox. However, Calder had other ideas for what Jive would
become. He found a young local college grad named
Barry Weiss who was familiar with the
hip hop scene in the city, and otgether they began
grooming musicians to form
Whodini. In 1987,
Jive cut distribution ties with Arista, freeing them from the
authority Davis, who was known to be opposed to hip hop at the
time. As the 1980s drew to a close, Jive went on to sign a plethora
of hip-hop acts, including:
Too Short and
Schoolly D. By the early-mid 1990s, Jive
had become a premiere label in the genre of hip-hop, thanks to the
success of acts like Whodini,
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The
Fresh Prince,
E-40,
A Tribe Called Quest,
KRS-One, and R&B acts such as
Aaliyah and
R. Kelly.
Pop in the Nineties
By the mid-late 1990s, despite its reputation for dealing heavily
in hip-hop, Jive signed pop acts
Backstreet Boys,
'N
Sync, and
Britney Spears—all of
whom achieved massive success as the 2000s dawned, and would become
the three best-selling acts in the label's history. In 1991,
Barry Weiss became CEO and president of
Jive Records.
Current Activities
Discography
Distribution
Upon its launch, US distribution was handled by
Arista Records until 1987. Following the
creation of
BMG the same
year, distribution of Jive switched to
RCA
Records. Jive's distribution deal with RCA expired in 1991, at
which time BMG purchased a large minority stake Zomba's records
division (including Jive) and became their distributor. In the mid
nineties,
Jive's
distribution network varied from region to region. Depending on
the territory, distribution may have been with BMG, Virgin, Zomba's
own distribution company or other smaller independent labels. When
Zomba was purchased by BMG, BMG becamee the sole worldwide
distributor again. Between 2004 and late 2008 distribution switched
to
Sony BMG in accordance with the merger
of Sony and BMG. Since early 2009, Sony Music Entertainment
distributes Jive products worldwide.
Artists
References
External links
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