RCA Folds Arista, Jive and J Records

Sony Music旗下廠牌Arista/Jive/J Records，因為RCA Music Group進行盤整的關係，都將結束營業，上述3家唱片公司仍有合約的歌手，將改簽至其他新品牌。

Artists signed to shuttered labels will now record for RCA

RCA executives have announced that the company is shutting down Arista, Jive and J Records, and that all of the artists currently signed to those labels will be folded into the RCA Records roster. "The path we’ve taken is to refresh RCA, so we're going to retire those brands," RCA president and COO Tom Corson told the Hollywood Reporter. "There may be a reason down the line to bring them back, but it's a clean slate here."

According to Corson, the move towards dropping existing labels and consolidating under the RCA banner has been supported by the musicians signed to the various labels. "The artists have all been supportive. We didn’t make this move without consulting our artists, and we haven’t had any push-back," says Corson. "Frankly, they’re the brand. We’re defined by our artists."

Arista, which was founded in 1974 by current RCA Music Group Chairman and CEO Clive Davis, has released albums by major artists including Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Outkast, Pink, Ace of Base, Hall and Oates, the Notorious B.I.G. and Usher. Jive Records, which was founded in 1977, has been a home to rap and R&B acts such as R. Kelly, Aaliyah and A Tribe Called Quest and teen pop superstars like N'Sync, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. J Records, which was founded by Davis in 2000, put out albums by Alicia Keys, Rod Stewart and Pearl Jam.

Source:Rolling Stone

Arista Records, Home to Whitney Houston and Santana, Dead at 36

Arista Records is over. The new management at Sony’s RCA division have put the venerable label started by Clive Davis to sleep at age 36. Arista had drifted since 2000 when BMG, which owned it then, let then overall chief Michael Dornemann oversee the ousting of Davis. By the time that was over, Dornemann was gone and Davis was back with his own label, J Records. Arista went to L.A. Reid, who ran it for a few years before leaving for Island DefJam at Universal Music.

Now, of course, Reid is with Sony, half the people from Sony and Universal have traded jobs. In this latest scuffle, Arista has quietly been put out of business. It’s a shame really. Arista has enormous legacy with dozens of huge acts and famous albums to its credit. From Whitney Houston’s catalog–including “The Bodyguard” soundtrack– to Carlos Santana’s amazing Grammy winning comeback with “Smooth”–Arista deserves more than to be a footnote in history.

Davis started it in 1974 from the rubble of little Bell Records with Barry Manilow’s “Mandy.” Hit after hit kept coming, but not all were in the Whitney-Manilow middle of the road category. At different times, Arista released the Grateful Dead, Graham Parker and the Rumour, and the Kinks. All of them had hit records there, not just because of Davis, but also because of great record people like Richard Palmese. (He’s now gone on to work with Irving Azoff’s management company in Los Angeles.)

Arista had a visionary quality about it, too. Davis introduced Patti Smith in 1974 and backed her as the punk Bob Dylan. By 1978 she had a top 10 hit with Bruce Springsteen’s “Because the Night.” Arista also was cutting edge enough to put out some UK releases from Stiff Records including the not forgotten Iam Gomm.

Of course, Arista had Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart,” and Dionne Warwick’s return with “Heartbreaker” and “I’ll Never Love this Way Again” and “Deja Vu.” Davis had a huge run on Arista with Aretha Franklin (“Jump to It,” “Freeway of Love”). Carly Simon’s gigantic “Coming Around Again” was on Arista, as was her Oscar winning “Let the River Run” from “Working Girl.” Eric Carmen’s classics “All By Myself” and “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again” were early Arista hits.

There were hiccups: Milli Vanilli became a scandal for the ages when it turned out they didn’t actually sing their songs. But the group was signed in Germany,and the American side didn’t know the real story. The minute they found out, Milli Vanilli was relegated to history as an unfunny joke. But Arista had a propensity for catchy 45s like Milli Vanilli’s “Blame it on the Rain.” They were also responsible for Air Supply and Ace of Base. Famously Taylor Dayne had her 80s disco hits on Arista. And Lisa Stansfied’s “All Around the World” is still played on oldies radio. Not everything could be Lou Reed, Iggy Pop (who they also released) or Prince.

Some other Arista acts over the years: Alan Jackson, Hall & Oates, Alan Parsons Project, and Kenny G–the latter was so mellow that his cousin, Howard Schultz, had to start Starbucks to wake everybody up.

There were more, lots more, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something important. But rest in peace, Arista. You join a long line of labels–Motown, Stax, Sceptre and so on–that made a huge cultural impact and eventually came to an end. The music lives on.

And Clive Davis? He’s working on the new Leona Lewis album even as we speak. So there.

Source:Showbiz411

針對這次RCA Music Group的整併影響所波及的歌手範圍十分廣，像是列名Arista/J Records旗下歌手：咱家天后Whitney Houston,Alicia Keys,Carlos Santana,Jennifer Hudson,Rod Stewart,Jamie Foxx,Barry Manilow, Leona Lewis......等人，都將簽入RCA Music Group新的廠牌。

另外包含Jive Records旗下歌手：Britney Spears,Pink,Kelly Clarkson,Justin Timberlake......等人，也都將簽入RCA Music Group旗下新的廠牌。

後續針對惠媽唱片約的影響，目前仍不得而知，若有新的消息，將會再為大家追蹤喔~