Artists such as U2, Roxy Music, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Bob Marley and – initially and exceptionally Millie Small – all have an important creative platform common – a single record label founded in 1959. This record label, despite being swallowed by Polydor for 20 years, and then wrapped in the universal mark, remains a synonym for independent creativity. This is Island Records, founded in Kingston, Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, and despite a modest start pressing discs in team rendered on a nearby radio station and scratch some office space on a small budget, the business grew following a move to London in 1962, bringing consolidation of the new wave of ska and R & B, who lit the fuse in gray fifties – and early 60's, Great Britain.
Historians say, of course, that was with the Beatles and the Mersey sound, that popular music suddenly woke up to himself after the initial download Rock of Mid-50's Roll had long since fallen into a wasteland ballads and a renewed Tame Mish-Mash of hybrid styles aimed at "family entertainment" – and, Of course, there is no doubt that the Mersey sound principles crashed through all this time great. But it was also a period of a giant fertilizer styles, and for Island Records, the first major event was to achieve a crossover ska music into the mainstream through a crack, a populist but certainly "different" None – Millie Small My Boy Lollipop "- a great success in 1964 and a harbinger of things to come in terms of new acts to break with the styles that were only ahead of the curve of what was generally acceptable.
Thus, 3 years after that, the island is focused on blues-based rock / folk psychedelic junctions of cultured white musicians like John Martyn extraordinary and Freedom Act (one of the major festival circuit), Spooky Tooth, and Stevie Winwood Traffic. Later came the progressive bands like King Crimson and Jethro Tull Ian Anderson with a demonic face with that archetypal instrument of rock music – the flute!
By the late 60's the label was signing a wave of popular events including the eclectic Dr. Strangely Strange, Nick Drake and Fairport Convention – each individual and the enormous influence – and soon added a chapter of art-pop to the mix, by Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry.
But of course, does not stop there. Returning to his roots in Jamaica, the label signed a local band celebrated in the village of Jamaica called Bob Marley and the Wailers. Convinced they had found a "black rock star as big as Hendrix," according to Chris Blackwell, Island Records invested heavily in its instincts and was Marley's first album "Catch a Fire. "He made history. Soon, Bob Marley became the biggest selling Act of Island Records.
Following this reaffirmation of reggae as a musical force, many reggae acts followed, including Burning Spear, Toots and the Maytals and Steel Pulse. But alongside these also were Robert Palmer, Grace Jones, Tom Waits – And more revealing of the connections of Dublin, which began with Dr. Strangely Strange and influenced the development of acts like Thin Lizzy, Island signed a new act and call premiums U2, who were, of course, to become the rock star act of the 1980s and some would say beyond that.
The influence of Island Records is therefore there for all to see. When looking at the big waves of the creative forces in the explosive context of the changing tastes in popular music decades after the 1960s, it caught the attention of labels like Island Records. These labels are the business opportunities that guarantees a number of flowering creatively, and regulate the risk-encompassing incursions into uncharted waters of creativity.
About the Author:
Jimi St. Pierre writes for travel and entertainment companies in the UK including Limited Edition Rock Photography Gallery www.rockarchive.com . Rockarchive has
photo prints
of several Island Records stars amongst a huge range of rock music images from 5 decades of popular music.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Island Records – A History of 50 Years Of Cutting Edge Music
Glen E. Friedman, Skate + Punk Photo-History (uncensored)