Sire Records
Encyclopedia
Sire Records is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 record label, owned by Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...

 and distributed through Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...

.

Beginnings

The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein
Seymour Stein is an entrepreneur in the music industry who has been a part of the business since getting his first job as a clerk for Billboard magazine in 1958. Stein is a vice president of Warner Bros...

 and Richard Gottehrer
Richard Gottehrer
Richard Gottehrer is an American songwriter, record producer and record label executive.-Career:Gottehrer came to prominence as a songwriter in the 1960s with his most notable songs being "My Boyfriend's Back" and "I Want Candy". As Feldman-Goldstein-Gottehrer , he wrote various songs including...

, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a record label were issued in 1968, distributed by London Records
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....

. From the beginning, Sire introduced underground, progressive British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 bands to the American market. Early releases included the Climax Blues Band
Climax Blues Band
Climax Blues Band was formed in Stafford, England in 1968. The original members were guitarists Peter Haycock and Derek Holt; keyboardist Arthur Wood; bassist Richard Jones; drummer George Newsome; and vocalist and harmonica player, Colin Cooper.In 1970, the group shortened its name to the Climax...

, Barclay James Harvest
Barclay James Harvest
Barclay James Harvest are an English progressive rock band. They were founded in Saddleworth, Lancashire, in September 1966 by John Lees, Les Holroyd, Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme , and Mel Pritchard .-History:...

, Tomorrow
Tomorrow (band)
Tomorrow were a 1960s psychedelic rock band. Despite critical acclaim and support from DJ John Peel who featured them on his "Perfumed Garden" radio show, the band was not a great success in commercial terms. They were among the first psychedelic bands in England along with Pink Floyd and Soft...

, Matthews Southern Comfort and proto-punks The Deviants. The label was distributed by Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...

 from 1970 until 1971, during which time the now-famous logo was introduced, and then by Famous Music
Famous Music
Famous Music was the worldwide music publishing division of Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom since 1994. Its copyright holdings span several decades and includes music from such Academy Award-winning motion pictures as The Godfather and Forrest Gump...

 from 1972 to 1974, during which the progressive rock band Focus
Focus (band)
Focus is a Dutch rock band which was founded by classically trained organist/flautist Thijs van Leer in 1969, and is most famous for the instrumental pieces "Hocus Pocus" and "Sylvia"...

 charted with their 1972 hit "Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus (song)
"Hocus Pocus" is a 1971 instrumental from Focus II , the second album by Dutch rock group Focus. It was written by guitarist Jan Akkerman and flautist/keyboardist Thijs van Leer...

". In the seventies, Sire released a number of compilation LPs, including the 3 volume "History Of British Rock" series, and diverse artists such as The Turtles
The Turtles
The Turtles are an American rock group led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. The band became notable for several Top 40 hits beginning with its cover version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" in 1965...

, Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...

, The Small Faces
The Small Faces
The Small Faces were an English rock and roll band from East London, heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues. The group was founded in 1965 by members Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston, although by 1966 Winston was replaced by Ian McLagan as the band's...

 and Del Shannon
Del Shannon
Del Shannon was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961.- Biography :...

. ABC Records
ABC Records
ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....

 inherited Sire's distribution contract when it acquired Famous Music in 1974. The UK signing policy was vindicated when Climax Blues Band scored a Top 40 hit in 1977 with "Couldn't Get It Right". Also in 1977 Stein, who had worked with the group in the 1960s, convinced the Shangri-Las to reform and return to the studio. But the trio was unhappy with the quality of material it recorded, and the trio opted out of its contract. Those tracks have yet to be released.

Acquisition by Warner

In the later 1970s, Sire transformed itself into a successful independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 and went on to sign artists from the burgeoning punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 and new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 scenes, including the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...

, the Dead Boys
The Dead Boys
The Dead Boys were an American punk rock band from Cleveland, Ohio. Among the first wave of early punk bands, the Dead Boys were initially active from 1976 to 1979, briefly reuniting in 1987, 2004 and 2005.-Formation and 1970s punk rock era:...

, The Undertones and Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

. Sire switched distribution to Warner Bros. Records in 1977; in 1978, Warner would acquire Sire Records. During the 1980s, Sire achieved mainstream status after having launched the recording careers of Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

 (its biggest act), Ice-T
ICE-T
* Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...

, Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...

, Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk band, formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer, and their debut...

, The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...

 and The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...

 in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. Into the 1990s, the label had continued success with Seal
Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...

, k.d. lang
K.D. Lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang, OC , known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress...

, Tommy Page
Tommy Page
Tommy Page is an American singer, best known for his 1990 hit single, "I'll Be Your Everything."-Career:...

 and Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...

.

In 1994, Sire switched distribution from Warner Bros. Records to sister label Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....

 (also part of the parent company WMG
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...

). Stein had been appointed president of Elektra Records under Elektra's newly appointed CEO Sylvia Rhone
Sylvia Rhone
Sylvia Rhone is an American music industry executive who served as president of Universal Motown Records until 2011.She has overseen a roster of artists in the Universal Motown lineup including Lil Wayne and the Cash Money artists Nicki Minaj, Drake, Kid Cudi, Nelly, Melanie Fiona, Akon, Erykah...

. Sire later left Elektra and in 2000, Sire and the US division of London Records
London Records
London Records, referred to as London Recordings in logo, is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label....

 (not London Classics USA
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

) were merged to become London-Sire Records
London-Sire Records
London-Sire Records was an American-based record label owned by Warner Music Group, created in 2000 with the merging of Sire Records and London Records. Seymour Stein remained at the helm as CEO. The binding of the two companies, however, proved to be largely unsuccessful...

. This partnership dissolved in April 2003, at which point the company went back to being called Sire Records, and it returned to distribution with Warner Bros. once again. Currently, it signs newcomers like The Ready Set
The Ready Set
The Ready Set was formed on November 17, 2007. Jordan Witzigreuter is the vocalist and sole member of the act. Witzigreuter generally writes and records on his own, using a backup band when on tour...

 and Lights
Lights (singer)
Lights Valerie Poxleitner is a Canadian electronic musician, signed to her own personal label, Lights Music. Her most notable singles include "Ice", "Second Go" and "Toes". In 2009, she was awarded the Juno Award for "Best New Artist".-Early life:Lights was born in Timmins, Ontario. Her parents...

.

In 2009, official music videos displayed on the Sire Records Web site were taken down because of a copyright claim by parent Warner Music Group, after royalty negotiations between WMG and YouTube (which Sire had been using to host the videos) broke down in December 2008. Although an agreement was made in September 2009 and the videos returned, users have to view the WMG videos within YouTube itself, as embedding codes for them have been disabled.

Current artists

  • Avenged Sevenfold
    Avenged Sevenfold
    Avenged Sevenfold is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California. Formed in 1999, the group consists of vocalist M. Shadows, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ....

  • Blu
    Blu (rapper)
    Johnson Barnes , better known by the stage name Blu, is an American rapper and producer from Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his debut album, Below the Heavens, which was produced entirely by Exile of Emanon....

  • D.R.U.G.S.
  • Foxy Shazam
    Foxy Shazam
    Foxy Shazam is an American rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in 2004. The band is composed of lead vocalist Eric Sean Nally, guitarist Loren Turner, pianist Sky White, and bass player Daisy. Later, trumpeter and back-up vocalist Alex Nauth joined, and Aaron McVeigh became the band's permanent...

  • Eric Hutchinson
    Eric Hutchinson
    Eric Hutchinson is an American singer-songwriter. He signed with Madonna's Maverick Records, but the label shut down before his album was released. Hutchinson recorded and released the album Sounds Like This on his own...

  • Jack's Mannequin
    Jack's Mannequin
    Jack's Mannequin is an American rock band formed in 2004, originally hailing from Orange County, California. The band began as a side project of Andrew McMahon, the frontman for Something Corporate, and is composed of guitarist Bobby Anderson, bassist Mikey "The Kid" Wagner, and drummer Jay...

  • Lights
  • The Maine
    The Maine (band)
    The Maine is an American rock band from Tempe, Arizona. They were formed in January 21st, 2007, they released EP Stay Up, Get Down in the same year. On December 11 2007, The Maine made their debut with a five song EP called The Way We Talk produced by Matt Grabe...

  • Mastodon
    Mastodon (band)
    Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1999. The band is composed of bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor...

  • Meg & Dia
    Meg & Dia
    Meg & Dia is an American rock band formed in 2004. It was founded by sisters Meg and Dia Frampton, and is now a five-piece act with additional members Nicholas Price, Jonathan Snyder and Carlo Gimenez....

  • Mêlée
    Mêlée (band)
    Mêlée is an American rock band from Orange County in California.-Band members:* Chris Cron * Ricky Sans * Ryan Malloy * Derek Lee Rock|Derek Lee -Studio Albums:-Extended Plays :...

  • My Chemical Romance
    My Chemical Romance
    My Chemical Romance is an American alternative rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way and have a diverse sound incorporating elements of punk, emo, glam metal, and progressive rock...

  • Never Shout Never
  • The Ready Set
    The Ready Set
    The Ready Set was formed on November 17, 2007. Jordan Witzigreuter is the vocalist and sole member of the act. Witzigreuter generally writes and records on his own, using a backup band when on tour...

  • Ximena Sarinana
    Ximena Sariñana
    Ximena Sariñana Rivera is a Mexican singer-songwriter and actress. Sariñana's musical career was launched in 2008 with the release of her first studio album Mediocre, an adult contemporary pop-rock/vocal jazz album that has been critically acclaimed and nominated for various awards, including two...

  • Regina Spektor
    Regina Spektor
    Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.-Early life:...

  • The Spill Canvas
    The Spill Canvas
    The Spill Canvas is an alternative rock band from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.-Career:The Spill Canvas started as a side project for lead singer, Nick Thomas, who at the time, was guitarist and backup vocalist for Metalcore outfit Nodes of Ranvier ....

  • Taking Back Sunday
    Taking Back Sunday
    Taking Back Sunday is a rock band from Long Island, NY, formed in 1999 by guitarist Eddie Reyes. Current members of the band are Adam Lazzara , John Nolan , Eddie Reyes , Shaun Cooper and Mark O'Connell ....

  • Serj Tankian
    Serj Tankian
    Serj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist...

  • Evan Taubenfeld
    Evan Taubenfeld
    Evan David Taubenfeld is an American singer-songwriter, best known for being Avril Lavigne's lead guitarist. Taubenfeld's debut album, Welcome to the Blacklist Club, was released on May 18, 2010.-Early life:...

  • Tegan and Sara
    Tegan and Sara
    Tegan and Sara are a Canadian indie band composed of identical twin sisters Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirsten Quin . Both Tegan and Sara play guitar and keyboard and write songs.-History:...

  • The Veronicas
    The Veronicas
    The Veronicas are an Australian electrorock, pop-punk and rock band. Twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso formed the band in 1999 in Brisbane. They have their own line of clothing which was released in 2007....


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK