Labelled with Love
A History of the World in Your Record Collection
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- $25.99
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
'… an instant classic and a required part of the library of anyone fascinated with the record business.' – Danny Goldberg, bestselling author of Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain
Chess Records tested their acquisitions out on people waiting at a nearby bus stop: if the crowd were bopping, they had a hit.
Sub Pop rejection letters start with the harsh, yet funny, 'Dear Loser'.
Atlantic Records signed Led Zeppelin on Dusty Springfield's recommendation.
Labelled with Love is an odyssey through your record collection and the world beyond it, from the Jazz Age to punk, the civil rights movement to Thatcherism, the Beatles to Britpop, and Ella Fitzgerald to The Ramones. Long-time music obsessive Andy Bollen tracks popular music through the influential labels that have shaped the last eighty years, chronicling each company with the passion of a fan but the eye of a satirist. This is an informative and revealing look at the leading labels, bands and music that rocked our worlds and shaped our lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Music writer Bollen (The Number Ten) takes readers on an uneven tour of some of music history's most influential record labels. Proceeding alphabetically, he provides brief profiles of New York's rap and hip-hop label Def Jam Records, founded by Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons in 1984 to capitalize on the "embryonic sound of hip-hop and the attitude of South Bronx streets"; Fatcat Records, started by David Cawley and Alexander Knight in 1997 to spotlight such genres as "psychedelic folk, electronica, experimental rock, post-punk and contemporary classical," including Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós; and Geffen Records, which was launched by record executive David Geffen in 1980 and found early success with Yoko Ono and John Lennon's Double Fantasy (which sold millions following Lennon's murder three weeks after its 1980 release). While Bollen's passion for the topic comes through, the book is marred by distracting factual errors (such as the claim that Canadian band Arcade Fire was on Merge Records during the 1990s, despite forming in the early aughts) and a repetitive structure. Additionally, Bollen's promise to use the music industry to explore broader sociocultural shifts ends up mostly unfulfilled. Only the most ardent music history buffs need apply.
