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Record Producer

Record producer

In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the performers, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. This has been a major function of producers since the inception of sound recording, but in the latter half of the 20th century producers also took on a wider entrepreneurial role. In the first half of the 20th century, the record producer's role was comparable to that of a film producer, in that the record producer organised and supervised recording sessions, paid technicians, musicians and arrangers, and sometimes chose material for the artist. In the 1950's this role was performed by the A&R (artist and repertoire) directors, one of the most notable of whom was musician and composer Mitch Miller at Columbia Records. Until the 1960s most producers and A&R directors were salaried staff on the payroll of major record labels, and most recordings were made at studios owned and operated by major record labels, such as the famous EMI Abbey Road Studios in London. In the mid-1950s a new category emerged, that of the independent record producer. Among the most famous early independent producers are the famed songwriting-production duo Leiber & Stoller, Wall of Sound creator Phil Spector and British studio pioneer Joe Meek. This change was facilitated by the introduction of high-fidelity magnetic tape recording technology in the mid-1950s, which dramatically altered the processes and economics of music recording. Magnetic tape enabled the establishment of independent recording studios in major recording centres such as London, Los Angeles and New York. Unlike the old record company studios, which were effectively a "closed shop", these new studios could be hired by the hour by anyone who could afford to do so. The biggest and best commercial studios were typically established and operated by leading recording engineers. They were carefully constructed to create optimum recording conditions, and were equipped with the latest and best recording equipment and top-quality microphones, as well as electronic amplification gear and musical instruments. Top-line studios such as Olympic Studios in London or United Western Recorders in Los Angeles quickly became among the most sought-after recording facilities in the world, and both these studios became veritable "hit factories" that produced many of the most successful pop recordings of the latter 20th century. Prior to the 1950s, the various stages of the recording and marketing process had been carried out by different professionals within the industry -- A&R managers found potential new artists and signed them to their labels; professional songwriters created new material; publishing agents sold these songs to the A&R people; staff engineers carried out the task of making the recordings in company-owned studios. Freed from this traditional system by the advent of independent commercial studios, the new generation of entrepreneurial producers -- many of whom were former record company employees themselves -- were able to create and occupy a new stratum in the industry, taking on a more direct and complex role in the musical process. This development in music was mirrored in the TV industry by the concurrent development of videotape recording and the consequent emergence of independent TV production companies like Desilu, established by '50s TV superstars Lucille Ball and her then husband Desi Arnaz Jr. These producers now typically carried out most or all of these various tasks themselves, including selecting and arranging songs, overseeing sessions (and often engineering the recordings) and even writing the material (or at least claiming songwriting credits). Independent music production companies rapidly gained a significant foothold in popular music and soon became the main intermediary between artist and record label, signing new artists to production contracts, producing the recordings and then licensing the finished product to record labels for pressing, promotion and sale. (This was a novel innovation in the popular music field, although a broadly similar system had long been in place in many countries for the production of content for broadcast radio.) The classic example of this transition is renowned British producer George Martin, who worked as a staff producer and A&R manager at EMI for many years, before branching out on his own and becoming a highly successful independent producer. As a result of these changes, record producers began to exert a strong influence, not only on individual careers, but on the course of popular music. Other notable past and present independent producers include Don Kirshner (The Monkees), Mickie Most (one of the most successful of all time), Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T.Rex), pioneering Australian producer Ted Albert (The Easybeats) and, more recently, American producer and label owner Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys). Realising the potential for creating recordings that could match their musical vision, many successful recording artists have become producers in their own right. Examples are Nile Rodgers, Jeff Lynne, Brian Wilson and Brian Eno. Some producers also became de facto recording artists, often creating records with anonymous studio musicians and releasing them under a pseudonym. Examples of this phenomenon include the records by fictional groups The Archies and Josie & The Pussycats, produced by Don Kirshner and Danny Jansen respectively, who were contracted by TV production companies to produce these records to promote the animated children's TV series of the same name. In modern hip hop music, the producer is generally always expected to fulfill the roles of music composer and arranger in addition to the traditional duties of record production: hip hop producers usually create instrumental tracks (or "beats") on their own, and allow artists they work with to select a beat to record over from their collection. Some mainstream hip hop producers, including Dr. Dre, Kanye West, among others produce their recordings the traditional way, by supervising a team of musicians. In modern electronic music (not to be confused with "electronica" music, but any music created using electronic equipment, which can include rap and r&b, as well as the many different categories of dance music and new age), the producer is often the only person involved in the creation of a musical recording, and is responsible for both writing, performing, recording and arranging the material. The term "producer" is nearly synonymous with "musician" in this field. This change has been partly due to the increase of inexpensive yet powerful music production software, which allows for entire tracks to be composed, arranged and recorded at home on a PC or laptop, allowing the traditional roles of a team of people can all be performed by one individual. Popular PC music production software packages include Cakewalk SONAR, Logic Pro, Cubase, Reason, and FL Studio (formerly "Fruity Loops"). With the advent of portable recording equipment, live album production has become much more cost effective than in the past couple decades. This has resulted in thousands of live music recordings flooding the internet and music stores. Notable live concert record producers include: Guy Charbonneau, Randy Ezratty, Eddie Kramer, Mark Cavener, Allen Reynolds, and Chuck Plotkin. Category:Music production

Music industry

The music industry is the industry that creates, performs, promotes, and preserves music. The music industry is made up of:
- musicians such as singers
- musical ensembles
- Musicians' Unions
- composers and songwriters
- publishers such as Carlin America
- writers' copyright collectives and performance rights organisations like ASCAP and BMI
- record industry
  - record producers
  - record companies
  - record labels
  - record distributors
- A&R
- band managers
- tour promoters
- bookers
- roadies and so on...

History

In the 19th century the music industry was dominated by sheet music publishers. In the United States, the music industry arose in tandem with the rise of blackface minstrelsy. The group of music publishers and songwriters which dominated popular music in the United States was known as Tin Pan Alley. In the early 20th century the phonograph industry grew greatly in importance, and the record industry eventually replaced the sheet music publishers as the industry's largest force. The advent of file sharing technologies may change the balance between record companies, song writers, and performing artists. Bands such as Metallica have fought back against p2p programs such as the infamous Napster.

Further Reading


- Norman Lebrecht, When the Music Stops: Managers, Maestros and the Corporate Murder of Classical Music, Simon & Schuster 1996
- Christian Imhorst, The ‘Lost Generation’ of the Music Industry, 2004 - http://imhorst.com/en/Gen_D_en.html

Music industry organizations


- Recording Industry Association of America
- Recording Artists' Coalition
- American Federation of Musicians
- Musicians' Union
- Country Music Association
- Academy of Country Music
- MCPS
- Performing Right Society
- National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Category:Music industry

Audio mixing

Audio mixing is used in sound recording, audio editing and sound systems to balance the relative volume and frequency content of a number of sound sources. Typically, these sound sources are the different musical instruments in a band or the sections of an orchestra. Sometimes audio mixing is done live by a sound engineer, for example at rock concerts and other musical performances where a public address system (PA) is used. A typical concert has two mixers, one located in the audience to mix the PA heard by the audience, and the other is located at the side of the stage, mixing for the monitor speakers positioned directly in front of the performers so that they can hear one another. Another example of live mixing is a DJ mixing two records together. Break beats are created by mixing between identical breaks. Often the end of one pre-recorded song is mixed into another so that the transition is seamless, which is done through beat-matching or beat-mixing, and possibly pitch control. At other times, audio mixing is done in studios as part of multitrack recording in order to produce digital (generally at 44.1kHz/16bit) or analog audio recordings, or as part of a film or television program. See: remix. An audio mixing console, or mixing desk, has numerous rotating controls (potentiometers) and sliding switches (faders) that are used to manipulate the volume, the addition of effects such as reverb, and frequency content (equalization) of audio signals. On most consoles, all the controls that apply to a single channel of audio are arranged in a vertical column called a channel strip. Larger and more complex consoles such as those used in film and television production can contain hundreds of channel strips. Many consoles today, regardless of cost, have automation capabilities so the movement of their controls is performed automatically, not unlike a player piano. A recent trend is to use a "control surface" connected to a computer. This eliminates much of the electronics in a conventional console. Audio mixing on a personal computer is also gaining momentum. More and more independent artists are starting to use their personal computers for digital recording and mixing their work. Audio editing on the computer is also easy and generally preferred. A recent trend is mixing to 5.1, which is "surround" audio. This requires 6 channels of audio: left, center, right, left rear, right rear, and low frequencies. In commercial release, only DVD video has a standard. So far there has been little demand for 5.1 in the audio and music domain, but it seems destined that one of the several commercial formats will ascend. Category:Audio engineering Category:DJing

Film producer

A film producer oversees the making of movies. The producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls matters such as raising funding, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the filmmaking process from inception to completion of a project. In the early 20th century, the producer also tended to wield ultimate creative control on a film project. However, with the demise of Hollywood's studio system in the 1950s, creative control began to shift into the hands of the director. Changes in movie distribution and marketing in the 1970s and '80s gave rise to the modern-day phenomenon of the Hollywood blockbuster, which tended to bring power back into the hands of the producer. While marketing and advertising for films accentuates the role of the director, apart from a few well-known film makers it is usually the producer who has the greatest degree of control in the American industry.

Types of Producers


- Executive Producer: usually a representative, if not the CEO, of a motion picture production company that is producing a film, although the title may be given as an honorarium to a major investor.
- Producer: the classic producer who typically has the greatest involvement and oversight among a film's various producers. In smaller companies or independent projects, may be the equivalent of the Executive Producer.
- Co-Producer: usually reports to the Producer and is more involved in the day-to-day production
- Associate Producer: typically a title granted as a courtesy or to one who played some role in getting the film made
- Production Director: ^European^ A representative of the motion picture production company assigned to the set and given the authority to act in behalf of the senior production team members.
- Line Producer: oversees a film's budget and day-to-day activities
- Production supervisor
- Production manager

Some notable film producers


- Albert R. Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli - The James Bond series
- Jerry Bruckheimer - Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Con Air
- Dino de Laurentiis - Waterloo, Death Wish, U-571, Hannibal
- Robert Evans- Love Story, The Godfather, Chinatown, The Saint
- Howard Kazanjian - Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return Of The Jedi, Demolition Man
- Alexander Korda - Things to Come, The Four Feathers (1939), The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
- Walter Mirisch - West Side Story, The Sound Of Music
- Harry Saltzman - The James Bond series, Battle of Britain, The Ipcress File
- David O. Selznick - King Kong, Gone with the Wind
- Sam Spiegel - The African Queen, Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia
- Irving Thalberg - Mutiny on the Bounty, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Grand Hotel, A Night at the Opera
- Hal B. Wallis - The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Elvis Presley films
- Saul Zaentz - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, The English Patient
- Darryl F. Zanuck - many Shirley Temple movies, The Grapes of Wrath, All About Eve, The Longest Day

See also


- List of Hollywood movie studios
- List of movie-related topics
- Producers Guild of America
- Television producer
- Contrast with Film director

External links


- [http://www.producersguild.org/pg/about_a/faq.asp Producers Guild of America Frequently Asked Questions] category:Entertainment occupations Category:Film crew
- ja:映画プロデューサー

Arranger

In music, an arrangement loosely describes rewriting a piece of pre-existing music for a specific set of instruments or voices, often in harmony or with additional original material. In jazz or studio settings, "arranging" is most commonly used to describe the process that is also called orchestration, adaptation, setting, or a variety of other terms. In popular music an arrangement is a setting of a piece of music, which may have been composed by the arranger or by someone else. Most commonly, this is a matter of providing instrumentation for the songwriter or composer's basic melody and harmony. It may add details omitted by the composer, or it may replace those originally given and be merely based on the original work. In European classical music an arrangement is a setting of any composition for a medium other than the one in which it was created: for example, a piano piece may be arranged for full orchestra, or an orchestral composition may be arranged for solo piano. Often arrangement involves considerable reworking of the original material, in conformance with the resources of the final medium. In jazz music, an arrangement is a specific setting of a pre-existing composition, although in jazz, the arranger has a larger role: it is common for jazz arrangers to contribute additional original material of their own, to significantly alter the forms and structures of the pre-existing material, or to combine the pre-existing material with snippets or quotes from other pre-existing material. As with composition, the ready availability of sound recording equipment has changed the understanding of what "arrangement" means. At one stage, credit for an arrangement would only be given to a person who had produced a written musical score of some sort. More recently, any original treatment of an existing work that is available for repeated performance by other players may qualify to be loosely called an arrangement. An unscored arrangement may be called a "head arrangement" (it is in the head of the musician(s)). Every time a piece of music is performed it has an arrangement, which may or may not have been done by a professional arranger. An arrangement may specify or vary some or all of:
- Harmonies, including parts.
- Instrumentation.
- Style, dynamics and other instructions to the players.
- Sequence, including the order and number of repeats of sections such as verses and choruses, and provision of sections to be improvised by instrumentalists.
- Introduction, coda, modulations and other variations. An arrangement is often an adaptation of a previously arranged piece of music for a musical application other than that for which it was originally intended. This includes arrangements for different instruments, for example an arrangement for piano or flute, or a duet, based on a symphonic piece, or an arrangement of instrumental accompaniment for vocal music). Or, it may be an adaptation for another musical style, for example adaptation of a classical piece for a jazz or rock ensemble, orchestration of a song written by a popular band, or an a capella setting of a song from a stage musical or an opera.

See also


- List of arrangers

Further reading


- The Billboard Book of Rock Arranging by Mark Michaels, ISBN 0823075370.
- The Professional Arranger Composer by Russ Garcia
- Composing for the Jazz Orchestra by Bill Russo Category:Musical terminology

1950's

----

Events and trends

The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the the baby boom from returning GIs who went to college under the Montgomery G.I. Bill and settled in suburban America. Most of the internal conflicts that had developed in earlier decades like women's rights, civil rights, imperialism, and war were relatively suppressed or neglected during this time as a returning world from the brink hoped to see a more consistent way of life as opposed to liberalism and radicalism of the 1930s and 1940s. The effect of suppressing social problems in the 50s would backfire in the 60s with the counter-culture movement. The 1950s were also marked with a rapid rise in conflict with the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union that would heighten the Cold War to an unprecedented level which would include the Arms Race, Space Race, McCarthyism, and Korean War. Stalin's death in 1953 left an enormous impact in Eastern Europe that forced the Soviet Union to create more liberal policies internally and externally. The rise of Suburbia as well as the growing conflict with the East are the two generally accepted reasons for the conservative domination of this decade.

Technology


- United States tests the first fusion bomb. See History of nuclear weapons
- Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, and thus the Sputnik crisis
- The De Havilland Comet enters service as the world's first jet airliner
- Charles Townes builds a maser in 1953 at Columbia University.

Science


- Urey-Miller experiment shows that under simulated conditions resembling those thought to have existed shortly after Earth first accreted, many of the basic organic molecules that form the building blocks of modern life are able to spontaneously form
- Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the helical structure of DNA at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge
- Bruce Heezen discovers the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
- Polio vaccine
- The first organ transplants are done in Boston and Paris in 1954.

War, peace, and politics


- Korean War
- Red Scare, McCarthy Hearings
- Suez Crisis
- European Common Market founded.
- Warsaw pact founded.
- Most aboveground nuclear test explosions happened during this decade.
- The United States CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government.
- Hungarian revolution of 1956 brutally suppressed by Soviet Union's troops.
- Fidel Castro gains power in Cuba.
- Mahmoud Abbas becomes involved in Palestinian politics in Qatar.
- Decolonization: Algeria, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
- Early history of the People's Republic of China, of the state of Israel, and of the Indonesian state.

Economics


- "Economic miracle" in West Germany and Italy.

Culture, religion


- Traditional pop music reaches its climax; early rock and roll music was embraced by teenagers/youth culture while generally dismissed or condemned by older generations.
- Brylcreem and other hair tonics have a period of popularity
- Television replaces radio as the dominant mass medium in industrialized countries.
- In the West, the generation traumatized by the Great Depression and World War II creates a culture with emphasis on normality and calm conformity.
- Juvenile delinquency said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in USA, though some see this era as relatively low in crime compared to today. Continuing poverty in some regions during recessions later on in this decade.
- Fairly high rates of unionization, government social spending, taxes, and the like in the US and European countries. Mostly liberal or moderate Western governments, though communism/Cold War play a role in reaction to, and within, domestic politics.
- Beatnik culture/ The Beat Generation
- Optimistic visions of semi-Utopian technological future including such devices as the flying car.
- The Day the Earth Stood Still hits movie theaters.
- Along with the appearance of the sentence Kilroy was here across the United States, graffiti as an art form develops, especially among urban African Americans; graffiti eventually becomes one of the four elements of hip hop
- Considerable racial tension with military and schools desegregation in the US, though controversy never truly erupts as later on in the 1960s.
- The Catcher in the Rye
- The Twilight Zone premiers as the first major science-fiction show. Rise of evangelical Christianity including Youth for Christ (1943); the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churces, the Billy Graham Evagelistic Association (1950), and the Campus Crusade for Christ (1951). Christianity Today was first published in 1956. 1956 also marked the beginning of Bethany Fellowship, a small press that would grow to be a leading evangelical press.
- Carl Stuart Hamblen religious radio broadcaster.

Others


- Wartime rationing ends in the United Kingdom.

People

World leaders


- Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent (Canada)
- Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)
- Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
- President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
- President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
- Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
- Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Pope Pius XII
- Pope John XXIII
- Taoiseach John A. Costello (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (Ireland)
- Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Ireland)
- Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
- Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
- King George VI (United Kingdom)
- Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Robert Menzies (Australia)
- Prime Minister George Borg Olivier (Malta)
- President Harry S. Truman (United States)
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
- Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
- President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Entertainers


- Desi Arnaz
- Abbott and Costello
- Paul Anka
- Lucille Ball
- Jack Benny
- Chuck Berry
- Humphrey Bogart
- Marlon Brando
- Maria Callas
- Dalida
- James Dean
- Bo Diddley
- Margot Fonteyn
- Ava Gardner
- The Goons
- Cary Grant
- Tony Hancock
- Audrey Hepburn
- Charlton Heston
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Buddy Holly
- Grace Kelly
- Ernie Kovacs
- Mario Lanza
- Jerry Lewis
- Dean Martin
- Groucho Marx
- Marilyn Monroe
- Paul Newman
- Laurence Olivier
- Elvis Presley
- George Reeves
- Little Richard
- James Stewart
- Gale Storm
- Jerry Lee Lewis
- Jacques Tati
- Elizabeth Taylor
- John Wayne
- Jack Webb
- Ed Wynn

Sports figures


- Alberto Ascari (Italian racing driver)
- Roger Bannister (English track and field athlete)
- Yogi Berra (American baseball player)
- Maureen Connolly (American tennis player)
- Colin Cowdrey (England cricketer)
- Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentinian racing driver)
- Neil Harvey (Australian cricketer)
- Gordie Howe (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Len Hutton (England cricketer)
- Rocky Marciano (American boxer)
- Stanley Matthews (English soccer player)
- Willie Mays (American baseball player)
- Ferenc Puskás (Hungarian soccer player)
- Maurice Richard (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Sugar Ray Robinson (American boxer)
- Bill Russell (American basketball player)
- Gary Sobers (West Indies cricketer)
- Brian Statham (England cricketer)
- Frank Tyson (England cricketer)
- Frank Worrell (West Indies cricketer)
- Lev Yashin (Russian soccer player)

See also


- United States in the 1950s
- List of rock and roll albums in the 1950s

External links


- [http://www.fiftiesweb.com The FiftiesWeb]
- [http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ERAS/20TH/1950s.html WWW-VL: 1950s History] Category:1950s ko:1950년대 ja:1950年代 simple:1950s

Mitch Miller

Mitch Miller (born July 4, 1911) is remembered as one of the best-selling recording artists of the 1950s and early '60s. He was an executive at Columbia Records for many years and headed his own male choir, "Mitch Miller and the Gang", before striking out on his own. Born Mitchell William Miller in Rochester, New York, he and his choir were famed for their campy Sing Along With Mitch television show of the 1960s, where the choir sang a popular or well-known tune while the lyrics scrolled across the television screen, the current position of the choir's singing marked by an animated ball that bounced from word to word. During the second season of "Sing Along with Mitch," Mitch Miller himself coined the catch phrase "All Smiles." These were preceded by the instructions to "sing along; just follow the bouncing ball." Miller's biggest hits with the choir were "The Yellow Rose of Texas," a drum-propelled version of the old march, and "Colonel Bogey March", then enjoying new popularity from its use in the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). In addition to the television show, Miller and his choir recorded a series of best-selling albums. One of the singers in Miller's choir, Bob McGrath, went on to a long career as one of the hosts of the PBS children's television show, Sesame Street. As head of artists & repertory (A&R) at Columbia Records in the late fifties and early sixties, Miller gained a reputation for creating records that used "gimmicks" (such as heavy use of reverb) that would help to make a record sell. While this did not always sit well with Columbia's more established performers (Frank Sinatra, for example), Columbia had an amazing hit-to-release ratio during that time. Miller signed and produced many important easy listening artists for Columbia, including Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Guy Mitchell (whose pseudonym actually was based on Miller's first name), and Doris Day to just name a few. He therefore became one of the most successful pop music producers ever. Miller is frequently (and probably unfairly) referred to by rock music historians as an "enemy" of early rock and roll. He did back John Hammond's signing of Bob Dylan to capitalize on the folk music craze. While he did ultimately lose his job as Columbia head for not signing the types of acts teenagers were buying, Miller did originally attempt to sign Elvis Presley, but balked at the amount Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was asking. Mitch Miller is remembered for having no singing or song writing capabilities at all. Mitch Miller is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music.

External links


- [http://www.mmguide.musicmatch.com/artist/artist.cgi?ARTISTID=354496&TMPL=LONG#bio Discography and brief biography]
- [http://www.tvacres.com/music_bands_mitch.htm Brief info on show]
- [http://entertainment.msn.com/artist/?artist=129641 Longer biography] Miller, Mitch Miller, Mitch Miller, Mitch Miller, Mitch Miller, Mitch

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is the oldest continually used brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888. 1888] Columbia was originally the local company distributing and selling Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Delaware. As was the custom of some of the regional phonograph companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbia severed its ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company in 1893, and thereafter sold only records and phonographs of their own manufacture. Columbia began selling disc records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901. For a decade Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in recorded sound. In 1908 Columbia introduced mass production of "Double Sided" disc records, with recordings stamped into both sides of the disc. In July of 1912 Columbia decided to concentrate exclusively on disc records, and stopped recording new cylinder records and manufacturing cylinder phonographs, although they continued pressing and selling cylinder records from their back catalogue for a year or two more. In early 1925 Columbia began recording with the new electric recording process licensed from Western Electric. In a secret agreement with Victor, both companies did not make the new recording technology public knowledge for some months, in order not to hurt sales of their existing acoustically recorded catalogue while a new electrically recorded catalogue was being built. In 1931, the English Columbia Graphophone Company merged with the Gramophone Company to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. (EMI). EMI was forced to sell its American Columbia operations because of anti-trust concerns to the American Record Corporation (ARC). ARC, including the Columbia label in the USA, was bought by Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938 for US$ 700,000. CBS was originally co-founded by Columbia Records. The Columbia trademark from this point until the late 1950s was two overlapping circles with the "Magic Notes" in the left circle and a CBS microphone in the right circle. In 1948 Columbia introduced the Long Playing microgroove (LP) record (sometimes in early advertisements Lp) format, rotating at 33⅓ revolutions per minute, which became the standard for the gramophone record for half a century. In 1951, CBS severed its decades long distribution arrangement with EMI and signed a distribution deal with Philips Records outside North America. In 1955, Columbia USA introduced its "Walking Eye" logo which actually depicts a needle (the legs) on a record (the eye). The logo was modified in 1960 to the familiar one still used today and replaced the notes and mike logo. In 1961, CBS ended its arrangement with Philips Records and formed its own international organization, CBS Records which released Columbia recordings outside the USA and Canada on the CBS label. Columbia distributed Ode Records between 1967-1969 and between 1976-1978. Columbia became the most successful record company in the 1950s when they hired impressario Mitch Miller away from the Mercury label. Miller quickly signed on Mercury's biggest artist at the time, Frankie Laine, and discovered several of the decade's biggest recording stars including Tony Bennett, Guy Mitchell, Johnnie Ray, The Four Lads, Rosemary Clooney and Johnny Mathis. In 1988 Columbia/CBS Records was acquired by Sony, who re-christened the parent division Sony Music Entertainment in 1991. As Sony only had a temporary license on the CBS Records name, it then acquired from EMI its former rights to the Columbia trademarks outside the U.S., Canada and Japan (Columbia Graphophone), which generally had not been used by EMI since the 1960's. Sony merged its music division with Bertelsmann AG's BMG unit in 2004; the combined company, Sony BMG, continues to use the Columbia Records name and Walking Eye logo in all markets except Japan (where that division is called Sony Records and is still fully owned by Sony). In Japan, the trademark ("Magic Notes") is still held by the former Nippon Columbia, now called Columbia Music Entertainment. Sony Music uses a modified version of the "Magic Notes" trademark for the logo of its Sony Classical label.

Columbia artists

A partial listing of famous artists who have recorded for Columbia includes:
- Bob Dylan
- Gregory Abbott
- Aerosmith
- Amerie
- The Joe Perry Project
- Alice In Chains
- Trey Anastasio
- Jon Anderson
- Lynn Anderson
- Gene Autry
- Mildred Bailey
- Philip Bailey
- The Bangles
- Count Basie
- Jeff Beck
- Joshua Bell
- Tony Bennett
- Art Blakey
- Blood, Sweat & Tears
- Arthur Blythe
- Michael Bolton
- The Buckinghams
- Jeff Buckley
- Cake
- Mariah Carey
- Mindy Carson
- June Carter Cash
- Johnny Cash
- Eddie Cantor
- C&C Music Factory
- Ray Charles
- Chicago
- Buddy Clark
- Petula Clark
- Rosemary Clooney
- The Coasters
- Ornette Coleman
- Harry Connick, Jr.
- Ray Conniff
- Elvis Costello
- James "D-Train" Williams
- Vic Damone
- Miles Davis
- Doris Day
- Lee "Scratch" Perry
- Tata Young
- Earth Wind & Fire
- Duke Ellington
- Emotions
- Bill Evans
- Percy Faith
- Four Lads
- Marvin Gaye
- Crystal Gayle
- Stan Getz
- Delta Goodrem
- Dexter Gordon
- Vivian Green
- Gene Greene
- Herbie Hancock
- The Heath Brothers
- Billie Holliday
- Vladimir Horowitz
- Frank Ifield
- Julio Iglesias
- Mahalia Jackson
- Billy Joel
- J.J. Johnson
- Janis Joplin
- Nasir "Nas" Jones
- Journey
- Beyoncé Knowles
- Frankie Laine
- Cyndi Lauper
- Mary Mary
- Ted Lewis
- Cheryl Lynn
- Taj Mahal
- The Mahavishnu Orchestra
- Branford Marsalis
- Wynton Marsalis
- Martika
- Johnny Mathis
- John Mayer
- Paul McCartney (1980s distribution deal)
- Bobby McFerrin
- Nellie McKay
- Scott McKenzie
- John McLaughlin
- John Cougar Mellencamp
- Men at Work
- George Michael
- Mitch Miller
- Charles Mingus
- Liza Minnelli
- Guy Mitchell
- Thelonious Monk
- Willie Nelson
- Dolly Parton
- Steve Perry
- Pink Floyd
- Ray Price
- Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
- Johnnie Ray
- Paul Revere & The Raiders
- Return to Forever
- Roberto Carlos
- Rogue Traders
- Santana
- Savage Garden
- The Shadows
- Shakira
- Shakti
- Simon & Garfunkel
- Woody Shaw
- Dinah Shore
- Wayne Shorter
- Jessica Simpson
- Frank Sinatra
- Connie Smith
- Bessie Smith
- Kate Smith
- Bruce Springsteen
- Barbra Streisand
- Toto
- Train
- Bonnie Tyler
- James "Blood" Ulmer
- Muddy Waters
- The Weather Girls
- Weather Report
- Joan Weber
- Paul Whiteman
- Andy Williams
- Bert Williams
- Edgar Winter
- Johnny Winter
- Pete Yorn
- Boys Like Girls

See also


- List of record labels

External link


- [http://www.columbiarecords.com/ Official site] Category:Media companies of the United StatesCategory:Record labelsCategory:Sony subsidiaries ja:コロムビア・レコード

1960s

The 1960s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. The Sixties has come to refer to the complex of inter-related cultural and political events which occurred in approximately that period, in western countries, particularly Britain, France, the United States and West Germany. Social upheaval was not limited to just these nations, reaching large scale in nations such as Japan, Mexico and Canada as well. The term is used both nostalgically by those who participated in those events, and pejoratively by those who regard the time as a period whose harmful effects are still being felt today. The decade was also labelled the Swinging Sixties because of the libertine attitudes that emerged during the decade. Popular memory has conflated into the Sixties some events which did not actually occur during the period. For example, although some of the most dramatic events of the American civil rights movement occurred in the early 1960s, the movement had already began in earnest during the 1950s. On the other hand, the rise of feminism and gay rights began only in the very late 1960s and did not fully flower until the Seventies. However, the "Sixties" has become synonymous with all the new, exciting, radical, subversive and/or dangerous (according to one's viewpoint) events and trends of the period.

Events and trends

Many of the trends of the 1960s were due to the demographic changes brought about by the baby boom generation, the height of the Cold War, and the dissolution of European colonial empires. The rise in social revolution, civil rights movements, human rights movement, anti-War movements, and the Counterculture movement are only some of the characteristics that defined the 1960s. Many experts attribute the 1960s "counter-culture revolution" as being the result of the major social and political factors that rose in the 1950s like brinksmanship, continued fighting in the 3rd world, and a return to pre-WWII lifestyle. The new generation was determined to reject a pre-WWII conformist lifestyle with men in suits and women in the kitchen. While many believed it to be just a "Western" phenomenon, the '60s revolution spread far beyond the borders of America and Western Europe. In South America, revolutions were at a height, in the Eastern Bloc, movements were made inspired by the Hungarian Revolution to reject Soviet domination, and in the Middle East attempted to resist Soviet and American domination (see Non-Aligned Movement). Overall, the '60s affected almost the entire globe. It was during this time that protectionist, command, and mixed economies reached their peak...

Technology

Non-Aligned Movement Non-Aligned Movement]
- USSR puts first man (Yuri Gagarin) and first woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in outer space
- The United States puts man on Earth's Moon (see Apollo 11)
- Geosynchronous satellites revolutionize global communications
- Start of the development of algorithmic information theory
- The ARPAnet, precursor of the Internet, is founded in 1969 as a United States Department of Defense project. The numbered series of Request For Comments (RFC) documents begins in order to document the standards and practices of this network, and continues to this day
- Direct Use of the Sun's Energy by pioneer solar-energy scientist Farrington Daniels is published (1964)
- Compact audio cassette introduced; begins to displace reel-to-reel audio tape recording for home users

Science


- Discovery of plate tectonics revolutionizes understanding of continental drift
- Jacques Monod and Francois Jacob discover the lac operon
- Rise of the science of ecology in the awareness of the intelligentsia

War, peace and politics

intelligentsia"]] intelligentsia]
- Cultural Revolution in mainland China causes political and economic chaos.
- Nigerian Civil War begins.
- 6-Day War between Israelis and Arabs in 1967.
- Beginning of The Troubles in Northern Ireland
- Berlin Wall built in 1961.
- Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, the United States sponsored an attempt to overthrow Cuba's socialist government and Fidel Castro.
- Civil rights movement in the United States; end of official segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans; racial tensions continue with large race riots in Watts (Los Angeles) in 1966, Detroit in 1967, and Hough and Glenville in Cleveland.
- Sino-Indian War in late 1962. China attacks India and gains some land in Kashmir.
- Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir ends in a stalemate.
- The Vietnam War and protests, leading to Kent State University shootings in May, 1970.
- Suppression of uprising in Czechoslovakia.
- The Stonewall Riots in New York City give birth to the gay rights movement, June 1969.
- United Nations imposes sanctions against South Africa to protest the policy of Apartheid.
- Students protesting perceived problems with the status-quo are suppressed with violence by police and soldiers in USA, France, Mexico, Czechoslovakia. See New Left.
- The Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) begins in Quebec - precipitous decline of the Roman Catholic church, liberalism, social-democratic programs, and the birth of modern Quebec nationalism.
- The rise of radical feminism.

Economics


- Many countries in The West experience high economic growth (4 to 8% per year)

Culture


- Rock and roll develops, diversifies, and becomes very hip. The Beatles eclipse Elvis Presley and become the most popular musical artists in the world. "Topical" artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez worked social commentary into their music.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey hits movie theaters
- The long running BBC family science fiction show Doctor Who begins in 1963
- Star Trek makes its debut in 1966
- James Bond movies begin. Dr. No is the first of the series in 1962, starring Sean Connery as Bond
- Hippies, drug culture & rock and roll converge at the Woodstock festival, 1969
- In the West, the growing popularity of religions other than Christianity (for example, as discussed in the writings of Alan Watts), and of atheism; Time Magazine asks: "Is God Dead?" See Fourth Great Awakening, Consciousness Revolution
- Memorable expositions, or "World's Fairs," are held in Seattle (1962), New York (1964/1965), Montreal (1967) and San Antonio (1968)
- Progressive rock emerges
- The fine arts begins to move away from exclusively consisting of painting, drawing, and sculpture and begins to incorporate elements from popular culture (Pop art) and begins to favour the ideas behind a work, rather than the work itself (Conceptual art)

Others

Conceptual art built in 1969]]
- Post-Colonialism; many new or previously colonized countries achieve independence in Africa, Asia
- U.S. president John F. Kennedy assassinated in 1963; his brother Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in 1968
- U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated on April 4, 1968
- Charles Manson gave up his ambitions of becoming a popular song writer to become a cult leader and mass murderer, 1969
- Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X assassinated on February 21, 1965
- U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society program
- In the United States, increase in crime; riots in Los Angeles in 1965 and Chicago, Illinois at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
- Rise of the baby boom generation to adulthood
- First widespread availability of practical birth control pill for women; See sexual revolution
- Sweden switches from driving on the left to the right, in order to harmonise with neighbouring countries. See Rules of the road

Big changes during the Sixties

In the United States

The movement for civil and political rights for African Americans (in the early '60s usually called Negroes and in the later '60s Blacks), initially a non-violent movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Gandhian figures but later producing radical offshoots such as the Black Power movement and competing with the Black Panther Party and the Black Muslims for primacy in the African-American community. The beginning of what was generally seen as a new political era with the election of President John F. Kennedy in 1960, and its ending in tragedy and disillusionment with Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the assassinations of King and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and the collapse of Lyndon Johnson's presidency. The rise of a mass movement in opposition to the Vietnam War, culminating in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, and also the movement of resistance to conscription (“the Draft”) for the war. The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950s "Peace movement" controlled by the Communist Party USA, but by the mid '60s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centred on the universities and churches. Stimulated by this movement, but growing beyond it, the large numbers of student-age youth, beginning with the Free University of California, Berkeley]] in 1964, peaking in the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois and reaching a climax with the shootings at Kent State University in 1970. The rapid rise of a "New Left," employing the rhetoric of Marxism but having little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such the Communist Party, and even less connection with the supposed focus of Marxist politics, the organized labor movement, and consisting of ephemeral campus-based Trotskyist, Maoist and anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to terrorism. terrorism The overlapping, but somewhat different, movement of youth cultural radicalism manifested by the hippies and the counter-culture, whose emblematic moments were the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The rapid spread, associated with this movement, of the recreational use of cannabis and other drugs, particularly new synthetic psychedelic drugs such as LSD. The breakdown among young people of conventional sexual morality and the flourishing of the sexual revolution. Initially geared mostly to heterosexual male gratification, it soon gave rise to contrary trends, Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation. The rise of an alternative culture among affluent youth, creating a huge market for rock and blues music produced by drug-culture influenced bands such as The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors, and also for radical music in the folk tradition pioneered by Bob Dylan.

In other Western countries

The peak of the student and New Left protests in 1968 coincided with political upheavals in a number of other countries. Although these events often sprang from completely different causes, they were influenced by reports and images of what was happening in the United States and France. Students in Mexico City, for example, protested against the corrupt regime of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz: in the resulting Tlatelolco massacre hundreds were killed. The influence of American culture and politics in Western Europe, Japan and Australia was already so great by the early 1960s that most of the trends described above soon spawned counterparts in most Western countries. University students rioted in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome, huge crowds protested against the Vietnam War in Australia and New Zealand (both of which had committed troops to the war), and politicians such as Harold Wilson and Pierre Trudeau modelled themselves on John F. Kennedy. An important difference between the United States and Western Europe, however, was the existence of a mass socialist and/or Communist movement in most European countries (particularly France and Italy), with which the student-based new left was able to forge a connection. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the May 1968 student revolt in Paris, which linked up with a general strike called by the Communist-controlled trade unions and for a few days seemed capable of overthrowing the government of Charles de Gaulle.

In non-Western countries

In Eastern Europe, students also drew inspiration from the protests in the west. In Poland and Yugoslavia they protested against restrictions on free speech by Communist regimes. In Czechoslovakia, 1968 was the year of Alexander Dubček’s Prague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubček's "socialism with a human face." The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August ended these hopes, and also fatally damaged the chances of the orthodox Communist Parties drawing many recruits from the student protest movement. In the People's Republic of China the mid 1960s were also a time of massive upheaval, and the Red Guard rampages of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution had some superficial resemblances to the student protests in the West. The Maoist groups that briefly flourished in the West in this period saw in Chinese Communism a more revolutionary, less bureaucratic model of socialism. Most of them were rapidly disillusioned when Mao welcomed Richard Nixon to China in 1972. People in China, however, saw the Nixon visit as a victory in that they believed the United States would concede that Mao Zedong thought was superior to capitalism (this was the Party stance on the visit in late 1971 and early 1972). The Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara also became an iconic figure for the student left, although he was in fact an orthodox Communist.

People

World leaders

Ernesto "Che" Guevara]]
- Prime Minister Robert Menzies (Australia)
- Prime Minister Harold Holt (Australia)
- Prime Minister John McEwen (Australia)
- Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)
- Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (Canada)
- Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Canada)
- Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
- President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
- President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
- President Charles de Gaulle (France)
- Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
- Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (India)
- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
- Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
- Prime Minister Levi Eshkol (Israel)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Pope John XXIII
- Pope Paul VI
- Prime Minister Basil Brooke (Northern Ireland)
- Prime Minister Terence O'Neill (Northern Ireland)
- Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark (Northern Ireland)
- Governor Luis A. Ferré (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico)
- Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Republic of Ireland)
- Taoiseach Jack Lynch (Republic of Ireland)
- Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
- Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
- Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Harold Wilson (United Kingdom)
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
- President John F. Kennedy (United States)
- President Lyndon Johnson (United States)
- President Richard Nixon (United States)
- Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
- Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (West Germany)
- Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (West Germany)
- President for Life Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Writers and intellectuals


- Isaac Asimov
- J. G. Ballard
- Truman Capote
- Andy Capp
- Rachel Carson
- Noam Chomsky
- Judith Christ
- Philip K. Dick
- Louise Fitzhugh
- Milton Friedman
- Allen Ginsberg
- Seamus Heaney
- Robert A. Heinlein
- Frank Herbert
- Ken Kesey
- Timothy Leary
- Norman Mailer
- Marshall McLuhan
- Jules Pfeiffer
- Carl Sagan
- Charles Schulz
- Dr. Seuss
- John Steinbeck
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Joseph Heller
- Gore Vidal
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Alan Watts
- Tom Wolfe

Sports figures


- Lance Alworth (American football player)
- Richie Benaud (Australian cricket captain)
- George Best (Northern Irish football player)
- Nino Benvenuti (Italian boxer)
- Jim Brown (American football player)
- Wilt Chamberlain (American basketball player)
- Bobby Charlton (English football player)
- Jim Clark (Scottish racing driver)
- Cassius Clay later known as Muhammad Ali (American boxer)
- Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rican baseball player)
- Eusebio (Portuguese football player)
- Peggy Fleming (American figure skater)
- Bob Gibson (American baseball player)
- Cookie Gilchrist (American football player)
- Bobby Hull (Canadian hockey player)
- Gordie Howe (Canadian hockey player)
- Franz Klammer (Austrian skier)
- David Kopay (American football player)
- Sandy Koufax (American baseball player)
- Denis Law (Scotland footballer)
- Vince Lombardi (American football coach)
- Willie Mays (American baseball player)
- Stan Mikita (Slovak-Canadian hockey player)
- Bobby Moore (English football player)
- Joe Namath (American football player)
- Jack Nicklaus (American golfer)
- Arnold Palmer (American golfer)
- Gary Player (South African golfer)
- Bobby Orr (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Pelé (Brazilian football player)
- Richard Petty (American NASCAR racing driver)
- Frank Robinson (American baseball player)
- Bill Shankly (Liverpool FC football manager)
- Gary Sobers (Barbados & West Indies cricket captain and all-rounder)
- Alfredo di Stefano (Argentinian/Spanish football player)
- Fred Trueman (Yorkshire & England cricketer)

Entertainers

cricket
- Bud Abbott
- Steve Allen
- Ursula Andress
- Julie Andrews
- Fred Astaire
- John Astin
- Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello
- Joan Baez
- Lucille Ball
- Brigitte Bardot
- Billy Barty
- The Beach Boys
- The Beatles
- Tony Bennett
- Jack Benny
- Milton Berle
- Joey Bishop
- Ray Bolger
- Ernest Borgnine
- Charles Bronson
- Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner
- Johnny Brown
- Carol Burnett
- George Burns
- The Byrds
- Sid Caesar
- Godfrey Cambridge
- Diane Cannon
- Cantinflas
- Capucine
- Vicki Carr
- Diahann Carrol
- Johnny Carson
- Violet Carson
- Art Carney
- Jack Cassidy
- Ted Cassidy
- Carol Channing
- Roy Clark
- Imogene Coca
- Nat King Cole
- Sean Connery
- Tim Conway
- Bill Cosby
- Joan Crawford
- Bing Crosby
- Gary Crosby
- Phillip Crosby
- Tony Curtis
- Dalida
- Bette Davis
- Sammy Davis, Jr.
- Doris Day
- John Derrick
- Neil Diamond
- Angie Dickenson
- Walt Disney
- The Doors
- Donovan
- Mamie Van Doren
- Kirk Douglas
- Patty Duke
- Jimmy Durante
- Dick Van Dyke
- Bob Dylan
- Clint Eastwood
- Barbara Eden
- Linda Evans
- Robert Evans
- Henry Fonda
- Jane Fonda
- Peter Fonda
- Eileen Fulton
- Judy Garland
- James Garner
- Gerry & the Pacemakers
- Jack Gilford
- Jackie Gleason
- Cary Grant
- Kathryn Grant aka Kathryn Crosby
- Grateful Dead
- Dick Gregory
- Andy Griffith
- Merv Griffin
- Fred Gwynne
- Buddy Hackett
- Joey Heatherton
- Jimi Hendrix
- Audrey Hepburn
- Katharine Hepburn
- Charlton Heston
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Dustin Hoffman
- Bob Hope
- Dennis Hopper
- Ron Howard
- Rock Hudson
- The Jackson 5
- Chad and Jeremy
- Antonio Carlos Jobim
- Carolyn Jones
- Shirley Jones
- Tom Jones
- Janis Joplin
- Boris Karloff
- Danny Kaye
- Buster Keaton
- Gene Kelly
- Don Knotts
- Jimmy Komac
- Harvey Korman
- Nancy Kwan
- Bert Lahr
-