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Alfa Records
, originally a publisher known as Alfa Music Ltd. and later succeeded by record company Alfa Music Inc., was established in 1969 by composer and record producer Kunihiko Murai. It was formed into an independent record label known as Alfa Records in 1977. A short-lived American subsidiary operated from 1980 to 1982. History In December 1980, Alfa Records opened a U.S. subsidiary in Los Angeles, planning to specialize in a "global approach to music". The label had some U.S. Top 40 successes in 1981 with Lulu, whose two-year-old recording of " I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)" became a Top 20 hit on Alfa, as well as former The Guess Who singer Burton Cummings ("You Saved My Soul") and Billy Vera and the Beaters ("I Can Take Care Of Myself"). Vera's "At This Moment" was also originally released on Alfa and reached No. 79 on the Billboard chart in late 1981, five years before it was re-released on Rhino Records and became a nationwide No. 1 smash. Other U.S. Hot 100 success ca ...
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Kunihiko Murai
Kunihiko is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *Kunihiko Hashida (1882–1945), Japanese physician and physiologist * Kunihiko Hashimoto (橋本國彦, 1904–1949), composer *Kunihiko Ikuhara (幾原邦彦, born 1964), artist, anime director *Kunihiko Iwadare (岩垂邦彦, 1857–1941), NEC founder * Kunihiko Kasahara (笠原邦彦, born 1941), author of ''Viva! Origami'' (1983) * (加瀬邦彦, 1941–2015), composer, music producer * Kunihiko Kato (加藤久仁彦), composer, lyricist, singer, actor *Kunihiko Kodaira (小平邦彦, 1915–1997), mathematician *Kunihiko Mitamura, (三田村邦彦), actor * Kunihiko Moriguchi (森口邦彦, born 1941), Japanese textile artist *Kunihiko Murai (村井邦彦), music producer *Kunihiko Muroi (born 1947), Japanese Democratic Party politician *, Japanese basketball player *Kunihiko Ohshiba (大柴邦彦), actor * Kunihiko Ryo (梁邦彦), composer, arranger *, Japanese diplomat *, Japanese ice hockey ...
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Country Music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old-time, and American folk music forms including Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, and the cowboy Western music styles of Hawaiian, New Mexico, Red Dirt, Tejano, and Texas country. Country music often consists of ballads and honky-tonk dance tunes with generally simple form, folk lyrics, and harmonies often accompanied by string instruments such as electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars (such as pedal steels and dobros), banjos, and fiddles as well as harmonicas. Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history. The term ''country music'' gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to '' hillbilly music'', with "country music" being used today to describe many styles and subgenres. It came to encomp ...
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Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the four-on-the-floor pattern), reverberated "intense" vocals and "pulsating" octave basslines, it was particularly influential on the disco scene. Its earliest association was with Italo disco. Characteristics Whether hi-NRG is more rock-oriented than standard disco music is a matter of opinion. Hi-NRG can be heavily synthesized but it is not a prerequisite, and whether it is devoid of "funkiness" is, again, in the ear of the beholder. Certainly, many artists perform their vocals in R&B and soul styles on hi-NRG tracks. The genre's tempo ranges between 120 and 140 beats per minute although typically it is around 127. The tempos cited here do not represent the full range of beats (BPM) of hi-NRG tracks; rather the tempos are retrieved ...
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Eurobeat
Eurobeat refers to two styles of dance music that originated in Europe: one is a British variant of Italian Eurodisco-influencedAng, Ien & Morley, David (2005). "Cultural Studies: Volume 3, Issue 2". ''Routledge''. pgs. 171, 173, 170. . "Eurorecords had to have immediate cross-national appeal, musical simplicity was of the essence- a bouncy beat, just one chorus hook, elementary lyrics. The fun of these records was entirely a matter of sound quality, but once a record was a hit it took on a kind of sleazy, nostalgic charm of its own. It was precisely the brazen utility of these records, in short, that gave them gay disco consumer appeal too. ..Eurodisco also had an obvious element of camp -British club audiences took delight in the very gap between the grand gestures of Eurosingers and the vacuity of their songs." dance-pop, and the other is a hi-NRG-driven form of Italo disco. Both forms were developed in the 1980s. Producer trio Stock Aitken Waterman and pop band Dead or Alive ...
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Italo Disco
Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the early 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, pop, and electronic music, both domestic and foreign (American hi-NRG, French Euro disco) and developed into a diverse genre. The genre employs electronic drums, drum machines, synthesizers, and occasionally vocoders. It is usually sung in English, and to a lesser extent in Italian and Spanish. The origin of the genre's name is strongly tied to marketing efforts of the ZYX record label, which began licensing and marketing the music outside Italy in 1982. Italo disco faded in the early 1990s and then split into many genres (Eurobeat, Italo house, Italo dance). Terminology The term "Italo", a generic prefix meaning Italian, had been used on pop music compilation albums in Germany as early as 1978, such as ''Italo Top Hits'' on the K-Tel l ...
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New Wave Music
New wave is a loosely defined music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself. Later, critical consensus favored "new wave" as an umbrella term involving many popular music styles of the era, including power pop, synth-pop, ska revival, and more specific forms of punk rock that were less abrasive. It may also be viewed as a more accessible counterpart of post-punk. Common characteristics of new wave music include a humorous or quirky pop approach, the use of electronic sounds, and a distinctive visual style in music videos and fashion. In the early 1980s, virtually every new pop/rock act – and particularly those that employed synthesizers – were tagged as "new wave". Although new wave shares punk's do-it-yourself philosophy, the artists were more influenced by the styles of the 1950s along with the lighter s ...
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Yukihiro Takahashi
Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋 幸宏 ''Takahashi Yukihiro'', born June 6, 1952) is a Japanese musician, singer, record producer and actor, who is best known internationally as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and as the former drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band. He is currently a member of the group METAFIVE. Biography Yukihiro Takahashi first came to prominence as the drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band in the early 1970s, and became known to western audiences after this band (led by Kazuhiko Katō, formerly of The Folk Crusaders) toured and recorded in the United Kingdom. After the Sadistic Mika Band disbanded, some of the members (including Takahashi) formed another band called The Sadistics, who released several albums. Takahashi recorded his first solo album, ''Saravah'', in 1977. In 1978, Takahashi joined Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Throughout the 1980s, Takahashi also released a large number of solo albums, ...
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Haruomi Hosono
, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades as well as pop music outside of Japan. He also inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei, and as leader of Yellow Magic Orchestra, contributed to the development and pioneering of numerous electronic genres. The grandson of ''Titanic'' survivor Masabumi Hosono, Haruomi began his career with the psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool, before achieving recognition both nationally and internationally, as a founding member of the bands Happy End and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Hosono has also released many solo albums covering a variety of styles, including film soundtracks and a variety of electronic ambient albums. As well as recording his own music, Hosono has done considerable production work for other artists such as Miharu Koshi, ...
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Mute Records
Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grinderman, Inspiral Carpets, Moby, New Order, Laibach, Nitzer Ebb, Yann Tiersen, Wire, Yeasayer, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Yazoo, and M83. History Beginnings During 1978, Daniel Miller began recording music, using synthesisers, under the name The Normal.Mute - Documentary Evidence - Biba Kopf 1986 He recorded the tracks "T.V.O.D." and "Warm Leatherette" and distributed them through Rough Trade Shops under the label name Mute Records. The label was formed initially just to release the one single.Muted Response - Daniel Miller Interview - E&MM 1984 "T.V.O.D."/"Warm Leatherette" became a cult hit ensuring the future of the label. "Warm Leatherette" was later covered by Grace Jones and Chicks on Speed as well as Rose McDowell. After meetin ...
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Zomba Music
The Zomba Group of Companies (sometimes referred to as Zomba Music Group or just Zomba Group) was a music group and division owned by and operated under Sony Music Entertainment. The division was renamed to Jive Label Group in 2009 and was placed under the RCA/Jive Label Group umbrella. In 2011, the RCA/Jive Label Group was split in half. Multiple Jive Label Group artists were moved to Epic Records while others stayed with Jive as it moved under the RCA Music Group. In October 2011 Jive Records was shut down and their artists were moved to RCA Records. Founded independently in the mid-seventies by Clive Calder and Ralph Simon, the group has had interests in music release, distribution, production, publishing, equipment rental, recording studios, and artist management. Though the financial structure and annual revenue of Zomba during the company's independent period was only known to CEO Clive Calder (the company was registered privately offshore in the Dutch Antilles), Zomba was ...
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A&M Records
A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distributing releases from Polydor Ltd. from the UK. Throughout its operations, A&M housed well-known acts such as Alpert himself, Squeeze, Gin Blossoms, Dishwalla, Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, Captain & Tennille, Sting, Sergio Mendes, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Supertramp, Bryan Adams, Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli, The Carpenters, Paul Williams, Quincy Jones, Janet Jackson, Cat Stevens, Peter Frampton, Elkie Brooks, Carole King, Styx (band), Styx, Dennis DeYoung, Extreme (band), Extreme, Amy Grant, Joan Baez, The Police, Jann Arden, CeCe Peniston, Shanice, Blues Traveler, Soundgarden, Duffy (singer), Duffy, Phil Ochs, Sheryl Crow, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and Nazareth_(band), Nazareth. PolyGram was acquired by Seagram and dissolved into Un ...
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Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation SONAM, headquartered in New York City, manages the company's US-based businesses. Sony's principal U.S. business ..., the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. The label was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953, but later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of genres, including pop music, pop, Rhythm and blues, R&B, rock music, rock, and hip hop music, hip hop. History Beginnings Epic Records was launched in 1953 by the Columbia Records unit of CBS, for the purpose of marketing jazz, pop music, pop, and European classical music, classical music that did not fit the theme of its more mainstream Columbia Records label. Initial classical music r ...
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