On June 1, 2008, a fire broke out on the

backlot A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction. Uses Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...

Universal Studios Hollywood Universal Studios Hollywood is a film studio and theme park in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, California. About 70% of the studio lies within the unincorporated county island known as Universal City while the rest lies w ...

, an American film studio and theme park in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

area of

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. The fire began when a worker used a

blowtorch A blowtorch, also referred to as a blowlamp, is an ambient air fuel-burning gas lamp used for applying flame and heat to various applications, usually metalworking. Early blowtorches used liquid fuel, carried in a refillable reservoir attach ...

to warm asphalt shingles that were being applied to a facade. He left before checking that all spots had cooled, and a three-alarm fire broke out. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriffs' deputy sustained minor injuries. The fire was extinguished after 24 hours.

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

said the fire destroyed a three-acre () portion of the Universal backlot, including the attraction ''

King Kong Encounter King Kong (better known as ''King Kong Encounter'' and also known as ''Kongfrontation'' during opening and ''King Kong: The Ride'') was an attraction formerly part of the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. The attraction ...

'' and 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies. A 2019 exposé from ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'' asserted that the fire also destroyed 118,000 to 175,000 audio master tapes belonging to

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch–American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

(UMG). This included original recordings belonging to some of the best-selling artists worldwide. UMG disputed the report, though the CEO, Lucian Grainge, acknowledged that "the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking".

Fire

On June 1, 2008, a three-alarm fire broke out on the

Universal Studios Lot Universal Studios Lot is a television and film studio complex located at 100 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, California, adjacent to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. It is the site of Universal Pictures and is owned by Comcas ...

, the backlot of Universal Studios. The fire started when a worker was using a blowtorch to warm asphalt shingles being applied to a facade. The

Los Angeles County Fire Department The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) provides firefighting services as well as technical rescue services, hazardous materials response services and emergency medical response services for the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County ...

(LACoFD) reported that Brownstone Street, New York Street, New England Street, the King Kong attraction, some structures that make up Courthouse Square, and the Video Vault, which contained duplicates of Universal's film library, had burned down. Aerial news footage captured the Courthouse building surviving its third fire, with only the west side slightly charred. The LACoFD sent 516 firefighters, as well as two helicopters dropping water. Nine firefighters and a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy sustained minor injuries. The fire took at least 12 hours to extinguish, in part because of the low water pressure due to the low capacity of Universal's pipes; firefighters had to tap streams and lakes. Universal executives initially said the fire destroyed 40,000 to 50,000 archived digital video and film copies of Universal movies and TV shows, some almost a century old, and including the films '' Knocked Up'' and ''

Atonement Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ...

'', the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

series ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering ...

'', ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original ser ...

'', and ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann (director), Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo ...

'', and the CBS series '' I Love Lucy''. Universal president

Ron Meyer Ronald Shaw Meyer (February 17, 1941 – December 5, 2017) was an American college and professional football coach. He is best known for having been the head coach of Southern Methodist University, the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts ...

told the media that "nothing irreplaceable was lost" and that the company had duplicates of everything destroyed. Universal replaced the King Kong attraction with '' King Kong: 360 3-D'', based on the 2005 ''King Kong'' film.

2019 ''New York Times'' report

In June 2019, ''

'' published an investigative article by freelance journalist Jody Rosen that alleged that the damage was far more serious than Universal had said. The fire destroyed Building 6197, a warehouse adjoining the King Kong attraction. In addition to more videos, it housed a huge archive containing multiple copies of audio and video recordings, documents ranging from legal papers to liner notes, and packaging materials and artwork belonging to

(UMG). The collection included the catalogues of UMG's West Coast labels including

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in We ...

MCA MCA may refer to: Astronomy * Mars-crossing asteroid, an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars Aviation * Minimum crossing altitude, a minimum obstacle crossing altitude for fixes on published airways * Medium Combat Aircraft, a 5th gen ...

, Geffen,

Interscope Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mu ...

, A&M, Impulse!, and their subsidiary labels. Rosen estimated the individual items lost range from 118,000 to 175,000 album and 45-rpm single master tapes,

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

master discs, lacquers (also known as acetates), as well as all the documentation contained in the tape boxes. The article alleged some tapes contained unreleased recordings such as

outtake An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and D ...

s, alternative versions of released material, and instrumental "submaster" multitracks created for

dubbing Dubbing (re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production sou ...

and

mixdown In sound recording and reproduction, audio mixing is the process of optimizing and combining multitrack recordings into a final mono, stereo or surround sound product. In the process of combining the separate tracks, their relative levels are ad ...

. However, UMG found only one unreleased album potentially affected in the fire, and they located multiple copies of that recording and could still release that album in the future if the artist wishes to. Randy Aronson, manager of the vault at the time, estimates that the masters of as many as 500,000 individual tracks were lost. Rosen argued master recordings are irreplaceable, even if copies exist, because the original recording "contains the record's details in their purest form," citing Andy Zax, a Grammy-nominated producer and writer who works on reissued recordings. However, that claim has been disputed by many audio experts. including ''Analog Planet'' editor

Michael Fremer Michael Fremer (born 1947) is an American music journalist, YouTuber, and voice actor from New York City, known for writing about audiophile equipment and vinyl. He is the editor of ''The Tracking Angle'' and Senior Editor at '' The Absolute Sou ...

, who said that due to use and natural decay, often safety copies become a superior source for reissues. UMG stated that even when the original master is available, the company often works from duplicates or digitized versions because the fidelity of the original master has deteriorated from overuse or from chemical interactions over time or for other technical reasons. UMG said it reissues thousands of recordings a year, and each project presents a unique set of challenges to overcome. In each case, UMG's team of experts use the highest fidelity recordings possible. Among the possible losses were the entire AVI Records catalog, all of

's masters from the 1930s to the 1950s, most of the original

masters, which included artists such as

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post- war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicag ...

, and

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

, as well as most of

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raise ...

's master tapes from his period signed to Impulse! Records. On

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, Rosen stated that the Coltrane masters were among the most checked-out Impulse! items in the vault, and a source had told him that the masters for ''

A Love Supreme ''A Love Supreme'' is an album by American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He recorded it in one session on December 9, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, leading a quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy ...

'' were likely elsewhere during the fire. Two weeks later, Rosen wrote a follow-up article, listing at least 700 additional artists named in internal UMG documents as possibly affected. Determining which recordings had been destroyed, or how much of an artist's discography had been affected, was impossible, he wrote. For example, Rosen said it was difficult to confirm whether the

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

recordings listed in the documents were the original master tapes of the albums he recorded for

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

in the 1980s, or session outtakes from those records. Rosen tweeted that the documents also listed several Broadway

cast recording A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...

s among the tapes destroyed. Additionally, several nonmusical audio recordings were reported as destroyed, including the original recording of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 " Remaining Awake During a Great Revolution" sermon delivered at the

Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the ca ...

. Despite Rosen's reporting, at the end of the second article, even ''The New York Times'' acknowledged they could not definitely state that any master recordings had actually been lost in the fire, stating "It is not possible to assert definitively which masters were burned in the fire, nor can it be said categorically that all of these artists did in fact lose masters. It also cannot be determined exactly how many of the destroyed masters were primary-source originals."

Artists' responses

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

Semisonic Semisonic is an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1995, consisting of Dan Wilson (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), John Munson (bass, keyboards, backing vocals, guitar), and Jacob Slichter (drums, percussion, keyboards, b ...

drummer Jacob Slichter, and

Counting Crows Counting Crows is an American rock band from San Francisco, California. Formed in 1991, the band consists of guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, David Immerglück, bass guitarist Mil ...

singer

Adam Duritz Adam Fredric Duritz (born August 1, 1964) is an American singer, best known as the frontman for the rock band Counting Crows, of which he is a founding member and principal composer. Since its founding in 1991, Counting Crows has sold over 20 mi ...

said they had been told that UMG had misplaced their tapes. Richard Carpenter told the ''Times'' he had been informed about the destruction of his tapes by a UMG employee while he was working on a reissue, and only after Carpenter had made multiple, persistent inquiries. Following the publication of Rosen's articles, several affected musicians posted reactions on social media, with some noting specific tapes that may have been lost. For instance, singer-songwriter

Jill Sobule Jill Sobule (born January 16, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single "I Kissed a Girl", and "Supermodel" from the soundtrack of the 1995 film '' Clueless''. Her folk-inflected compositions alternate between ironic ...

said she had lost two masters in the fire, including tapes for an unreleased album produced by Joe Jackson, but Sobule later clarified UMG informed her none of her tapes had been lost, including the unreleased album. Several other artists also contradicted ''The Times''' reporting, stating their recordings had not been affected by the fire. Nirvana stated on Twitter that all of their tapes are safe as did Sheryl Crow, with UMG confirming, "masters for all of Crow's A&M-released albums survived the fire" The Canadian band

The Tragically Hip The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, were a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker (known as Bobby Baker until 1994), bassi ...

reported on their website that ''The New York Times'' incorrectly listed the band among those who had lost tapes in a 2008 fire in the backlot of Universal Studios. Drummer Johnny Fay wrote that all of the band's material had been relocated to Canada in 2001.

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical colla ...

posted that his losses were minimal and that none of his master recordings had been lost, while Smash Mouth confirmed their recordings "were not destroyed in that very unfortunate fire." Within two weeks of Rosen's article, five plaintiffs (singer-songwriter

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music ...

, the estates of the late

Tupac Shakur Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

and

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and guitarist of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, was a member of the la ...

, and the bands Hole and Soundgarden) filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against UMG. In their complaint, the plaintiffs claimed UMG never told artists about the effects of the fire and had breached their contracts by failing to properly secure its master tape collection. They further alleged that UMG did not share insurance or legal payouts received as a result of the fire. Every plaintiff except for Tom Petty's ex-wife dropped out of the complaint after UMG provided artists with a list of their recordings in the company's archives. On July 17, Universal moved to dismiss the class-action lawsuit. On August 16, 2019, Hole dropped out of the lawsuit after UMG assured them that the band's masters were not affected by the fire. Slightly over a month later, UMG also claimed that Shakur, Earle, and Petty did not lose their masters in the fire, and that an investigation with Soundgarden was still going on. Shakur and Earle would also later drop out as plaintiffs after learning their master tapes hadn't been harmed. Five days later, Universal demanded Soundgarden drop the suit, which the label had also moved to dismiss, citing documentary proof that the label had informed the band about the lost masters in 2015 and accusing their lawyer of " ailingto conduct presuit diligence in your rush to be the first to file." The surviving band members declined. "Their arbitrary deadlines have zero force or effect," Howard King, their attorney, told ''Rolling Stone''. "Until UMG reveals what it collected for their litigation claims to extensive damage to master recordings, we cannot accept their belated claim that no damages were actually suffered." Universal's dismissal motion also publicly confirmed that master tapes for Soundgarden's ''

Badmotorfinger ''Badmotorfinger'' is the third studio album by American rock band Soundgarden, released on October 8, 1991, through A&M Records. Soundgarden began the recording sessions for the album with new bassist Ben Shepherd in the spring of 1991. The alb ...

'' album had been destroyed in the fire, and that members of the group had been made aware of the destruction in 2015 while they were working on a remaster of the album that was eventually completed with a backup safety copy. In December 2019, district court judge John Kronstadt ruled that Universal must hand over discovery evidence, and denied the label's request to postpone the delivery. In March 2020, Soundgarden and the Shakur estate dropped out of the class action against UMG. On March 23, Steve Earle also dropped out, leaving Tom Petty's widow as the only remaining plaintiff. The lawsuit was dismissed by Kronstadt on April 6, 2020, with a refiled complaint dismissed with prejudice on March 29, 2021. After the lawsuit was dismissed, UMG said ''The Times'' "has a responsibility to explain why its editors continue to stand behind a story that has been disproven with incontrovertible evidence from both UMG and many of the artists named in the story."

UMG response

Since its publication, UMG has disputed Rosen's article, saying it contained "numerous inaccuracies" and "fundamental misunderstandings of the scope of the incident and affected assets". UMG said it was unable to disclose details due to "constraints". In a ''Billboard'' interview, UMG archivist Patrick Kraus said that several masters of

, and

Ahmad Jamal Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones, July 2, 1930) is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and educator. For six decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. Biography Early life Jamal was born Fr ...

recordings, plus items from the catalogs of

Nashboro Records Nashboro Records was an American gospel label principally active in the 1950s and 1960s. History Nashboro was founded in Nashville, Tennessee by Ernie Lafayette Young (1892-1977), who was the owner of a record store, Ernie's Record Mart, and sponso ...

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock a ...

, and Impulse! Records survived the fire and were still in Universal's archive. Rosen responded in his June 25 piece, noting that some of the masters that Kraus had mentioned may have survived the fire because they were being used for remastering projects at the time, or were not the primary source master. Aronson also confirmed to Rosen that the vast majority of items in the vault at the time of the fire were original, primary source master recordings. However, UMG stated the vault, which mostly contained duplicate tapes and not original masters, was a third empty at the time of the fire because the company had already begun transferring assets to its Iron Mountain facility. In an email to staff following the publication of Rosen's story, Lucian Grainge said he was forming a team of researchers to provide artists with definitive information and confirmed that UMG had suffered a serious loss of archival material. Grainge wrote: "While I've been somewhat relieved by early reports from our team that many of the assertions and subsequent speculation are not accurate, one thing is clear: the loss of even a single piece of archived material is heartbreaking." He wrote that it was "completely unacceptable" that their artists did not know the details and pledged to deliver "answers". On June 26, Kraus issued a memo to staff which detailed UMG's plan to determine which assets had been affected. A month after the story broke, Kraus issued an internal note to Universal staff, which claimed that his research at the time had found only 22 original master recordings by five artists had been lost in the fire, and that backup copies had been found for each lost master. He added that UMG had been fielding requests from over 200 artists and their representatives. Kraus said his team had reviewed over 26,000 assets by 30 artists, of which 424 assets (including 349 audio recordings) might have been lost. On November 4, 2019, Scott Edelman of Gibson Dunn, an attorney for UMG, told U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt that UMG is the undisputed owner of the recordings and that artists' contracts provide for payments through royalties, not insurance claims. A February 2020 court filing by UMG confirmed that master tapes from at least 19 artists had been damaged or destroyed in the fire. The artists whom UMG confirmed were affected are

, ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, David Baerwald,

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three ...

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician and songwriter who was a member of the rock bands Humble Pie and the Herd. As a solo artist, he has released several albums, including his major breakthrough album, the live ...

Jimmy Eat World Jimmy Eat World is an American rock band formed in 1993 in Mesa, Arizona. The band is composed of lead vocalist and lead guitarist Jim Adkins, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Tom Linton, bassist Rick Burch, and drummer Zach Lind. They ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

, Michael McDonald,

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lamp Richard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colomb ...

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz guitarist, jazz, country guitarist, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body ...

, R.E.M.,

Slayer Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical styl ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of t ...

, Soundgarden, the Surfaris,

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered th ...

, White Zombie and Y&T. However, ''Billboard'' wrote that "UMG says original digital master recordings for Nirvana, Beck, Bryan Adams, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Eat World, Suzanne Vega, White Zombie and Yesterday & Today were affected, but it has replacements or digital clones of these assets. R.E.M had one song from a soundtrack affected but UMG has copies in the same format."

List of artists affected, according to ''The New York Times''

According to ''The New York Times Magazine'', artists whose original master recordings were destroyed in whole or part in the 2008 fire include: *

38 Special 38 Special may refer to: * .38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, cent ...

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced ...

* Colonel Abrams * Johnny Ace *

Nat Adderley Nathaniel Carlyle Adderley (November 25, 1931 – January 2, 2000) was an American jazz trumpeter. He was the younger brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, whom he supported and played with for many years. Adderley's composition ...

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whitford (guitar). Their style, which is rooted in blues ...

* Rhett Akins *

Manny Albam Manny Albam (June 24, 1922 – October 2, 2001) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, record producer, and educator. Early life A native of the Dominican Republic, Albam grew up in New York City. He was attracted to jazz at an ea ...

Lorez Alexandria Lorez Alexandria (born Dolorez Alexandria Turner; August 14, 1929 – May 22, 2001). was an American jazz singer, described as "one of the most gifted and underrated jazz singers of the twentieth century". She became established in the midwest b ...

Gary Allan Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his country music debut with the release of his single " Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album '' U ...

* Red Allen *

Steve Allen Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...

Ames Brothers The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet, consisting of four siblings from Malden, Massachusetts, who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop music hits. Biography The Urick brothers were born in Malden, Massachusetts. ...

Gene Ammons Eugene "Jug" Ammons (April 14, 1925 – August 6, 1974), also known as "The Boss", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. The son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons, Gene Ammons is remembered for his accessible music, steeped in soul and ...

* Bill Anderson * John Anderson *

The Andrews Sisters The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (January ...

Lee Andrews & the Hearts Lee Andrews & the Hearts were an American doo-wop quintet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, formed in 1953. They recorded on the Gotham, Rainbow, Mainline, Chess, United Artists, Grand and Gowen labels. Managed by Kae Williams, in ...

Paul Anka Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and "(You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...

Adam Ant Stuart Leslie Goddard, better known as Adam Ant (born 3 November 1954), is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK top ten ...

* Toni Arden *

Joan Armatrading Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, (, born 9 December 1950) is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received ...

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and Singing, vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and se ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Asleep at the Wheel Asleep at the Wheel is an American Western swing group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, and is based in Austin, Texas. The band has won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception, released over twenty albums, and has charted more t ...

Audioslave Audioslave was an American rock supergroup formed in Glendale, California, in 2001. The four-piece band consisted of Soundgarden's lead singer and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell with Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello (lead guitar) ...

Patti Austin Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950) is an American R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter. Music career Austin was born in Harlem, New York, to Gordon Austin, a jazz trombonist. She was raised in Bay Shore, New York on Long Island. Quincy ...

Average White Band The Average White Band (also known as AWB) are a Scottish funk and R&B band that had a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980. They are best known for their million-selling instrumental track " Pick Up the Pieces", and their album ...

Hoyt Axton Hoyt Wayne Axton (March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voic ...

Albert Ayler Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer. After early experience playing R&B and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Howev ...

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gr ...

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

Razzy Bailey Rasie Michael "Razzy" Bailey (February 14, 1939 – August 4, 2021) was an American country music. In the early 1980s, he scored 5 No. 1's on the ''Billboard'' country music charts. Early life Bailey was born in Five Points, Alabama, United ...

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

Florence Ballard Florence Glenda Chapman (''née'' Ballard; June 30, 1943 – February 22, 1976) was an American singer and a founding member of the Motown vocal female group the Supremes. She sang on 16 top 40 singles with the group, including ten number-o ...

Hank Ballard Hank Ballard (born John Henry Kendricks; November 18, 1927 – March 2, 2003) was an American singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of The Midnighters and one of the first rock and roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s. He played an inte ...

* Gato Barbieri *

Baja Marimba Band The Baja Marimba Band was a musical group led by marimba player Julius Wechter. Formed by producer Herb Alpert after his own Tijuana Brass, the Baja Marimba Band outlasted the Tijuana Brass by several years in part due to TV producer Chuck Barris ...

The Banana Splits ''The Banana Splits'' is an American television variety show produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and featuring the Banana Splits, a fictional rock band composed of four costumed animal characters in red marching band hats with yellow plumes. ...

* Len Barry *

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

Fontella Bass Fontella Marie Bass (July 3, 1940 – December 26, 2012) was an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter best known for her number-one R&B hit " Rescue Me" in 1965. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice. Early life Fontella Bass was b ...

The Beat Farmers The Beat Farmers were an American rock band that formed in San Diego, California, United States, in August 1983, and enjoyed a cult following into the early 1990s before the death of drummer and sometime lead singer Country Dick Montana. Their ...

Sidney Bechet Sidney Bechet (May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He was one of the first important soloists in jazz, and first recorded several months before trumpeter Louis Armstrong. His erratic tempe ...

Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...

* Archie Bell & the Drells *

Vincent Bell Vincent Edward Gambella (July 28, 1932 – October 3, 2019), known as Vinnie Bell, was an American session guitarist, instrument designer and pioneer of electronic effects in pop music. Life and career He was born in Brooklyn">p> Life and car ...

Bell Biv DeVoe Bell Biv DeVoe, also known as BBD, is an American music group from Boston, Massachusetts, formed from members of New Edition, consisting of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins and Ronnie DeVoe. The band is best known for their debut album, the multi-p ...

Louie Bellson Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, ...

* David Benoit *

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, play ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

Elmer Bernstein Elmer Bernstein ( '; April 4, 1922August 18, 2004) was an American composer and conductor. In a career that spanned over five decades, he composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 origi ...

Nuno Bettencourt Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt (born September 20, 1966) is a Portuguese-American guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and businessman. He became known as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme. He has also recorded ...

* Stephen Bishop *

Blackstreet Blackstreet (often stylized as BLACKstreet) is an American R&B group founded in 1991 by record producers Chauncey "Black" Hannibal, and Teddy "Street" Riley. The group has released four albums with Interscope Records until 2003. They achieved ...

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the ...

Hal Blaine Hal Blaine (born Harold Simon Belsky; February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019) was an American drummer and session musician, thought to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. ...

* Bobby "Blue" Bland * Mary J. Blige *

The Blind Boys of Alabama The Blind Boys of Alabama, also billed as The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys of Alabama, is an American Gospel music, gospel group. The group was founded in 1939 in Talladega, Alabama, and has featured a ch ...

Blink-182 Blink-182 (stylized as blink-182) is an American rock band formed in Poway, California in 1992. Their current lineup consists of bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus, guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. Though their sound has ...

Blues Traveler Blues Traveler (formerly known as "The Establishment" or "The Black Cat Jam" or "The Establishment Blues Band") is an American rock band that formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. They are known for extensive use of segues in live performan ...

Eddie Bo Edwin Joseph Bocage (September 20, 1930 – March 18, 2009), known as Eddie Bo, was an American singer and pianist from New Orleans. Schooled in jazz, he was known for his blues, soul and funk recordings, compositions, productions and arrang ...

Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer and actor. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in mo ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Connee Boswell Constance Foore "Connie" Boswell (December 3, 1907 – October 11, 1976) was an American vocalist born in Kansas City but raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. With sisters Martha and Helvetia "Vet", she performed in the 1920s and 1930s as the trio ...

* Eddie Boyd *

Jan Bradley Addie "Jan" Bradley (born July 6, 1943) is an American soul singer. Biography Bradley was born in Byhalia, Mississippi, United States, and grew up in Robbins, Illinois. She was noticed by manager Don Talty (who also managed Phil Upchurch) at a h ...

Owen Bradley William Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American musician and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was one of the chief architects of the 1950s and 1960s Nashville so ...

* Oscar Brand *

Bob Braun Robert E. Braun (April 20, 1929 – January 15, 2001) was an American local television and radio personality, best known for a program originating in Cincinnati, Ohio named ''The Bob Braun Show''. The show, which he hosted from 1967 to 1984, had ...

Walter Brennan Walter Andrew Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in '' Come and Get It'' (1936), ''Kentucky'' (1938), and '' The Westerner ...

* Jackie Brenston *

Teresa Brewer Teresa Brewer (born Theresa Veronica Breuer; May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007) was an American singer whose style incorporated pop, country, jazz, R&B, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of th ...

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians Edie Brickell & New Bohemians is an alternative rock jam band that originated in Dallas, Texas, in the mid-1980s. The band is widely known for their 1988 hit "What I Am" from the album '' Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars''. Their music contain ...

* John Brim * Willmer "Little Ax" Broadnax * Lonnie Brooks *

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African American audiences. In the 1930s ...

Brothers Johnson The Brothers Johnson were an American funk and R&B band consisting of American musicians and brothers George ("Lightnin' Licks") and Louis E. Johnson ("Thunder Thumbs"). They achieved their greatest success from the mid-1970s to early 1980s, ...

Bobby Brown Robert Barisford Brown (born February 5, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Brown, alongside frequent collaborator Teddy Riley, is noted as one of the pioneers of new jack swing: a fusion of hip hop and R&B. Brown started h ...

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 – September 10, 2005) was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, ''Alright Again!''. Early life B ...

* Lawrence Brown * Les Brown * Marion Brown * Marshall Brown * Mel Brown * Michael Brown *

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

Jimmy Buffett James William Buffett (born December 25, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffe ...

Carol Burnett Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and writer. Her groundbreaking comedy variety show ''The Carol Burnett Show'', which originally aired on CBS was one of the first of its kind to be hosted ...

T-Bone Burnett Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. He rose to fame as a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. He has received multiple Grammy awards for his work in fil ...

Dorsey Burnette Dorsey William Burnett Jr. (December 28, 1932 – August 19, 1979) was an American early rockabilly singer. With his younger brother Johnny Burnette and a friend named Paul Burlison, he was a founder member of The Rock and Roll Trio. He is als ...

Johnny Burnette John Joseph Burnette (March 25, 1934 – August 14, 1964) was an American singer and songwriter of rockabilly and pop music. In 1952, Johnny and his brother, Dorsey Burnette, and their mutual friend Paul Burlison formed the band that became ...

Terry Callier Terrence Orlando "Terry" Callier (May 24, 1945 – October 27, 2012) was an American soul, folk and jazz guitarist and singer-songwriter. Life and career Callier was born in the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, and was raised in the Cabrini� ...

Cab Calloway Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalis ...

* The Call *

Glen Campbell Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting '' The Glen Campbell Good ...

Captain & Tennille Captain & Tennille were American recording artists whose primary success occurred in the 1970s. The husband-and-wife team were "Captain" Daryl Dragon (1942–2019) and Toni Tennille (born 1940). They have five albums certified gold or platinu ...

Captain Sensible Raymond Ian Burns (born 24 April 1954), known by the stage name Captain Sensible, is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. Captain Sensible co-founded the punk rock band the Damned, originally playing bass before switching to guitar. H ...

Irene Cara Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and actress of Black, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent. Cara rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film '' Fame'', and f ...

Belinda Carlisle Belinda Jo Carlisle ( ; born August 17, 1958) is an American singer. She gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist. Raised in ...

* Carl Carlton * Eric Carmen * Hoagy Carmichael * Kim Carnes * Karen Carpenter * Richard Carpenter * The Carpenters * Barbara Carr * Benny Carter * Betty Carter * Carter Family * Peter Case * Alvin Cash * Rosanne Cash * Bobby Charles * Ray Charles * Chubby Checker * Checkmates, Ltd. * Cheech & Chong * Cher * Don Cherry (trumpeter), Don Cherry * Mark Chesnutt * The Chi-Lites * Eric Clapton * Gene Clark * Petula Clark * Roy Clark * Merry Clayton * Jimmy Cliff * Patsy Cline * Rosemary Clooney * Wayne Cochran * Joe Cocker * Gloria Coleman * Ornette Coleman * Mitty Collier * Jazzbo Collins * Judy Collins * Colosseum (band), Colosseum * Alice Coltrane *

* Common (rapper), Common * Cookie and his Cupcakes * Barbara Cook * Rita Coolidge * Stewart Copeland * The Corsairs * Dave "Baby" Cortez * Bill Cosby * Don Costa * Clifford Coulter *

* Coverdale•Page * Warren Covington * Deborah Cox * James "Sugar Boy" Crawford * Fritz Schulz-Reichel, Crazy Otto * Marshall Crenshaw * The Crew-Cuts * Sonny Criss * Bing Crosby * Bob Crosby * David Crosby * Crosby & Nash *

* Rodney Crowell * The Crusaders (jazz fusion group), The Crusaders * The Cuff Links * Xavier Cugat * Tim Curry * The Damned (band), The Damned * Danny & The Juniors * Rodney Dangerfield * Bobby Darin * Helen Darling (singer), Helen Darling * David & David * Billy Davis Jr. * Mac Davis * Richard Davis (bassist), Richard Davis * Sammy Davis Jr. * Chris de Burgh * Lenny Dee (organist), Lenny Dee * Jack DeJohnette * The Dells * The Del-Vikings * Sandy Denny * Sugar Pie DeSanto * The Desert Rose Band * Dennis DeYoung * Neil Diamond * Bo Diddley * Difford & Tilbrook * Dillard & Clark * The Dixie Hummingbirds * Willie Dixon * DJ Shadow * Fats Domino * Jimmy Donley * Kenny Dorham * Jimmy Dorsey * Lee Dorsey * Tommy Dorsey * Lamont Dozier * The Dramatics * The Dream Syndicate * The Dream Weavers * Roy Drusky * Jimmy Durante * Deanna Durbin * Eagles (band), Eagles *

* El Chicano * Danny Elfman * Yvonne Elliman * Duke Ellington * Cass Elliot * Joe Ely * John Entwistle * Eminem * Eric B. & Rakim * Gil Evans * Paul Evans (musician), Paul Evans * Betty Everett * Don Everly * Extreme (band), Extreme * The Falcons * Harold Faltermeyer * Donna Fargo * Art Farmer * Freddy Fender * Ferrante & Teicher * Fever Tree (band), Fever Tree * The 5th Dimension * Ella Fitzgerald * The Fixx * The Flamingos * King Floyd * The Flying Burrito Brothers * John Fogerty * Red Foley * Eddie Fontaine * The Four Aces * Four Tops *

* Franke and the Knockouts * Aretha Franklin * C. L. Franklin * Frazier River * The Free Movement * Glenn Frey * Lefty Frizzell * Curtis Fuller * Jerry Fuller * Lowell Fulson * Harvey Fuqua * Nelly Furtado * Hank Garland * Judy Garland * Erroll Garner * Jimmy Garrison * Larry Gatlin * Gene Loves Jezebel * Barry Gibb * Georgia Gibbs * Terri Gibbs * Dizzy Gillespie * Gin Blossoms * Tompall Glaser * Glass Harp (band), Glass Harp * Tom Glazer * Whoopi Goldberg * Golden Earring * Paul Gonsalves * Benny Goodman * Dexter Gordon * Rosco Gordon * Eydie Gormé * Lesley Gore * Teddy Grace * Grand Funk Railroad * Amy Grant * Earl Grant * The Grass Roots * Dobie Gray * Buddy Greco * Al Green * Keith Green * Jack Greene * Robert Greenidge * Lee Greenwood * Patty Griffin * Nanci Griffith * Dave Grusin * Guns N' Roses * Buddy Guy * Buddy Hackett * Charlie Haden * Merle Haggard * Bill Haley & His Comets * Aaron Hall (singer), Aaron Hall * Lani Hall * Chico Hamilton * George Hamilton IV * Vicky Hamilton (musician), Vicky Hamilton * Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds * Marvin Hamlisch * Jan Hammer * Lionel Hampton * John Handy * Slim Harpo * Richard Harris * Freddie Hart * Dan Hartman * Johnny Hartman * Coleman Hawkins * Dale Hawkins * Richie Havens * Roy Haynes * Head East * Heavy D * Bobby Helms * Don Henley * Clarence "Frogman" Henry * Woody Herman * Milt Herth * John Hiatt * Al Hibbler * Dan Hicks (singer), Dan Hicks * Monk Higgins * Jessie Hill * Earl Hines * Roger Hodgson * Hole * Billie Holiday * Jennifer Holliday * Buddy Holly * The Hollywood Flames * Eddie Holman * John Lee Hooker * Stix Hooper * Bob Hope * Paul Horn (musician), Paul Horn * Shirley Horn * Big Walter Horton * Thelma Houston * Rebecca Lynn Howard * Jan Howard *

* Freddie Hubbard * Humble Pie * Engelbert Humperdinck (singer), Engelbert Humperdinck * Brian Hyland * The Impressions * The Ink Spots * Iron Butterfly * Burl Ives * Janet Jackson * Joe Jackson * Milt Jackson *

* Etta James * Elmore James * James Gang * Keith Jarrett * Jason & The Scorchers * Jawbreaker (band), Jawbreaker * Garland Jeffreys * Gordon Jenkins, Beverly Jenkins * Gordon Jenkins * The Jets (Minnesota band), The Jets *

* Jodeci * Johnnie & Joe * The Joe Perry Project *

* J. J. Johnson * Al Jolson * Booker T. Jones * Elvin Jones * George Jones * Hank Jones * Jack Jones (singer), Jack Jones * Marti Jones * Quincy Jones * Rickie Lee Jones * Tamiko Jones * Tom Jones (singer), Tom Jones * Louis Jordan * The Jordanaires * Jurassic 5 * Bert Kaempfert * Kitty Kallen * Kalin Twins * Bob Kames * Kansas (band), Kansas * Boris Karloff * Sammy Kaye * K-Ci & JoJo * Toby Keith * Gene Kelly * Chaka Khan * Andy Kim (singer), Andy Kim * B.B. King * Martin Luther King Jr. * Wayne King * The Kingsmen * The Kingston Trio * Roland Kirk * Eartha Kitt * John Klemmer * Klymaxx * Baker Knight * Chris Knight (musician), Chris Knight * Gladys Knight & the Pips * Krokus (band), Krokus * Steve Kuhn * Joachim Kühn * Rolf Kühn * Patti LaBelle * L.A. Dream Team * Frankie Laine * Lambert, Hendricks & Ross * Denise LaSalle * Yusef Lateef * Steve Lawrence * Lafayette Leake * Brenda Lee * Laura Lee (singer-songwriter), Laura Lee * Leapy Lee * Peggy Lee * Danni Leigh * The Lennon Sisters * J.B. Lenoir * Jerry Lee Lewis * Jerry Lewis * Meade Lux Lewis * Ramsey Lewis * Liberace * Lifehouse (band), Lifehouse * Enoch Light * The Lightning Seeds * Limp Bizkit * Lisa Loeb * Little Milton * Little River Band * Little Walter * Lobo (musician), Lobo * Nils Lofgren * Lone Justice * Guy Lombardo * Lord Tracy * The Louvin Brothers * Love (band), Love * Patty Loveless * The Lovelites * Lyle Lovett * Love Unlimited * Loretta Lynn * L.T.D. (band), L.T.D. * Lynyrd Skynyrd * Gloria Lynne * Moms Mabley * Willie Mabon * Warner Mack * Dave Mackay (musician), Dave Mackay * Miriam Makeba * The Mamas and the Papas * Melissa Manchester * Barbara Mandrell * Chuck Mangione * Shelly Manne * Wade Marcus * Mark-Almond * Pigmeat Markham * Steve Marriott * Wink Martindale * Groucho Marx * Hugh Masekela * Dave Mason * Jerry Mason (singer), Jerry Mason * Iain Matthews, Matthews Southern Comfort * The Mavericks * Robert Maxwell (songwriter), Robert Maxwell * John Mayall * Percy Mayfield * Lyle Mays * Les McCann * Delbert McClinton * Robert Lee McCollum * Marilyn McCoo * Van McCoy * Jimmy McCracklin * Jack McDuff * Reba McEntire * Gary McFarland * Barry McGuire * The McGuire Sisters * Duff McKagan * Maria McKee * McKendree Spring * Marian McPartland * Clyde McPhatter * Carmen McRae * Jack McVea * Meat Loaf * John Mellencamp * Memphis Slim * Sergio Mendes * Ethel Merman * Pat Metheny * Mighty Clouds of Joy * Roger Miller * Stephanie Mills * The Mills Brothers * Liza Minnelli * Charles Mingus * Joni Mitchell * Bill Monroe * Vaughn Monroe * Buddy Montgomery * Wes Montgomery * The Moody Blues * The Moonglows * Jane Morgan * Russ Morgan * Ennio Morricone * Mos Def * Martin Mull * Gerry Mulligan * Milton Nascimento * Johnny Nash * Nazareth (band), Nazareth * Nelson (band), Nelson * Jimmy Nelson (singer), Jimmy Nelson * Oliver Nelson * Ricky Nelson * Aaron Neville * Art Neville * The Neville Brothers * New Edition * New Riders of the Purple Sage * Olivia Newton-John * Night Ranger * Leonard Nimoy * Nine Inch Nails *

* Nitty Gritty Dirt Band * No Doubt * Ken Nordine * Red Norvo * Terri Nunn * The Oak Ridge Boys * Ric Ocasek * Phil Ochs * Hazel O'Connor * Chico O'Farrill * Oingo Boingo * The O'Jays * Spooner Oldham * One Flew South * Yoko Ono * Orleans (band), Orleans * Jeffrey Osborne * The Outfield * Pablo Cruise * Jackie Paris * Leo Parker * Junior Parker * Ray Parker Jr. * Dolly Parton *

* Freda Payne * Peaches & Herb * Pebbles (musician), Pebbles * CeCe Peniston * The Peppermint Rainbow * The Persuasions * Bernadette Peters * Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers * John Phillips (musician), John Phillips * Webb Pierce * Poco * The Pointer Sisters * The Police * Doc Pomus * Jimmy Ponder * Iggy Pop * Billy Preston * Lloyd Price * Louis Prima * Primus (band), Primus * Red Prysock * Puddle of Mudd * Leroy Pullins * The Pussycat Dolls * Quarterflash * Queen Latifah * Sun Ra * The Radiants * Gerry Rafferty * Kenny Rankin * Ray Charles (musician, born 1918), The Ray Charles Singers * The Ray-O-Vacs * The Rays * Dewey Redman * Della Reese * Martha Reeves * R.E.M. * Debbie Reynolds * Emitt Rhodes * Busta Rhymes * Buddy Rich * Emil Richards * Dannie Richmond * Riders in the Sky (band), Riders in the Sky * Stan Ridgway * Sam Rivers (jazz musician), Sam Rivers * Max Roach * Howard Roberts * Marty Roberts * The Roches * Chris Rock * Tommy Roe * Jimmy Rogers * Sonny Rollins * The Roots * Rose Royce * Doctor Ross * Jackie Ross * Rotary Connection * Roswell Rudd * Rufus (band), Rufus * Otis Rush * Brenda Russell * Leon Russell * Pee Wee Russell * The Russian Jazz Quartet * Mitch Ryder * Buffy Sainte-Marie * Joe Sample * Pharoah Sanders * The Sandpipers * Shirley Scott * Tom Scott (saxophonist), Tom Scott * Dawn Sears * Neil Sedaka * Jeannie Seely *

* Charlie Sexton *

* Georgie Shaw * Marlena Shaw * Archie Shepp * Dinah Shore * Ben Sidran * Silver Apples * Shel Silverstein * The Simon Sisters * Ashlee Simpson * ''The Simpsons'' * Zoot Sims * P.F. Sloan * Smash Mouth * Kate Smith * Keely Smith * Tab Smith * Patty Smyth * Snoop Dogg * Valaida Snow *

* Soft Machine *

* Sonny & Cher * The Soul Stirrers * Soundgarden * Eddie South * Southern Culture on the Skids * The Sparkletones * Spinal Tap (band), Spinal Tap * The Spokesmen * Squeeze (band), Squeeze * Jo Stafford * Chris Stamey * Joe Stampley * Michael Stanley * Kay Starr * Stealers Wheel * Steely Dan * Gwen Stefani * Steppenwolf (band), Steppenwolf * Cat Stevens * Billy Stewart * Sting (musician), Sting * Sonny Stitt * Shane Stockton * George Strait * Strawberry Alarm Clock * Strawbs * Steve and Eydie * Styx (band), Styx * Sublime (band), Sublime * Sum 41 * Yma Sumac * Andy Summers * The Sundowners (band), The Sundowners * Supertramp * The Surfaris * Sylvia Syms (singer), Sylvia Syms * Gábor Szabó * The Tams * Grady Tate * t.A.T.u. * Billy Taylor * Koko Taylor * Charlie Teagarden * Temple of the Dog * Clark Terry * Tesla (band), Tesla * Sister Rosetta Tharpe * Robin Thicke * Toots Thielemans * B.J. Thomas * Irma Thomas * Rufus Thomas * Hank Thompson (musician), Hank Thompson * Lucky Thompson * Big Mama Thornton * Three Dog Night * The Three Stooges * Tiffany Darwish, Tiffany * Mel Tillis * Tommy & the Tom Toms * Mel Tormé *

* Maria von Trapp, The Trapp Family Singers * Ralph Tresvant * Ernest Tubb * The Tubes * Tanya Tucker * Tommy Tucker (singer), Tommy Tucker * The Tune Weavers * Ike Turner * Stanley Turrentine * Conway Twitty * McCoy Tyner * Phil Upchurch * Michael Utley * Leroy Van Dyke * Gino Vannelli * Van Zant (band), Van Zant * Billy Vaughan *

* Veruca Salt (band), Veruca Salt * The Vibrations * Bobby Vinton * Voivod (band), Voivod * Porter Wagoner * The Waikikis * Rufus Wainwright * Rick Wakeman * Jerry Jeff Walker * The Wallflowers * Joe Walsh * Wang Chung (band), Wang Chung * Clara Ward * Warrior Soul * War (American band), War * Washboard Sam * Was (Not Was) * Baby Washington * The Watchmen (band), The Watchmen *

* Jody Watley * Johnny "Guitar" Watson * The Weavers * Ben Webster * Weezer * We Five * George Wein * Lenny Welch * Lawrence Welk * Kitty Wells * Mae West * Barry White * Michael White (violinist), Michael White * Slappy White * Whitesnake * White Zombie * The Who * Whycliffe * Kim Wilde * Don Williams * Jody Williams (blues musician), Jody Williams * John Williams * Larry Williams * Lenny Williams * Leona Williams * Paul Williams (songwriter), Paul Williams * Roger Williams (pianist), Roger Williams * Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sonny Boy Williamson * Walter Winchell * Kai Winding * Johnny Winter * Wishbone Ash * Jimmy Witherspoon * Bobby Womack * Lee Ann Womack * Phil Woods * Wrecks-N-Effect * O. V. Wright * Bill Wyman * Rusty York * Faron Young *

* Young Black Teenagers * Y&T * Rob Zombie Subsequent legal documents filed by Universal Music Group in February 2020 cited four additional artists not included in the ''New York Times'' list: * And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead * David Baerwald * Michael McDonald *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Universal Studios fire 2008 in American cinema 2008 in music, Universal fire, 2008 2008 fires in the United States, Universal fire, 2008 Universal Studios Hollywood Building fires in the United States 2008 in California, Universal fire June 2008 events in the United States History of Los Angeles County, California Mass media-related controversies in the United States Music controversies, * 2008 controversies 2019 controversies 2020 controversies Universal Music Group Warehouse fires Fires in California

Fire

2019 ''New York Times'' report

Artists' responses

UMG response

List of artists affected, according to ''The New York Times''

See also

References