Poko Rekords was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

. It was established in 1977, but ceased operations in 2009. In the early years, Poko Rekords focused mainly on

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

music and later expanded its artist range to heavier rock music. Poko Rekords released records by many successful Finnish artists and bands. Among others,

Eppu Normaali Eppu Normaali is one of the most popular rock bands in Finland. The band formed in 1976 in Ylöjärvi, a small town near Tampere. The band is the best-selling music artist in Finland, with certified sales of nearly two million records, and it h ...

Popeda Popeda is a Finnish rock band hailing from Tampere and one of the staples of Manserock. Epe Helenius, who signed the band for Poko Rekords in 1977, called the band "Finnish Rolling Stones". Musically their style is a combination of rock 'n' ro ...

, Hassisen Kone,

Sielun Veljet Sielun Veljet () was a Finnish rock band of the 1980s. They were formed soon after the disbanding of Hassisen Kone by its former frontman Ismo Alanko. Sielun Veljet never achieved the fame or the record sales figures of Hassisen Kone, but they ...

J. Karjalainen Jukka Tapio "J." Karjalainen (born 1 April 1957) is a Finnish singer-songwriter. His first album came out in 1981 and he has been called the "Bruce Springsteen of Finland." He states that his music is a mix of "Blues, Rock´n´roll, Folk, Countr ...

Yö Yö ( en, night) was a Finnish rock band, formed in 1981 in Pori, Finland. The band has had many line-up changes during their history, and almost 20 different musicians play or have played with the band. Yö's first line-up included singer Ol ...

Ismo Alanko Ismo Kullervo Alanko (; born November 12, 1960) is a Finnish musician. He is known as the frontman of several bands, most famously Hassisen Kone, Sielun Veljet and Ismo Alanko Säätiö, as well as a successful solo artist. Alanko is known f ...

Petri Nygård Petri Jukka Mikael Laurila (born 8 February 1975), better known by his stage name Petri Nygård, is a Finnish rapper. He is also known under alias Dream (in rap duo Nuera) and as Travis Bicle. He has gained notoriety for his sexually explicit ...

The 69 Eyes The 69 Eyes are a Finnish rock band. It was founded in 1989 in Helsinki by vocalist Jyrki 69 (who also writes the band's lyrics), guitarists Bazie, Timo-Timo and bassist Archzie, joined in 1992 by drummer Jussi 69; the lineup never changed sin ...

and Diablo were at Poko Rekords. To expand the selection, Epe Helenius, who founded the record company, founded Poko International in the early 1980s, when Poko was able to start distributing records by international artists in Finland; for example,

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

's first three records in the 1980s were distributed by Poko International. The company's sub-brands included Northern Swing, Gaga Goodies and Seal on Velvet. In 2001, Epe Helenius sold Poko Rekords to the multinational record company

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

. However, Poko Rekords continued to operate as an independent unit and the company still had an office in Tampere. In the spring of 2009, Poko Rekords was merged with EMI Finland. At the same time, Epe Helenius founded the new Sound Of Finland company, to which some of Poko's younger artists and a large part of Poko Rekords' staff were transferred.''Poko lopetti, Sound of Finland aloitti'', p. 16. ''Rumba'', April 8, 2009. (in Finnish) After that, no new artists were added to Poko Rekords. Since 2013, the company's catalog has been owned by Universal Music Finland. By the company's 30th anniversary in 2007, Poko had released a total of 520 albums and 770 singles by about 300 artists. Of Poko's albums, 90 have reached the gold record and 43 have crossed the

platinum record Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

, some of them triplaplatinum. The most successful release has been Eppu Normaali's collection ''

Repullinen hittejä ''Repullinen hittejä'' (''A Bagful of Hits'') is a compilation album of Finnish rock group Eppu Normaali. The album was produced by Mikko "Pantse" Syrjä, the guitarist and main songwriter of the band. It was released on 12 September 1996 through ...

'' ("A Bagful of Hits"), which has sold over 250,000 copies.Kaikkien aikojen myydyimmät kotimaiset albumit
- Musiikkituottajat - IFPI Finland ry (in Finnish)

Sources

* Vesa Kontiainen: ''Aitoa suomirokkia - Poko Rekordsin historia''

References

External links

* Manu Aunola:
Poko Rekords, A Tale of Major Finnish Record Company
'.

Tampere University of Technology Tampere University of Technology (TUT) ( fi, Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto (TTY)) was Finland's second-largest university in engineering sciences. The university was located in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere. It was merged with the University o ...

. Defunct record labels Finnish record labels Record labels established in 1977 Rock record labels Tampere {{Finland-record-label-stub