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Sub Pop

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Sub Pop is a record label in Seattle, Washington famous for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the local scene. They are often credited with taking the first steps towards popularizing grunge music. They are 49% owned by Time Warner, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world.

Contents

History

Sub Pop was started by Bruce Pavitt in Olympia, Washington in 1979 as a fanzine called Subterranean Pop (which was changed to Sub Pop starting with the 2nd issue). Inspired by the cassette fanzine Fast Forward, Sub Pop began alternating issues with compilation tapes of American bands (though several foreign bands did appear on Sub Pop cassettes). There were nine issues of Sub Pop in all: six magazines and three cassettes (issues 5, 7, and 9). After issue 9, Sub Pop switched to an all-cassette format (cassettes featured early cover artwork by cartoonists Charles Burns and Peter Bagge), but the project was scuttled by the amount of work required to continue it. It continued as a column in the Seattle newspaper The Rocket for several more years.

In 1986, Pavitt moved to Seattle, Washington and released the first Sub Pop LP, the compilation Sub Pop 100. In 1987, Sub Pop released the Dry as a Bone EP by Green River, and later that year Pavitt met Jonathan Poneman.

Kim Thayil of Soundgarden introduced Pavitt to Jonathan Poneman, and the two decided to form a record label in 1986. With several bands from the local scene signed to their label, Pavitt and Poneman worked to popularize the music to popularize their label.

Their first step was the Sub Pop Singles Club, a subscription service that would allow subscribers to receive singles by local bands on a monthly basis by mail. This allowed Sub Pop to become a powerful company in the local scene, as well as make their label's name synonymous with the music of the Seattle area, much in the same way Motown Records was to Detroit. The first release of the Singles Club was Nirvana's Love Buzz/Big Cheese, in November 1988. Singles Club was ended five years later in 1993, and re-launched in 1998. In 2002, the Singles Club was ended again. [link]

To further increase grunge's popularity, Pavitt and Poneman had a journalist from the British magazine Melody Maker come to Seattle to write an article on the local music scene.

Though Sub Pop was important in popularizing grunge, some grunge fans have criticized Pavitt and Poneman for their actions. These fans felt that their role in popularizing grunge was motivated by greed rather than by love for the music. After many successful grunge bands had left Sub Pop for major record labels, a joint venture with Warner Music and the company was formed.

Around 1996, Bruce Pavitt left the label in order to spend more time with his family

Sub Pop is also known for sales representative Megan Jasper, who created the hoax of grunge speak.

Artists who have worked with Sub Pop

The following artists have either been signed to Sub Pop or had material released through them:

Trivia

On 1995, Sub Pop and Sega released a promotional compilation CD titled That Virtua Feeling: Sub Pop and Sega get together.

Sources

See also

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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