Joe Jackson

Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. Claiming to be the first CD-only independent record label in the United States, Rykodisc was founded in... 1983 in Salem, Massachusetts, by Arthur Mann, Rob Simonds, Doug Lexa and Don Rose. In the late 1980s, the label also began to issue high-quality cassette and vinyl versions of many releases under the name Ryko Analogue. Rykodisc had some notable successes in the CD-reissue industry, as artists such as Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Frank Zappa, Nick Drake, Nine Inch Nails, Robert Wyatt, and Mission of Burma allowed Rykodisc to issue their catalogs on CD. Rykodisc still retains the rights to the Zappa catalog. Rykodisc also re-released the SST Records-era recordings by the Meat Puppets. Over the years the label has acquired Hannibal Records, Tradition Records, Gramavision Records, Emperor Norton Records, Restless Records and, most recently, Cordless Recordings. Rykodisc also founded a distribution company, Ryko Distribution, and a music publishing company, Rykomusic.
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Sony Corporation , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It ranked 73 on the 2011 list of Fortune Global 500. Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics products for the consumer and... professional markets. Sony Corporation is the the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its four operating segments – Electronics , Pictures, Music and Financial Services. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation , Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Mobile Communications , and Sony Financial. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.
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Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Simple... Minds, Lenny Kravitz, The Smashing Pumpkins, Mike Oldfield, and more on their list of artists. It was later sold to Thorn EMI in 1992. Its American operations were merged with Capitol Records in 2007 to create the Capitol Music Group. Branson and Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin Records and Tapes on Notting Hill Gate, London, specialising particularly in "krautrock" imports, and offering bean bags and free vegetarian food for the benefit of customers listening to the music on offer. After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label. The name Virgin, according to Branson , arose from Tessa Watts, a colleague of his, when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin - as they were all new to business - like "virgins".
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Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in black communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a... mix of African and European music traditions. Its black African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note. From its early development until the present day jazz has also incorporated music from American popular music. As the music has developed and spread around the world it has drawn on many different national, regional and local musical cultures giving rise, since its early 20th century American beginnings, to many distinctive styles: New Orleans jazz dating from the early 1910s, big band swing, Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s and on down through West Coast jazz, cool jazz, avant-garde jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, Latin jazz in various forms, soul jazz, jazz fusion and jazz rock, smooth jazz, jazz-funk, punk jazz, acid jazz, ethno jazz, jazz rap, cyber jazz, Indo jazz, M-Base, nu jazz, urban jazz and other ways of playing the music. In a 1988 interview, trombonist J.J. Johnson said, "Jazz is restless.
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