Sugababes

Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group. The label now operates as a division of The Island Def Jam Music Group in the United States and as a... standalone label in the United Kingdom . Since 2007, there is also a frontline local artist and repertoire label in Australia known as Island Records Australia, run by Universal Music Australia. Island Records was also the founding company behind the highly influential Anime licensor Manga Entertainment, which has changed hands numerous times during the 90's and early 2000s. Island Records was founded in Jamaica in 1959 by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall, and partially financed by Stanley Borden from RKO, taking its name from the 1955 Alec Waugh novel, subsequent film and Harry Belafonte hit song "Island in the Sun". The company relocated to the UK in May 1962.
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Roc-A-Fella Records is a record label founded by Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon "Dame" Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by The Island Def Jam Motown Music Group. The foundation of the label occurred in 1996, beginning as an... independent outlet for rapper Jay-Z's first album. After being turned down by several major labels, Shawn 'Jay-Z' Carter,Brett Dejohn, and Kareem 'Biggs' Burke started their own label through Priority Records, using money from the music videos provided by Payday Records due to their singles only deal. Though Reasonable Doubt didn't immediately attain commercial success, it spawned several hits, a close relationship with The Notorious B.I.G. and procured him a reputation in the hip-hop community. Starting out as Roc-A-Fella's only artist, Jay-Z was supported by Biggie producer DJ Clark Kent and DJ Ski, who was then working with Shawty Lo; affiliated rappers included duo Da Ranjahz, Sauce Money, Jaz-O, and a young Memphis Bleek, though only Bleek would eventually sign with the label.
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Sony Music Entertainment is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation. The company, which evolved into Sony Music, was founded in 1929 as the... American Record Corporation through the merger of several smaller record companies. In the depths of the Great Depression, the Columbia Phonograph Company in the U.S. was acquired by ARC in 1934. ARC was acquired in 1938 by the Columbia Broadcasting System . The Columbia Phonograph Company had international subsidiaries and affiliates such as the Columbia Graphophone Company in the United Kingdom, but they were sold off prior to CBS acquiring American Columbia. RCA Victor Records executive Ted Wallerstein convinced CBS head William S. Paley to buy ARC and Paley made Wallerstein head of the newly acquired record company. CBS made Columbia its flagship label with Okeh its subsidiary label while deemphasizing ARC's other labels.
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Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B and RnB, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was... originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. The term has subsequently had a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, the term rhythm and blues was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "Contemporary R&B". Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine coined the term "rhythm and blues" in 1948 as a musical marketing term in the United States. It replaced the term "race music", which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world.
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Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can... be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar. Purely electronic sound production can be achieved using devices such as the Theremin, sound synthesizer, and computer. Electronic music was once associated almost exclusively with Western art music but from the late 1960s on the availability of affordable music technology meant that music produced using electronic means became increasingly common in the popular domain. Today electronic music includes many varieties and ranges from experimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music. The ability to record sounds is often connected to the production of electronic music, but not absolutely necessary for it. The earliest known sound recording device was the phonautograph, patented in 1857 by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. It could record sounds visually, but was not meant to play them back.
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