Virgin Records was a British recording label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, and Nik Powell in 1972. It was later sold to Thorn EMI, and then merged with Capitol Records in 2006 to create Capitol Music Group. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The EMI Group (LSE: EMI) is a British music company comprising of the major record company EMI Music which operates several labels, based in Kensington in London, England, and EMI Music Publishing, based in New York. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... Capitol Music Group is a major American record label, owned by EMI. It was formed in February 2007 as a merger of Virgin Records and Capitol Records in an effort by EMI to restructure and save an average of $217 million yearly. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic  - President George Walker Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... A record label is a brand created by companies that specialize in manufacturing, distributing and promoting audio and video recordings, on various formats including compact discs, LPs, DVD-Audio, SACDs, and cassettes. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is God Save the Queen. See also Proposed English National Anthems. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... Nik Powell is one of the co-founders of the Virgin Group alongside Richard Branson. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Thorn EMI logo Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. ... Capitol Records is a major United States-based record label, owned by EMI. // The Capitol Records company was founded by the songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942, with the financial help of movie producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs, (1910-1971) (owner of Music City, at the...

Kraut- & Prog-rock origins

Virgin logo designed by Roger Dean for the fledging Virgin Records label

Branson & Powell had initially run a small record shop called Virgin in London, specialising particularly in "krautrock" imports, before turning their business into a fully-fledged record label. The name Virgin, according to Branson (in his autobiography), arose from a colleague of his when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin - as they were all new to business - like "virgins". Image File history File links Virginrecordlogo. ... Image File history File links Virginrecordlogo. ... Freyjas Castle, 1987 Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944, in Ashford, Kent) is a contemporary English artist best known for his work on album covers, which he began painting in the late 1960s. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s. ...

The original Virgin logo (known to fans as the "Gemini" or "Twins" logo) was designed by English artist and illustrator Roger Dean : a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed serpent and the word "Virgin" in Dean's familiar script. Freyjas Castle, 1987 Roger Dean (born August 31, 1944, in Ashford, Kent) is a contemporary English artist best known for his work on album covers, which he began painting in the late 1960s. ...

The first release on the label was the classic progressive rock album Tubular Bells by multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield in 1973. This was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream (which went Top 10), and The Faust Tapes and Faust IV by Faust. The Faust Tapes album retailed for 49p (the price of a 7" single) and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band to reach number 12 in the album charts. Other early albums include Gong's The Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt. 1) (V2002) and the various artists Manor Live (V2004) album. For the Swedish political music movement, see progg. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Michael Gordon Oldfield (born May 15, 1953 in Reading, England) is a multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music and more recently dance. ... See also: 1970s in music. ... Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Gong is a progressive/psychedelic rock band formed by Australian musician Daevid Allen. ...

Post-punk rebranding

Although Virgin was initially one of the key labels of English progressive rock, the 1977 signing of the Sex Pistols, who had already been asked to leave both EMI and A&M, reinvented the label as a new wave outpost. Afterwards they signed groups like Human League, Culture Club, Gillan, Simple Minds, and less successful bands like Shooting Star, the Motors, Holly and the Italians and Fingerprintz. A short-lived subsidiary label, Dindisc, had Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and The Monochrome Set during its brief 1980-81 existence. Similarly, Virgin Front Line became one of the UK's most successful reggae labels in the late '70s and early '80s. The Sex Pistols were an iconic and highly influential English punk rock band, formed in London in 1975. ... The Human League are an English synthpop band formed in 1977, who, after several changes in line up, achieved great popularity in the 1980s and a limited comeback in the mid-1990s. ... Culture Club is a popular English new romantic rock group, that achieved considerable global success in the 1980s. ... The Ian Gillan Band is a side project band of former Deep Purple member Ian Gillan. ... Simple Minds is a rock band from Scotland, which had its greatest worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s. ... Shooting Star is a rock band from Kansas City. ... The Motors were a British pub rock band formed in London in 1976. ... Holly and the Italians were a short-lived American pop-punk band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1978 by Chicago born singer and guitarist Holly Beth Vincent, bassist Mark Sidgwick, and drummer Steve Young. ... This article is about the band. ... Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) are a synth pop group whose founder members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, UK. OMD record for Virgin Records (originally for Virgins DinDisc subsidiary). ... The band circa 1979 An English art-punk band. ...

The current Virgin logo (known informally as "The Scrawl") was created in 1982 as a hasty doodle on a cocktail napkin; rather than hiring the graphic designer, Branson simply paid him for the napkin.

The group Genesis recorded various albums for this record company beginning with 1983's self-titled effort (Virgin reissued the group's prior albums, which had originally been released on the Charisma label in the UK). Genesis are an English rock band formed in 1967. ...

After several false starts licensing its bands to American labels like Epic (Culture Club, Holly and the Italians & Shooting Star), Atlantic (Genesis, Julian Lennon) and A&M (UB40, Human League, Simple Minds, Breathe), Virgin Records opened up its American division, Virgin Records America, in 1987. Virgin Records America's releases were distributed by WEA until 1992. Prior to the formation of Virgin Records America, its artists were licensed in the United States to labels such as CBS, A&M, Warner Bros. Records, and others. Epic Records is an American record label, owned and operated by Sony BMG. // Epic was launched originally as a jazz and classical music label in 1953 by CBS. Its bright-yellow, black and blue logo became a familiar trademark for many jazz and classical releases. ... Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label, and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. ... John Charles Julian Lennon known universally as Julian Lennon, (born April 8, 1963 in Liverpool, England) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and first son of Beatle John Lennon and the only child of his first wife Cynthia Lennon. ... A&M Records is an American record label, owned and operated by Universal Music Group. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... Columbia Records is the oldest continually used brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888. ... A&M Records is an American record label, owned and operated by Universal Music Group. ... Warner Bros. ...

Purchase by Thorn EMI

Virgin Records was sold by Branson to Thorn EMI in June 1992 for a reported US$1 billion (around £560 million) [1][2], with a special non-competition clause that would prevent Branson from founding another recording company during the five years following the agreement (see the final paragraph in E.U. Merger Decission IV/M202 of 27.04.1992). It now faces competition from Branson's new label: V2 Records. Branson sold Virgin Records to fund Virgin Atlantic Airways which at that time was coming under intense anti-competitive pressure from British Airways. (In 1993 BA settled a libel action brought by Branson, giving him £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline). Thorn EMI logo Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. ... V2 Records (or V2 Music) is a record label that was started in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI. Over the years V2 acquired Junior Boys Own, Gee Street Records, Blue Dog Records, and Big Cat Records. ... Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd (usually referred to as Virgin Atlantic) is a British airline which is owned by Richard Bransons Virgin Group (51%) and Singapore Airlines (49%). It operates long-haul routes between the United Kingdom and North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia from... For the 1930s airline of similar name, see British Airways Ltd. ...

After being acquired by Thorn EMI, Virgin launched several subsidiaries like Realworld Records, Innocent Records, blues specialty label Point Blank Records, and Hut Records, and continued signing new and established artists like 30 Seconds to Mars, Brooke Valentine (Contract ended in August 2007), Beenie Man, Korn, Geri Halliwell, The Rolling Stones, The Exies, The Smashing Pumpkins, We Are Scientists, Darren Hayes, The Kooks, Bubba Sparxxx, Sharissa, Bossman, Zeitia Massiah, Lenny Kravitz, Meat Loaf, Purple Ribbon All-Stars, Placebo, Janet Jackson (Contract ended in 2006), Daft Punk, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Massive Attack, Neneh Cherry, Blur, the Chemical Brothers, Shape:UK, Juliet, the Spice Girls, Melanie Chisholm (1995-2003), Gorillaz, Paula Abdul, Brooke Allison, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Angela Via, The Almost, N.E.R.D. and recently RBD, Bizzy Bone, Fat Joe and Swami. Thorn EMI logo Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. ... Real World Studios is the high-tech recording studio associated with the record label founded by rock musician Peter Gabriel. ... Innocent Records is a pop record label that was created to cater to pre-teen and teenage music fans. ... Point Blank Records is a subsidiary of Virgin Records. ... Hut Records was started in 1990 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Virgin Records. ... 30 Seconds to Mars (or Thirty Seconds to Mars) is an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California featuring actor Jared Leto as the lead vocalist. ... Cover of Brookes newest single, Pimped Out. Brooke Valentine (born October 5, 1984 in Houston, Texas), is an American R&B singer-songwriter. ... Beenie Man (born Anthony Moses Davis August 22, 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica), is among the most popular reggae entertainers and is a well established dancehall artist. ... This article is about the band. ... Geraldine Estelle Geri Halliwell (born 6 August 1972) is an English pop singer and songwriter, television personality, writer, and actress, and became famous (under the nickname of Ginger Spice) in the late 1990s as a member of the girl group the Spice Girls. ... The Rolling Stones are an English band whose blues, rhythm and blues and rock and roll-infused music became popular during the British Invasion in the early 1960s. ... For the Hamburg group of Beatles followers, see Exy The Exies are a rock band from Los Angeles, California that was formed in 1997. ... The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago in 1988. ... We Are Scientists is an American indie rock band formed in 2000 featuring Keith Murray (guitar and lead vocals), Chris Cain (bass guitar and backing vocals) and Michael Tapper (drums and backing vocals). ... Darren Stanley Hayes (born May 8, 1972) is an Australian singer-songwriter. ... Kooks, see Donna Kossy. ... Bubba Sparxxx (born Warren Anderson Mathis on March 6, 1977, in LaGrange, Georgia) is a Southern rapper. ... Sharissa (born 1976) is an American/Jamaican R&B singer and songwriter. ... Bossman born Travis Holifield is a Baltimore, Maryland based rapper. ... Zeeteah Massiah is a multi-talented singer/songwriter who is well known in the United States as the lead vocalist on the Arizona US No. ... Leonard Albert Lenny Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and arranger whose retro style incorporates elements of rock, soul, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk, and ballads. ... This article or section may contain excessive or improper use of copyrighted images and/or audio files. ... Purple Ribbon All-Stars is a southern hip-hop group under the Purple Ribbon Records (distributed through Virgin Records) label. ... Placebo is an alternative rock band consisting of Brian Molko, Stefan Olsdal and Steve Hewitt. ... Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, actress, and pop icon. ... Daft Punk is the collective name of Paris house musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974)[1] and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975). ... Massive Attack are a trip hop band from Bristol, Great Britain. ... Neneh Cherry performing live in Vienna (ca. ... Blur are an English rock band formed in Colchester in 1989. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Shapeshifters, consisting of Simon Marlin and Max Reich, are an electronic music group from the United Kingdom. ... Juliet on the cover of the 2000 1 plus 1 single Cherry Bomb Juliet Richardson is a singer, born in 1980 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey. ... The Spice Girls are a four-time BRIT Award-winning English all-female pop group, which formed in London in 1994. ... Melanie Jayne Chisholm (born January 12, 1974 in Whiston, Merseyside) is an English singer, songwriter and television personality most famous as one of the five members of the British girl group the Spice Girls, where she is known as Sporty Spice. She is also known as Melanie C or Mel... For the Gorillazs self-titled debut album, see Gorillaz (album). ... Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American multi-platinum selling Grammy Award-winning singer, dancer, television personality, jewelry designer, and Emmy Award-winning choreographer. ... Brooke Allison (born Brooke Allison Adams, on September 26, 1986 in Lampass, Fort Worth, Texas, United States) is an american pop singer who got notable in the early 2000s with her minor hit The Kiss-Off (Goodbye). The song included a sample of the AOL sign off audio (Goodbye). // Allison... The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is a pop punk/Emo band that formed in 2003 in Jacksonville, Florida. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Almost is an Alternative rock group from Salt Lake City, Utah, most notable for being the side project of the Underoath Drummer/vocalist Aaron Gillespie. ... N*E*R*D or N.E.R.D is the name of a rock band consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes and their friend Shay Haley. ... RBD is a Mexican Pop group that gained popularity from Televisas teenage-oriented telenovela Rebelde. ... Bizzy Bone (born Bryon Anthony McCane II on September 12, 1976, in Columbus, Ohio) is an American rapper and former member of the Cleveland rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. ... Jose Antonio Cartagena (born August 19, 1970), better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an Puerto Rican-American rapper. ... Swami is a critically-acclaimed [1] Asian rap/rock/bhangra band from Birmingham, England. ...

Merger

Main article: Capitol Music Group

Capitol Records and Virgin Records were merged in 2006 to create Capitol Music Group after a massive restructuring of the EMI company.[3] Stepping down as chief executive of Capitol Records was Andy Slater, per the announcement, with Jason Flom, former executive of Virgin, taking the reins as Chairman and CEO of the newly created company. Capitol Music Group is a major American record label, owned by EMI. It was formed in February 2007 as a merger of Virgin Records and Capitol Records in an effort by EMI to restructure and save an average of $217 million yearly. ... Capitol Music Group is a major American record label, owned by EMI. It was formed in February 2007 as a merger of Virgin Records and Capitol Records in an effort by EMI to restructure and save an average of $217 million yearly. ...

See also

• List of record labels
• Virgin Schallplatten GmbH
• Virgin Group
• Virgin Records artists

This is a list of record labels. ... Virgin Schallplatten GmbH is a German record label, which is a branch company of Virgin Records. ... The Virgin Group Ltd is a group of separately run companies that each use Virgin brand of English celebrity business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. ... The following artists (musicians or bands) have had releases with Virgin Records. ...

External links

• Official website
• virginbrand.com Unofficial blog of the Virgin Group
• Virgin Records - art label design & artists at www.collectable-records.ru