Jive Records

Jive Records is a British record label, whose headquarters is in New York today. The label now belongs to Sony BMG.

History

Jive Records was founded in 1977 by Clive Calder in Willesden Street in London. The name is from the Township Jive, a South African dance and music direction, inspired. The publications in the U.S. were carried out until 1987 by Arista Records, then took over the RCA Records. At the beginning of Jive Records artists such as Billy Ocean and Samantha Fox were under contract.

Excluding the impact of Arista, Clive Davis, who was opposed to hip- hop music, jive early 1980s many controversial Hip -hop artists like Too $ hort and Schoolly D had under contract. Until the mid- 1990s to Jive Records has become one of the major established label with a focus on hip-hop and RnB. Under contract at the time were hip-hop artists such as Whodini, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, E- 40, A Tribe Called Quest, KRS -One and 2pac and RNB singers like Aaliyah and R. Kelly. The music industry was expanded towards House. Here Jive released several compilations and works by Liz Torres and Mr. Lee.

After the distribution contract with RCA expired in 1991, BMG took over a small portion of the shares of Jive and was new distribution partner for the U.S..

Despite the strong commitment in the hip- hop field Jive took the late 1990s pop artists like the Backstreet Boys, * NSYNC and Britney Spears under contract. These three were the most commercially successful artists of the label with over 100 million records sold.

Jive had from 1991 to 2002 its own independent management. This changed with the acquisition by Bertelsmann Music Group 2002. BMG paid for the remaining shares a total of three billion dollars. The company was renamed Zomba Label Group and Jive integrated as a brand name.