Roadrunner Records

Roadrunner Records is a record label which has existed since 1979 's current headquarters in the USA, which specializes in rock and metal. Towards the end of 2006, the label of Warner Music has been bought. Thus, it is one of the four major labels.

Roadrunner Records has consistently taken over the years bands under contract that are little known later as the main influence for further developments in the harder guitar music as alternative rock, crossover or metalcore sector. The record label claims for itself not to follow trends, but they anticipate and set them.

Among the currently largest and most influential bands on Roadrunner Records include Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Dream Theater, Fear Factory, Devil Driver, Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage, Cradle of Filth, Machine Head, Nickelback, Stone Sour, Slipknot, Soulfly, Trivium and Bullet for My Valentine.

History

Roadrunner Records was founded in Amsterdam in late 1979 by the then 38 -year-old Cees Wessels, who had already had experience with other music labels.

Wessels bought 1980 licenses for the sale of publications American bands in the Benelux countries. The first was a best-of album of songwriter Jim Croce, it was soon followed by the first records from the Wessels himself preferred musical sectors such as Punk / Hardcore Punk with The Exploited.

In the following months Wessels built resistant from its import - distribution network until he was considered number one contact person for non-European labels such as leading in the 1980 Metal Blade or Attic. Among other bands like Twisted Sister and Anthrax by Roadrunner Records have been represented in Europe.

However, since most financial income was directly at the record companies in the U.S., Wessels decided to take even music groups under contract. After a visit of the famous under the name Metal Mike over the country's borders Mike van Rijswjik 1982, the Danes Mercyful Fate were taken as first band with great success on the music market. Soon there was the question that now Roadrunner Records needed a distributor for the U.S. market itself. After a brief partnership with Megaforce Records ( Metallica among others ) Wessels, however, went to the plan to open an office in the USA, which was renamed due to the eponymous cartoon character Roadrunner at the beginning still under the banner of Road Racer Records.

From 1983, Wessels and Metal Mike made ​​a number of very successful with licensing, inter alia, Agent Steel, SOD, Venom, Voivod and Whiplash. A first office in New York, shortly afterwards, in Cologne, London and Paris were the result, the number of employees moved already in the double digits.

In December 1987, has been adjusted with the former moderator of a college radio DJ Mr. Death Monte Conner an A & R manager, which should greatly affect an inveterate Speed-/Thrash-/Death-Metal-Fan the activities Roadrunner Records in the following. So were directly his first successes bands like Sepultura, Deicide, Obituary, Suffocation Annihilator or who received proper attention by the press and music fans all.

When around 1990 Death Metal was arrived at its commercial peak, Roadrunner Records was looking for new developments and brought in the next five years, the debut albums of such diverse bands like Fear Factory, Machine Head, Life of Agony or Dog Eat Dog on the market, the all were commercially very successful and all the subgenres mitkreierten. Even the New York hardcore band Madball released her debut album in 1994 on Roadrunner Records. In 1995 the record label for Bloody Kisses by Type O Negative was the first time a Gold Award, 2000 reached the disc even platinum. The next similar successful release of Roadrunner Records was Roots of Sepultura, released in 1996.

For worldwide uproar in 1999 the eponymous Roadrunner Records debut of Slipknot, which could be awarded in England after three months with platinum. From the meantime sold albums genre foreign representatives as Moloko, Human League or Sinead O'Connor Roadrunner Records tried to build up reserves for the obligation of unknown newcomer bands.

With the hiring of Mike lattice as A & R manager then began one of the most profound changes in the band program to date Roadrunner Records'. The new man was responsible for contracting with, for example, Glassjaw, Ill Niño and Nickelback, which are largely characterized by a certain catchiness and partly subliminal melody Emphasizes awareness. Due to various resolutions band from the early years ever came more new bands to Roadrunner Records.

With the completed since the turn of the millennium signings of Chimaira, DevilDriver, Hatebreed or Killswitch Engage made ​​Roadrunner Records a significant contribution to the currently prevailing metalcore hype.

In 2002, the first time you started the now annual Roadrunner Road Rage Tour. Here, three newer bands play under the same conditions in the U.S. and across Europe several shows, a well -titled DVD provides an overview of the current music videos of the Roadrunner bands.

To mark the 25th anniversary of Roadrunner Records was released in October 2005, after over a year of planning and recording phase under the title Roadrunner United: The All- Star Sessions CD / DVD package that presents 18 new songs, which from a total of 56 different musicians from 42 bands that once stood on Roadrunner Records, or still are, were recorded.

Monte Conner sees the future of the label with bands such as the very young Trivium continue to be preserved completed cooperation agreements such as the highly respected label in the USA for Trustkill Records Hardcore-/Emocore-Bands to strengthen the position of Roadrunner Records on.

Stone Sour, the band around the Slipknot members Corey Taylor and James Root are also a guarantee of high sales figures. So the album Come What ( ever) May went to the end of 2006 in the U.S. alone more than 500,000 times over the counter.

In April 2012, the offices of Roadrunner in Germany, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom were closed. Company founder Cees Wessels left the company, about 36 employees were laid off. Monte Conner also split from Roadrunner and took to working with Nuclear Blast in the USA.

Controversies

Roadrunner Records fell several times by fans in criticism, because again and again after several weeks of new versions of albums were brought to market, the unreleased song material included, brought new artwork or were equipped with an additional DVD. Fans that the release date new albums had bought the same, felt unfairly treated.

To some discontent also led the fact how to Roadrunner Records after temporal resolution between Fear Factory's tried hard, yet another win with partially if it is considered as superfluous material to make. Thus one published in 2002 with " Concrete " only an old demo album, which was originally rejected as too bad, appeared a year later with " Hate Files" a collection of B-sides, instrumentals and remixes.

As part of the nu-metal wave Roadrunner Records as well as other record labels took place during the late 1990s a variety majority as second class respected bands under contract, because they still promised commercial success. This went so far that more prestigious bands such as 36 Crazyfists complained publicly about the business practices of their record company: you hardly would get support, just a quick buck is the person in charge still important.

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