…let's remember the ones that really mattered…
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That covered alot of ground, however, missing in all that would be Virgin, at least in the 70's…they defined real prog rock for me with Mike Oldfield, Gong, Henry Cow, Hatfield and the North, Tangerine Dream, and beyond, yet Richard Branson knew which way the wind was blowing, and took a radical step with their release of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, let alone other major releases of punk/new wave explosion. And speaking of which, where's Sire, essentially the house label for CBGB's?
Also absent from that list…even though the two later got swallowed up into the WEA conglomerate, and while Warner Brothers records started as a soundtrack outlet and Reprise was Sinatra's vanity label, the two together were, for a few crucial years, a source for some great forward looking rock and related, not always big sellers, but groundbreaking stuff nonetheless, often affording an American release of British artists like Jethro Tull or Curved Air. I loved those inexpensive double promo samplers you could get via mail-order, discovered all sorts of under the radar music. Don't forget, they took a chance on Hendrix in the US…"Strangers In The Night" made it possible for "Purple Haze".
While the article was focusing on rock in particular, there's Stax, Atlantic's great early R&B era, and yes, Motown.
Ranked: 15 astonishing record labels that changed the face of rock — BBC Music Magazine
From Sun to Sub Pop, these 15 labels redefined rock, shaping sounds, scenes, and cultural attitudes across decades of music October 17, 2025 In rock history, some labels have been more than just distributors – they’ve been curators, provocateurs, and identity-makers. The labels that changed the...
That covered alot of ground, however, missing in all that would be Virgin, at least in the 70's…they defined real prog rock for me with Mike Oldfield, Gong, Henry Cow, Hatfield and the North, Tangerine Dream, and beyond, yet Richard Branson knew which way the wind was blowing, and took a radical step with their release of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, let alone other major releases of punk/new wave explosion. And speaking of which, where's Sire, essentially the house label for CBGB's?
Also absent from that list…even though the two later got swallowed up into the WEA conglomerate, and while Warner Brothers records started as a soundtrack outlet and Reprise was Sinatra's vanity label, the two together were, for a few crucial years, a source for some great forward looking rock and related, not always big sellers, but groundbreaking stuff nonetheless, often affording an American release of British artists like Jethro Tull or Curved Air. I loved those inexpensive double promo samplers you could get via mail-order, discovered all sorts of under the radar music. Don't forget, they took a chance on Hendrix in the US…"Strangers In The Night" made it possible for "Purple Haze".
While the article was focusing on rock in particular, there's Stax, Atlantic's great early R&B era, and yes, Motown.
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