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Island Records is a recording studio founded in 1959 in Jamaica by three enthusiasts. The project originated from Graeme Goodall, Chris Blackwell, and Leslie Kong has never been thought to become one of the biggest independent music record studios.
A group of young musicians and music technologists founded their label with the support of RKO Pictures, an American film studio. Considering that one of the trio, Leslie, was himself a reggae musician, the initial motivation for creating the label was the usual desire to "be closer to the music," according to the creators themselves. The brand developed actively in its early years, mainly focusing on promoting rock and roll, soul, and jazz artists. A few years later, the guys moved to the United Kingdom, where they continued to work on folk, reggae, and rock performers, often collaborating with musicians who were part of the immigrant community in the UK.
Between 1959 and 1962, when the guys stayed in Jamaica, they gained some initial recognition. So, individual performers collaborating with the guys received an overwhelming success. In 1962, the guys split up in a sense: Chris Blackwell, who was and de facto remaining the point person in the entire project, moved to the United Kingdom, while Goodall stayed in Jamaica, starting a new project called Doctor Bird. The 60s, as one of the most important periods in the formation of Island, will later be named times of organized chaos by Tom Hayes, who, during these years, was the sales manager of the group. During this time, Chris signed with several unknown musicians, who subsequently received significant success. So, the first such group was the Spencer Davis Group, which became pretty popular right after the few releases. After that, several more rock bands that eventually became popular passed through Island Records. Also, separately worth noting is Island's early collaboration with Bob Marley and Toots and the Maital. Although the second group is not as popular as Bob, it is still a salient group in the history of music. In fact, reggae, as a musical direction, appeared precisely with this group. That is why Island is often associated, in addition to rock with reggae also. Reggae, as a musical style, was literally born on Island Records.
In the early 70s, in the wake of the popularity of groups that collaborated with the label, Island Records itself gained success. However, when we talk about success, we mean both fame and commercial success. The second half of the seventies turned out to be much more difficult for Island. At this point, almost all activity was focused on Chris. In addition to the fact that the studio did not release too many albums at that time, the death of Bob Marley in 1981, on whom great hopes were pinned, led to an even greater exacerbation of all the difficulties that Island Records experienced back those days. Yes, IR recorded several successful albums; in particular, cooperation with the Irish group U2 seemed to be very promising; nevertheless, the group had not yet gained worldwide fame at that time. So, Chris had to resort to sponsoring the creation of films to improve the label's financial position. In general, it was crowned with success. Despite all the attempts to change the situation for the better, Island Records still faced difficulties, and Chris made the difficult decision to sell the label.
Thus, PolyGram bought Island Records in July 1989 for more than 300 million USD. Despite the purchase, Chris remained the CEO of the label. For these ten years, Ireland has undergone several organizational changes, including the creation of associated companies in continental Europe, as well as the re-release of many albums, including compilation ones, on CDs. At the same time, less than ten years later, PolyGram was acquired by Universal Music Group in late 1998. The studios united under the Island Records brand were immediately divided into several groups. The US division of the label was merged with Mercury, Def Jam, and a dozen other smaller singles called The Island Def Jam Music Group. In turn, Island in the UK began operating under the name Virgin EMI Records. The label celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009 in Jamaica, where it all began; it continued to participate in the creation of promising projects to this day, significantly expanding its repertoire. Thus, Island Records, as of today, also works with the pop scene, hip-hop, and electronic performers, in addition to traditional rock and reggae.