Capitol Records

Capitol One LLC (CAP) is an American record label that is part of the Capitol Music Group and is a wholly owned division of Universal Music Group. Capitol was founded as the first West Coast-based label in the U.S. in 1942 by three industry insiders, Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn Wallichs. Eventually acquired by EMI (which was acquired by Universal Music in 2012 and merged with UMG in 2013 after selling former sister label Parlophone to Warner Music), the label has released records in many musical genres. Its circular Los Angeles headquarters building Capitol Records Tower is a recognized landmark.

History

1940s

The Company was founded by songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942, with the financial help of fellow songwriter and film producer Buddy DeSylva, and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs, the owner of Wallichs Music City.

Mercer first raised the idea of starting a record company while golfing with Harold Arlen and Bobby Sherwood. By 1941, Mercer was an experienced songwriter and a singer with multiple successful releases. Mercer next suggested the idea to his friend Wallichs while visiting Wallichs' record store. Wallichs expressed interest and the pair negotiated an agreement whereby Mercer would run the company and identify the artists, while Wallichs managed the business side.

Capitol Records Nashville

Capitol Records Nashville is a major United States-based record label located in Nashville Tennessee operating as part of the Universal Music Group Nashville. From 1991 to 1995, Capitol Nashville was known as Liberty Records, before being changed back to Capitol in 1995. While under the Liberty name, the label operated short-lived sister label Patriot Records from 1994 to 1995. In 1999, EMI launched Virgin Records Nashville but by 2001, Capitol absorbed the short-lived label. In 2010, the label launched sister label EMI Nashville. On March 23, 2011, Alan Jackson signed with Capitol's EMI Nashville division in conjunction with his own ACR Records label.

Capitol Nashville was also home to several successful comedy artists.

Artists on Capitol Nashville

Artists on EMI Records Nashville

Darius Rucker

Darius Carlos Rucker (born May 13, 1966) is an American musician. He first gained fame as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the Grammy Award-winning rock band Hootie & the Blowfish, which he founded in 1986 at the University of South Carolina along with Mark Bryan, Jim "Soni" Sonefeld and Dean Felber. The band has released five studio albums with him as a member, and charted six top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Rucker co-wrote the majority of the band's songs with the other three members.

He released a solo R&B album, Back to Then, in 2002 on Hidden Beach Recordings but did not chart any singles from it. Six years later, Rucker signed to Capitol Records Nashville as a country music artist, releasing the album Learn to Live that year. Its first single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It", made him the first black artist to reach No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs charts since Charley Pride in 1983. (Ray Charles hit No. 1 in March 1985 in a duet with Willie Nelson with Seven Spanish Angels). It was followed by two more No. 1 singles, "It Won't Be Like This for Long" and "Alright" and the number three "History in the Making." In 2009, he became the first black person to win the New Artist Award from the Country Music Association, and only the second black person to win any award from the association. A second Capitol album, Charleston, SC 1966, was released on October 12, 2010. The album includes the No. 1 singles, "Come Back Song" and "This".

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys are marketing campaigns for food and other products. Although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip". Since the creation and increased popularity of YouTube, mainstream artists now promote new music videos by releasing trailers of short promos on the site for their upcoming song and music video. Consequentially, YouTube has been converted into a social media platform for celebrities and artists to market themselves to their fans and audiences.

Keith Urban

Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is a New Zealand-born Australian country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, entrepreneur, and music competition judge. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States the following year. He found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Nashville and charted two singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Still signed to Capitol, Urban made his solo American debut in 1999 with the album Keith Urban. Certified platinum in the US, it produced his first number one on Hot Country Songs with "But for the Grace of God". "Somebody Like You", the first single from his second Capitol album, Golden Road (2002), was named by Billboard as the biggest country hit of the 2000s decade. The album's fourth single, "You'll Think of Me", earned him his first Grammy. 2004's Be Here, his third American album, produced three more number 1 singles and became his highest-selling album, earning 4× Platinum certification. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing was released in 2006, containing "Once in a Lifetime" as well as his second Grammy song, "Stupid Boy". A greatest hits package entitled Greatest Hits: 18 Kids followed in late-2007. Defying Gravity and Get Closer were released on March 31, 2009 and November 16, 2010 respectively. In September 2013, he released a brand new album titled Fuse, which produced four more number ones on the newly introduced Country Airplay chart, two of which are duets with Miranda Lambert and Eric Church. A new single, entitled "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16", was released in June 2015 as the lead-off single to his upcoming eighth American studio album Ripcord.