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Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.
Company historyBeginningsGeffen Records was founded in 1980 by music industry businessman David Geffen who, in the early 1970s, had formed Asylum Records. Geffen stepped down from Asylum after being diagnosed with a cancerous cyst but, following confirmation that the growth was benign, returned to work and struck a deal with Warner Bros. Records to create Geffen Records. Warner provided 100 percent of the funding for the label's operations, while Geffen retained 50 percent of the profits, and distributed its records. (International distribution outside the US and Canada, meanwhile, moved from WEA in 1982 to CBS until 1990.)
Geffen Records also had early success with several "big 80s" acts including Quarterflash , Oxo, Asia, Wang Chung, and a pre-Van Halen Sammy Hagar. As the 1980s progressed, Geffen Records continued to sign a handful of established music icons, including Elton John, Cher, Don Henley, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Peter Gabriel. Toward the end of the decade, the company also began making a name for itself as an emerging rock label, thanks to the success of Whitesnake, Guns N' Roses and the mainstream comeback of '70s era rockers Aerosmith. This prompted Geffen to, in 1990, create subsidiary label, DGC Records ('DGC' being an acronym for David Geffen Company)—which focused on more progressive sounds and would later embrace the emergence of alternative rock, with influential acts like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck, Weezer, Counting Crows, Hole, The Sundays, Teenage Fanclub, as well as early releases by hip hop heavyweights The Roots. Geffen's acquisition by MCAAfter a decade of operating through Warner, when its contract with the company expired, David Geffen sold the label to MCA, Inc. (later renamed Universal Music Group) in 1990. The deal ultimately earned him an estimated $1 billion in cash and stock, and an employment contract that ran until 1995. Following the sale, Geffen Records operated as one of Universal's leading independently managed labels. Geffen stepped down as head of the label in 1995 and collaborated with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg to form Dreamworks SKG, an ambitious multimedia empire dealing in film, television, books, and music. Geffen Records would distribute releases on the new operation's DreamWorks Records subsidiary. Interscope-Geffen-A&M
By 2000, despite Geffen Records no longer being independently operated within UMG and taking a more submissive position behind Interscope, it continued to do steady business—so much so that in 2003, UMG folded MCA Records into Geffen, finally retiring the former name. Geffen had been substantially a pop-rock label, but the absorbtion of MCA led to a more diverse roster, with former MCA artists like Mary J. Blige, The Roots, Avant, and Common now featured on the label. Meanwhile, DreamWorks Records also folded, with much of that company being absorbed by Geffen as well. Geffen's absorption of the MCA and DreamWorks labels, along with its continuing to sign new acts like Nelly Furtado, Angels and Airwaves, Ashlee Simpson and Snoop Dogg, as well as the recently signed hip-hop artist The Game, have boosted the company to the extent that it is now gaining equal footing with the main Interscope label, leading some industry insiders to predict that it might revert to operating as a dominant imprint at UMG again soon. Labels under GeffenSee also
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