4AD Records is an independent record label from the UK. It started up in 1979 as a sublabel of Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today as part of the Beggars Groupnote . The label is best known for its activity during the 1980s, when it made its name specializing in Post-Punk genres like Dream Pop, New Wave and Goth Rock.
The label was started by two former Beggars Banquet employees, Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent. It was initially named Axis Records, but after it was discovered that an Axis label already existed, it was renamed to 4AD, based on a promotional flyer where "1980 FORWARD" was gradually abbreviated to "4AD". In 1981, Kent left to start the Situation Two label and sold his share of the company to Watts-Russell, leaving him sole owner and president.
4AD first became famous in The '80s as the home of critically acclaimed Dream Pop bands such as Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and Watts-Russell's own collaborative project This Mortal Coil. These bands helped codify the genre's main characteristics, such as a combination between Ambient production and accessible melodies, complex arrangements, copious Echoing Acoustics, and a distinctive visual identity, courtesy of the label's in-house graphic designer Vaughan Oliver. The identification is so widespread that "4AD" is frequently used as a shorthand for "the classic dream pop sound".
However, this wasn't all 4AD had to offer, as was highlighted by its famous 1987 sampler compilation Lonely Is An Eyesore. The label soon expanded into American Alternative Rock, signing Pixies, The Breeders and Throwing Muses, among others, and establishing a Los Angeles office in The '90s, from where a lot of the Slowcore bands that drove the label that decade operated.
Despite a minor hit with Modern English's "I Melt With You" in 1983 and a huge success with M/A/R/R/S' sampletastic "Pump Up the Volume" in 1987, 4AD were always more of a Cult Classic UK-focused label, which led them to signing a US distribution deal with Warner (Bros.) Records in 1992. (Prior to the deal, the label negotiated U.S. distribution of individual acts with various labels.) This is considered a sign of the end of "classic 4AD", as many of its flagship bands were leaving or disbanding, and Watts-Russell himself left the label in 1999, but it has remained active. Its importance was recognised by the Beggars Group in 2008 through a reorganisation that merged many of its subsidiary labels into 4AD (including Beggars Banquet itself).
"Classic" 4AD artists include:
- A.R. Kane
- Bauhaus
- Heidi Berrynote
- The Birthday Party
- Clan of Xymox
- Cocteau Twins
- Colourbox
- M/A/R/R/Snote
- Dead Can Dance
- Dif Juz
- Lisa Germano
- His Name Is Alive
- Lush
- Modern English
- Mojave 3
- Rachel Goswell
- Neil Halstead
- Pale Saints
- Pixies
- The Breeders
- Frank Black
- The Red House Paintersnote
- Stereolab
- The The
- This Mortal Coil
- Throwing Muses
- Scott Walker
- The Wolfgang Press
Modern 4AD bands include:
- Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
- The Big Pink
- Blonde Redhead
- Bon Iver (only in Europe, Jagjaguwar handles US distribution)
- Deerhunter
- Efterklang
- Grimes (has since departed, currently indepedent)
- Tim Hecker
- Iron and Wine (only in Europe, Warner (Bros.) Records handles US distribution)
- the Mountain Goats
- The National
- St. Vincent
- tUnE-yArDs
- TV on the Radio
- U.S. Girls
- Tkay Maidza
