Line #48 Creator/FourADRecords


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4ad_logo.png]]
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3	4AD Records is an independent record label from the UK. It started up in 1979 as a sublabel of Creator/BeggarsBanquetRecords, and is still active today as part of the Beggars Group[[note]]which includes other seminal indie labels like Matador and Rough Trade Records[[/note]]. The label is best known for its activity during the 1980s, when it made its name specializing in PostPunk genres like DreamPop, [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] and GothRock.
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5	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 Creator/SituationTwo label and sold his share of the company to Watts-Russell, leaving him sole owner and president.
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7	4AD first became famous in TheEighties as the home of critically acclaimed DreamPop bands such as Music/CocteauTwins, Music/DeadCanDance and Watts-Russell's own collaborative project Music/ThisMortalCoil. These bands helped [[TropeCodifier codify]] the genre's main characteristics, such as a combination between {{Ambient}} production and accessible melodies, complex arrangements, copious EchoingAcoustics, 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".
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9	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 AlternativeRock, signing Music/{{Pixies}}, Music/TheBreeders and Music/ThrowingMuses, among others, and establishing a UsefulNotes/LosAngeles office in TheNineties, from where a lot of the {{Slowcore}} bands that drove the label that decade operated.
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11	Despite a minor hit with Modern English's "I Melt With You" in 1983 and a huge success with M/A/R/R/S' [[{{Sampling}} sampletastic]] "Pump Up the Volume" in 1987, 4AD were always more of a CultClassic UK-focused label, which led them to signing a US distribution deal with Creator/WarnerBrosRecords in 1992. (Prior to the deal, the label negotiated U.S. distribution of individual acts with various labels.) This is considered [[EndOfAnAge 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).
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13	!!"Classic" 4AD artists include:
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15	[[index]]
16	* Music/ARKane
17	* Music/{{Bauhaus}}
18	** Music/TonesOnTail
19	* Heidi Berry[[note]]Was originally signed to [[/index]]Creator/CreationRecords[[index]], but moved to 4AD in 1989.[[/note]]
20	* Music/TheBirthdayParty
21	* Clan of Xymox
22	* Music/CocteauTwins
23	* Colourbox
24	** M/A/R/R/S[[note]]a side-project involving Colourbox and A.R. Kane[[/note]]
25	* Music/DeadCanDance
26	* Dif Juz
27	* Music/LisaGermano
28	* Music/HisNameIsAlive
29	* Music/{{Lush}}
30	* Modern English
31	* Mojave 3
32	** Rachel Goswell
33	** Neil Halstead
34	* Music/PaleSaints
35	* Music/{{Pixies}}
36	** Music/TheBreeders
37	** Frank Black
38	* The Music/RedHousePainters[[note]]Who infamously suffered from Ivo Watts-Russell's ExecutiveMeddling and were thrown off the label in 1996.[[/note]]
39	* Music/{{Stereolab}}
40	* Music/TheThe
41	* Music/ThisMortalCoil
42	* Music/ThrowingMuses
43	** Music/TanyaDonnelly
44	** Music/{{Belly\|Band}}
45	* Music/ScottWalker
46	* The Wolfgang Press
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48	!Modern 4AD bands include:
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50	* [[Music/ArielPink Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti]]
51	* The Big Pink
52	* Blonde Redhead
53	* Music/BonIver (only in Europe, Jagjaguwar handles US distribution)
54	* Music/{{Deerhunter\|Band}}
55	* Music/{{Efterklang}}
56	* Music/{{Grimes}} (has since departed, currently indepedent)
57	* Music/TimHecker
58	* Music/IronAndWine (only in Europe, Creator/WarnerBrosRecords handles US distribution)
59	* Music/TheMountainGoats
60	* Music/TheNational
61	* Music/StVincent
62	* Music/TuneYards
63	* Music/TVOnTheRadio
64	* Music/USGirls
65	* Tkay Maidza
66	[[/index]]

Context Creator / FourADRecords