Founded in 1996, DreamWorks Records was a subsidiary of the DreamWorks SKG film studio.
Run by Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, the former heads of Warner (Bros.) Records, the DreamWorks label issued the expected soundtracks to the parent company's movies (as well as a cast recording of the original theatrical production of RENT), but most of its releases consisted of pop and rock music. DreamWorks attracted established acts like George Michael, Henry Rollins and The Isley Brothers, while also nurturing new artists like Rufus Wainwright, Eels and Buckcherry. The label also had a Country Music arm, DreamWorks Nashville, whose main hitmakers were Toby Keith, Randy Travis, and Darryl Worley. DreamWorks also dabbled in Recorded and Stand-Up Comedy with releases by Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon and Jeff Foxworthy.
However, all this talent couldn't protect DreamWorks from the social and technological changes that challenged the entire music industry at the Turn of the Millennium. By the middle of the 2000s, the label was acquired by Universal Music Group, where its pop acts were switched to Geffen Records, the label created by DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen (which he'd stepped down from to help form the studio). DreamWorks Nashville continued a while longer before Universal shut it down as well. For all the promise it showed at the start, DreamWorks Records existed for less than a decade.
DreamWorks Records performers with TV Tropes pages:
- AFI
- Alien Ant Farm
- The All-American Rejects
- Ash (North America)
- Dr. Octagon (an alias for Kool Keith)
- Eels
- Jimmy Fallon
- Jeff Foxworthy
- Nelly Furtado
- The Isley Brothers
- Jimmy Eat World
- Toby Keith
- Tracy Lawrence
- Lifehouse
- George Michael (US and Canada only)
- Morphine
- Randy Newman
- Papa Roach
- Powerman 5000
- Rise Against
- Chris Rock
- Henry Rollins
- Saves the Day
- Elliott Smith
- Randy Travis
- Rufus Wainwright
