Jive Records
Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chicago. Jive was best known for its successes with hip hop, R&B, and dance acts in the 1980s and 1990s, along with teen pop and boy bands during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Jive Records
Jive was acquired by Bertelsmann Music Group in 2002.[2] In 2008, BMG itself was bought out by Sony Music Entertainment.[3] Jive Records thereupon remained a unit wholly owned by Sony up until the label’s dissolution in 2011, when Jive was absorbed into RCA Records.
History[edit]
1970s: Beginnings[edit]
In 1971, South African businessmen Clive Calder and Ralph Simon began a publishing and management company. It was named Zomba Records and relocated to London, England, four years later; their first client was a young Robert "Mutt" Lange. Zomba originally wanted to avoid record labels to instead focus on their songwriters and producers while allowing other established labels to release the material.[4] Later that decade, the company opened offices in the US, where Calder began a business relationship with Clive Davis, whose Arista Records began releasing material by Zomba artists.[4]
Formation and early distribution at Arista and RCA (1981)[edit]
In 1981, Zomba formed Jive Records, whose operations began with the release of British dance and pop music from groups such as Q-Feel, A Flock of Seagulls, and Tight Fit.[1] Its name was inspired by township Jive, a type of music that originated in South Africa.[5] Clive Davis had hoped that Zomba's connection with Mutt Lange would help alleviate the difficulties Arista was having with launching rock acts to success.
R. Kelly controversy[edit]
On September 27, 2021, singer R. Kelly was found guilty by a federal jury of acts including bribery and sexual exploitation of a child.[37] Allegations of Kelly’s sexual misconduct had long followed the singer since his early career with Jive in the early 1990s,[38][13] as well as throughout the 2000s when a video tape surfaced allegedly showing Kelly engaging in sexual acts with a minor and when Kelly was arrested for possession of child pornography.[39][40]
Despite the scandals, Kelly remained signed to Jive’s roster and continued to release albums with the label up to its merger with RCA in 2011.[13] In 2018, the Washington Post ran a lengthy article alleging industry executives at Jive had been aware of Kelly's sexually abusive behavior towards young women for years, but did nothing about them due to his success as a performer and songwriter.[13] The article reported Clive Calder had been warned about Kelly’s behavior as early as 1994; it quoted him: "Clearly, we missed something."[13]
Former Jive president Barry Weiss told the newspaper that during his 20 years with the label, he never concerned himself with Kelly's private life, and was unaware of two lawsuits filed against Kelly and the label by women alleging sexual misconduct, suits in which the label had successfully argued it was not liable.[13] Larry Khan, another Jive executive who worked closely with the singer even after viewing the sex tape, similarly implied Kelly’s misconduct was not the label's responsibility and pointed to Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis as musicians whose labels also continued to release and promote their records despite public awareness that they were involved with underage girls.[13]