RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.
RCA Records Label
- Sony Music Entertainment
(2008–present) - Previously
Consolidated Talking Machine Company
(1900–1901) - Victor Talking Machine Company
(1901–1929) - Radio Corporation of America
(1929–1986)
General Electric Company
(1986–1987)
Bertelsmann Music Group
(1987–2004) - Sony BMG Music Entertainment
(2004–2008)
- Sony Music Entertainment (International)
- RCA Label Group (UK)
- Legacy Recordings (reissues)
Various
RCA Records is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Arista Records, and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, classical, rock, hip hop, afrobeat, electronic, R&B, blues, jazz, and country. The label's name is derived from the initials of its now defunct parent company, the Radio Corporation of America[3] (RCA).
RCA Records was fully acquired by Bertelsmann in 1987, making it a part of Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and became a part of Sony BMG Music Entertainment after the 2004 merger of BMG and Sony; it was acquired by the latter in 2008, after the dissolution of Sony/BMG and the restructuring of Sony Music.
RCA Records is the corporate successor of the Victor Talking Machine Company.
Broadway and Hollywood[edit]
RCA Victor has produced several notable Broadway cast albums, among them the original Broadway recordings of Brigadoon, Paint Your Wagon, the Mary Martin Peter Pan, Damn Yankees, Hello, Dolly!, Oliver!, and Fiddler on the Roof. RCA has also recorded and released recordings of revival stagings of musicals. These include the musical productions staged at Lincoln Center, such as the 1966 revivals of Show Boat and Annie Get Your Gun, the 1987 revival of Anything Goes and the 1998 Broadway revivals of Cabaret and The Sound of Music. Call Me Madam was recorded by RCA Victor with all of its original cast except for its star Ethel Merman, who, due to contractual obligations, could not be released from her American Decca Records contract. She was replaced on the RCA Victor album by Dinah Shore. RCA Victor was also responsible for the film soundtrack albums of Damn Yankees, South Pacific, Bye Bye Birdie, Half a Sixpence, and The Sound of Music. The album made from the 1965 hit Julie Andrews film was (and is) one of the best selling soundtracks of all time. The film soundtrack of Oliver!, made by Colgems Records, was distributed by RCA, which had released the Broadway cast album. RCA Victor also released the original American cast album of Hair.
Similarly, RCA Victor also made several studio cast recording albums, including a Lerner and Loewe series with Jan Peerce, Jane Powell, and Robert Merrill, as well as a 1963 album of excerpts from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, with its 1952 revival leads, Leontyne Price and William Warfield, but a different supporting cast. They also issued two studio cast versions of Show Boat, one with Robert Merrill, Patrice Munsel, and Rise Stevens in 1956, and the other with Howard Keel, Anne Jeffreys, and Gogi Grant in 1958. Contrary to the way the show is written, both of these Show Boat albums featured all-white casts, reflecting the era of racial segregation.
In 2006, Sony BMG merged its Broadway music labels, including RCA Victor, to the new Masterworks Broadway Records. All of these recordings are now on Masterworks Broadway Records, which has remastered and reissued many of these albums.
Criticisms and controversies[edit]
Kenny Rogers[edit]
After Kenny Rogers left RCA Records in 1987, he accused the label of trying to ruin his career. Rogers had signed to RCA in 1982 for an advance sum of $20 million (the largest deal ever in country music up to that time) when Bob Summer was head of the label.[69]
Kelly Clarkson[edit]
In the summer of 2007, Kelly Clarkson and Clive Davis, then head of Sony BMG, feuded publicly regarding the direction of her album My December, the follow-up to Clarkson's multi-platinum album, Breakaway. Clarkson wrote the songs on My December, "showcasing her own songwriting on darker, edgier rock-oriented fare", and Davis insisted Clarkson work with hired hitmakers, as she had previously, on "polished, radio-friendly songs". Clarkson refused to change the album, and it was released in June 2007. It has since been certified platinum.[70][71][72]
Avril Lavigne[edit]
In November 2010, Avril Lavigne stated that the long delay of her fourth album, Goodbye Lullaby, was due to "a bunch of bureaucratic BS" related to RCA.[73] The album was ultimately released in March 2011. In October 2011, Lavigne confirmed that she had left RCA and signed with sister label Epic Records.[74][75]
Brooke Candy[edit]
In early 2017, Brooke Candy left RCA before the release of her initially planned debut studio album Daddy Issues, citing creative stifling for her departure and accusing the label of taking control of her sound and image, as well as dictating what she could publicly say and do.[76] She later claimed that she "fought, bare-fucking knuckle, to get the fuck out of [RCA]" and that Sony had taken ownership of the scrapped album's songs despite not allowing her to release them, leaving her back at square one musically.[77]
R. Kelly[edit]
RCA ignored allegations of sexual misconduct by R. Kelly,[78][79] which included running a violent cult, wherein he held teenage individuals hostage in exchange for sexual favors.[78] Kelly continued to release music for RCA through 2018, when pressure from the Mute R. Kelly campaign mounted against him.[80] In January 2019, following the broadcast of Lifetime's documentary Surviving R. Kelly, his contract was terminated by RCA.[81][82]
Label of an RCA Victor 45 rpm record from 1954 to 1964
Label of an RCA Victor 78 rpm record from the mid to late 1950s. This basic design was also used for most LPs and 45s from 1954 to 1964
RCA Victor used this label for its American 45 rpm records during the "Dynagroove" era from 1965 to late 1968
RCA Victor LP label during the "Dynagroove" era was also used for 45 rpm records in South America during the mid- to late 1960s
An example of an RCA Compatible Discrete 4 or Quadradisc album; RCA used this label on some Quadradisc LPs from 1972 to 1976
Standard "Blue Ring" RCA Victor label used on early US CDs from 1983 through 1987. Some reissues on this label change the ring and print color from blue to black
RCA's standard black Victor label used on most vinyl LPs issued in the Americas from mid 1976 to 1989; 45 rpm records used a similar label
