Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival Mushroom Records was later acquired by Warner Bros. Records, which operated the label from 2005 to 2010 until it folded to Warner. Founder Michael Gudinski went on to become the leader of the Mushroom Group, the largest independent music and entertainment company in Australia, with divisions such as Frontier Touring.
Sloan is a Canadian rock band formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1991. Sloan has released thirteen full-length albums and has received nine Juno Award nominations, winning one. Between 1996 and 2016, Sloan was among the top 75 best-selling Canadian artists in Canada and among the top 25 best-selling Canadian bands in Canada. The band is known for their sharing of songwriting and lead vocals from each member of the group and their unaltered line-up throughout their career. Although formed in Halifax, the band is now based out of Toronto.
Beauty and the Beat is the debut album from California new wave band the Go-Go's. Released July 14, 1981 on the I.R.S. Records label, the album reached number one on Billboard's Top LPs & Tape chart in March 1982, bolstered by its two big Hot 100 hit singles: "Our Lips Are Sealed" and "We Got the Beat", released in 1980, but in a different version. After a long and steady climb, Beauty and the Beat reached number one in the album chart dated March 6, 1982, the week before "We Got the Beat" entered the Top Ten of the Hot 100. The album stayed at the top for six consecutive weeks, and ranked second in Billboard's year-end Top 100 of 1982. The album sold in excess of two million copies, and was RIAA-certified double platinum, qualifying it as one of the most successful debut albums of all time. Critically acclaimed, it has been described as one of the "cornerstone albums of American new wave".
Heart is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1973. The band evolved from previous projects led by founding members Roger Fisher (guitar) and Steve Fossen, including The Army (1967–1969), Hocus Pocus (1969–1970), and White Heart (1970–1973). By 1975, original members Fisher, Fossen, and Ann Wilson, along with Nancy Wilson, Michael Derosier (drums), and Howard Leese formed the lineup for the band's initial mid- to late-1970s success period. These core members were included in the band's 2013 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
DGC Records was an American record label that operated as a division of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, which is owned by Universal Music Group.
Rock music of Canada is a wide and diverse part of the general music of Canada, beginning with American and British style rock and roll in the mid-20th century. Since then Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern popular music called rock. Canada has produced many of the genre's most significant groups and performers, while contributing substantively to the development of the most popular subgenres, which include pop rock, progressive rock, country rock, folk rock, hard rock, punk rock, heavy metal and indie rock.
Buckcherry is an American hard rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1995. The band released two albums, Buckcherry (1999) and Time Bomb (2001), before dissolving in 2002. Buckcherry's first album Buckcherry was DreamWorks' first album to go gold. In 2005, lead vocalist Josh Todd and lead guitarist Keith Nelson reformed Buckcherry with a new lineup and released a new album in 2006, 15. It contained Buckcherry's biggest crossover hits to date, "Crazy Bitch", and their first Billboard Hot 100 top ten hit, "Sorry". The band continued to record albums, releasing five between 2008 and 2019: Black Butterfly in 2008, All Night Long in 2010, Confessions in 2013, Rock 'n' Roll in 2015, and Warpaint in 2019. Their ninth album Hellbound released in 2021, and their tenth and most recent album Vol. 10 released in 2023.
"The Weight" is a song by the Canadian-American group the Band that was released as a single in 1968 and on the group's debut album Music from Big Pink. It was their first release under this name, after their previous releases as Canadian Squires and Levon and the Hawks. Written by Band member Robbie Robertson, the song is about a visitor's experiences in a town mentioned in the lyric's first line as Nazareth. "The Weight" has significantly influenced American popular music, having been listed as No. 41 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time published in 2004. Pitchfork Media named it the 13th best song of the 1960s, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. PBS, which broadcast performances of the song on Ramble at the Ryman (2011), Austin City Limits (2012), and Quick Hits (2012), describes it as "a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines and iconic characters" and notes its enduring popularity as "an essential part of the American songbook."
The Supersuckers are an American rock band, formed in 1988, whose music ranges from alternative rock to country rock to cowpunk. AllMusic describes the band as "the bastard sons of Foghat, AC/DC, and ZZ Top after being weaned on punk rock, unafraid of massive guitar riffs, outsized personalities, or pledging allegiance to sex, weed, and Satan with a wink and a nudge."
"We Got the Beat" is a song by the American rock band the Go-Go's, written by the group's lead guitarist and keyboardist Charlotte Caffey. The band first recorded the song in 1980 for a single on UK-based Stiff Records, and later rerecorded it for their debut album Beauty and the Beat on I.R.S. Records. The initial single release brought the Go-Go's underground credibility during their first UK tour and in the band's hometown of Los Angeles. The first version reached No. 35 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart due to its popularity in clubs as an import, and the second version was a top 10 hit in both the United States and Canada. It is considered a new wave classic hit, as well as being the Go-Go's' signature song. The song was named one of "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".
"Back Stabbers" is a 1972 song by the O'Jays. Released from the hit album of the same name, it spent one week at number 1 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. It was also successful on the pop chart, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1972. The narrator in "Back Stabbers" warns men about their male "friends" who smile to their faces, but are secretly planning to steal their wives or girlfriends. It was inspired by an earlier hit with a similar theme, the Undisputed Truth's "Smiling Faces Sometimes", the chorus of which is quoted at the end of this song. It was part of the soundtrack for the 1977 movie, Looking for Mr. Goodbar. In 2002, the song was sampled by R&B artist Angie Stone for her single "Wish I Didn't Miss You".
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, generating several hit ballads. The group had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Second only to The Beach Boys in Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups, and one of the world's best-selling groups of all time, having sold more than 100 million records.
Calvin, Don't Jump! started as the solo recording project of J. Kirk Pleasant, a musician with extensive connections to the Elephant 6 Collective. Before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he contributed to releases from bands like the Olivia Tremor Control, Black Swan Network, and Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't. His own albums have featured contributions from musicians like Scott Spillane, Jeremy Barnes, John D'Azzo, as well as Peter Erchick, Eric Harris, and John Fernandes.
Quality Records was a Canadian entertainment company which released music albums in Canada on behalf of American record labels. They also released recordings by Canadian artists.
A&M Records is an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in late 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distributing releases from Polydor Ltd. from the UK.
Post-Britpop is an alternative rock subgenre and is the period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, following Britpop, when the media were identifying a "new generation" or "second wave" of guitar bands influenced by acts like Oasis and Blur, but with less overt British concerns in their lyrics and making more use of American rock and indie influences, as well as experimental music. Bands in the post-Britpop era that had been established acts, but gained greater prominence after the decline of Britpop, such as Radiohead and the Verve, and new acts such as Travis, Keane, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Feeder, and particularly Coldplay, achieved much wider international success than most of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
"Theme of Exodus" is a song composed and performed by Ernest Gold. It serves as the main theme song to Otto Preminger's epic film Exodus, based on the 1958 novel of the same name by Leon Uris, which tells the story of founding of the modern State of Israel. The song was released on the soundtrack album for the picture. All music was written by Gold, who won both Best Soundtrack Album and Song of the Year at the 1961 Grammy Awards for the soundtrack and theme to Exodus respectively. It is the only instrumental song to ever receive that award.
An independent record label is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented by trade associations in their country or region, which in turn are represented by the international trade body, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible.
The Frenetics were a Canadian Punk rock band formed in 1999 in Montreal, Quebec.
