Sub Pop

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Sub Pop Records

Founded	1986
Founder(s)	Bruce Pavitt Jonathan Poneman
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Grunge Indie rock
Country of origin	United States
Location	Seattle, Washington
Official Website	http://www.subpop.com

Sub Pop is a record label in Seattle, Washington that achieved fame in the 1990's for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the local Seattle music scene. They are often credited with taking the first steps towards popularizing grunge music, and have also achieved major success with 2000s indie pop bands The Postal Service and The Shins on their roster. Though often called an independent music label, Sub Pop is 49% owned by Warner Music Group, one of the largest major record labels in the world. They own a 5% stake in the Alternative Distribution Alliance, with Warner Music Group owning the other 95%.

1 History
2 Artists who have worked with Sub Pop
3 Label Compilations
4 Trivia
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

Sub Pop was started by Bruce Pavitt in Olympia, Washington in 1979 as a fanzine called Subterranean Pop (which was changed to Sub Pop starting with the 2nd issue). Inspired by the cassette fanzine Fast Forward, Sub Pop began alternating issues with compilation tapes of American bands (though several foreign bands did appear on Sub Pop cassettes). There were nine issues of Sub Pop in all: six magazines and three cassettes (issues 5, 7, and 9). After issue 9, Sub Pop switched to an all-cassette format (cassettes featured early cover artwork by cartoonists Charles Burns and Peter Bagge), but the project was scuttled by the amount of work required to continue it. It continued as a column in the Seattle newspaper The Rocket for several more years. In 1986, Pavitt moved to Seattle, Washington and released the first Sub Pop LP, the compilation Sub Pop 100. In 1987, Sub Pop released the Dry as a Bone EP by Green River, and later that year Pavitt met Jonathan Poneman.

Kim Thayil of Soundgarden introduced Pavitt to Jonathan Poneman, and the two decided to form a record label in 1986. With several bands from the local scene signed to their label, Pavitt and Poneman worked to popularize the music to popularize their label.

Their first step was the Sub Pop Singles Club, a subscription service that would allow subscribers to receive singles by local bands on a monthly basis by mail. This allowed Sub Pop to become a powerful company in the local scene, as well as make their label's name synonymous with the music of the Seattle area, much in the same way Motown Records was to Detroit. The first release of the Singles Club was Nirvana's Love Buzz/Big Cheese, in November 1988. Singles Club was ended five years later in 1993, and re-launched in 1998. In 2002, the Singles Club was ended again.^[1]

To further increase grunge's popularity, Pavitt and Poneman had a journalist from the British magazine Melody Maker come to Seattle to write an article on the local music scene. The journalist was Everett True.

Though Sub Pop was important in popularizing grunge, some grunge fans have criticized Pavitt and Poneman for their actions. These fans felt that their role in popularizing grunge was motivated by greed rather than by love for the music. After many successful grunge bands had left Sub Pop for major record labels, a joint venture with Warner Music and the company was formed.

Around 1996, Bruce Pavitt left the label in order to spend more time with his family. Sales representative Megan Jasper created the hoax of grunge speak.

Sub Pop has one platinum record, Nirvana's Bleach and one gold record, The Postal Service's Give Up. The Shins' New Slang has gone gold digitally, and Postal Service's digital single for "Such Great Heights" has also gone platinum. On January 31, 2007, Sub Pop announced that The Shins' third full-length for Sub Pop Wincing The Night Away debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts, reporting first week sales of 117,991 (35K in digital sales). This is the first time any album in Sub Pop history has ever charted in the top ten or broken 100,000 in the first week of sales.

In 2006, Sub Pop Records became the first Green-e certified record label^{[citation needed]}. Through work with the Green-e program and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Sub Pop "greened" their label by purchasing enough renewable energy certificates to offset 100 percent of the electricity they use in their office, showing their commitment to putting renewable energy in the mainstream as a way consumers can take action to do something about global warming.