Welcome, friends, to the nineties! What a decade!
Music, art, movies, technology, everything happened in the early ’90s. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a dial-up modem for internet access, a 486 MHz Intel processor, a Bigfoot 1.2 gigabyte hard disk, and Windows 95. Many disruptive changes to the status quo occurred in this decade.
And it’s even hard to imagine how the underground music industry is shaking everything and creating a new mainstream. Sorry, this isn’t about Nirvana or the Seattle scene. We are currently going to sunny, beautiful California to meet Mr. Brett. Aka Bad Religion founder/guitarist.
Ops, I did it again!
We can spend lines and lines talking about Bad Religion’s legacy, but that is not our goal.
Today, we will talk about Epitaph Records and the best marketing plan from the 90s.
When Bad Religion started to write their first songs, Brett Gurewitz had an idea to found at the same time a Record Company. His vision was to avoid the Mainstream. And to produce everything without commercial interference.
What a DIY act! What a punk-rocker guy!
In 1981, Bad Religion released their debut album under Epitaph Records. Not really a whole album, an eponymous EP with 6 songs. An authentic experience for Brett and Epitaph. Not a fancy and perfect production, just a punk rock vibe based on Greg Graffin’s political/social poetry.
As the years passed, and under Epitaph, Bad Religion released several albums. In 1987, the recording company became a Label and released their first album outside Bad Religion stuff – a debut from the L7 girls. And again, not the best production, but this album captures the L7 atmosphere and puts the band on the map.
New, fresh artists came to Epitaph, bands such as Offspring, Rancid and NOFX released some historic albums. But Brett and his creative entrepreneurship were looking for more.
In 1993, Brett received a special call from the young Kelly Slater. And the Surfer World Champion asked Brett if he could include some Epitaph artists’ songs in the video production he was creating. At that point, a game-changing plan came into Brett’s mind:
Hey man! Of course. I will give you free songs. You just need to include a description of the song, the band name, and Epitaph rights. If you do this, you can use as many as you need.
Booom!!
The world discovered Offspring, Rancid, NOFX and the entire Epitaph catalogue. With this “outside the box” action, Brett Gurewitz put Epitaph bands in the Mainstream without any Commercial requirement. Just punk rock songs going on the waves. Skate, Bike and all radical sports are looking at Epitaph with their radical songs inventory for promotional videos.
It was the beginning of the marriage between Sports and Punk Music, and they have been together ever since. (If you disagree, try to watch a surfer in a tube listening to Hey Jude.
Surf this sunny text with these:
NOFX – The Cause
Bad Religion – Punk Rock Song
L7 – Metal Stamped
digitaldaniel 