In 1947, when Ahmet Ertegun and two music-loving friends founded Atlantic Records studios in New York, they could not have imagined that their passion for discovering artists and recording albums would shape 75 years of popular culture. The reason for such tremendous global success is simple: Atlantic is a model of an innovative industry that has always embraced and promoted a wide range of genres: Black music such as R&B, soul, jazz, and hip-hop, as well as rock, pop, dance, and many others.
75 Years of Atlantic Records is the official and definitive photographic history of this legendary record label, involving four years of work and countless images obtained from Atlantic’s extensive archives, many published here for the first time. Discover soul pioneers like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, jazz innovators like John Coltrane and Charles Mingus, pop artists who defined an era like the Bee Gees and ABBA, rock legends such as Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones, trailblazers like Roberta Flack and Stevie Nicks, and current stars like Ed Sheeran and Charli xcx. Some of the world’s best photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, Jim Marshall, Lee Friedlander, Walter Iooss Jr., Anton Corbijn, Chuck Stewart, Albert Watson, and David LaChapelle, captured formal portraits, live performance shots, decisive studio moments, and intimate backstage glimpses.
The fascinating commentary by Richie Unterberger and Herb Powell puts the collection into context, while award-winning writers David Ritz, Ben Ratliff, Elizabeth Nelson, and Barney Hoskyns, among others, examine the label’s diverse genres; all complemented by a comprehensive chronology and profiles of Atlantic’s pioneers. As Bruno Mars’s foreword states, Atlantic Records revolutionized the way records are made and heard, and now, this story is complete and beautifully documented in a work essential for music lovers.
