DreamWorks Records (also SKG Music, or SKG Music Group, and Spielberg Music Group) was an
American record label. Founded in 1996 by
David Geffen,
Steven Spielberg and
Jeffrey Katzenberg as a subsidiary of
DreamWorks SKG, the label operated until 2005 when it was shut down. The label itself also featured a
Nashville, Tennessee based subsidiary, DreamWorks Nashville, which specialized in
country music and was also shut down in 2005. The company's logo was designed by
Roy Lichtenstein and was his last commission before his death in 1997.
History
In 1996, six years after Geffen sold
Geffen Records to
MCA Music Entertainment, he joined Spielberg and Katzenberg to form DreamWorks SKG, which included the subsidiary DreamWorks Records. The label's logo was the last project completed by artist
Roy Lichtenstein. The distinctive design, incorporating musical notes in the artist's trademark "dream balloon," debuted on the packaging for "Beautiful Freak," the first album from Los Angeles-based
Eels and the second release from the record company.
Geffen Records distributed DreamWorks until 1998, when
Interscope Records took over distribution duties (meanwhile, as Interscope and Geffen switched international distribution to
Polydor Records, DreamWorks followed suit).
Rufus Wainwright was the first to be signed to the new label in early 1996.
Henry Rollins (both as a spoken-word artist and with
Rollins......
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