British music industry svengali Dave Stewart is launching a new record label to nurture acts left out in the cold by the mass-produced pop phenomenon.
Stewart told BBC radio Wednesday that the big five record labels were overlooking significant talent in their bid to mass-produce fashionable hits.
“We’re approaching it completely from a different way,” said Stewart, who hopes to shake up the big players with his new label Artists’ Network.
Stewart produced the 1980s hit “Sweet Dreams” together with Eurythmics co-star Annie Lennox who performed at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations Monday.
Artists’ Network, will hit the music scene as conveyor-belt culture hits new highs.
“Pop Idol” TV stars Will Young and Gareth Gates have both topped the charts within months of the show ending, and this week “Popstars” TV finalists Liberty-X are snapping at Young’s chart-topping heels.
Stewart says the music industry changed irreversibly in the mid-80s on both sides of the Atlantic.
“I remember in 1986, when Annie and I were doing really well, the head of our record company changed in America and this man came in from Hertz rent-a-car and that was a sign of… the way things have become: a corporate face to a creative business,” he said.
“It’s very difficult nowadays for lots of artist who don’t fit the actual mode that they (the record labels) have created,” added Stewart.
“They’ve understood how to sell one thing like McDonalds didbut there are lots other artists out there that don’t fit that mode.”
The new label, which will also feature films, TV, books and visual art, has already signed Jamaican artist Jimmy Cliff.
