Elektra Entertainment Group | New Leadership in the 1970s
New Leadership in the 1970s
Elektra moved into popular rock and roll music in the 1960s. In May 1966, Holzman first saw the Doors, signed them, and a year later the company had its first number one single on the pop charts, "Light My Fire." The album was also highly popular and over the course of the next three decades would sell in excess of 45 million copies. On the strength of its success with the Doors, Elektra once again established a Los Angeles office. However, the days of being able to launch an independent record label in your dorm room were long past, and Holzman took note of the changing conditions. For instance, Atlantic Records, the rise of which mirrored that of Elektra, was bought by Warner Brothers in 1967. Holzman ultimately sold Elektra to Warner Communications in 1970. He stayed on to run the label, in the next couple of years signing such notable talents as Carly Simon and Harry Chapin, but in 1973, at the age of 42, Holzman, believing that he was starting to repeat himself, decided to retire, turning over the reins of Elektra to others.
In 1974, under the Warner umbrella, former agent and manager of Crosby, Stills & Nash, David Geffen, merged his Asylum label with Elektra. Without Holzman, Elektra lost its bohemian edge, growing into a more traditional record label. It added such pop acts as Tony Orlando & Dawn and the Cars, heavy rockers like Queen, and branched into punk as well as country music. In 1983, the company took on new leadership in the form of Bob Krasnow. The former sales rep for Decca Records and manager/producer for Captain Beefheart, Krasnow had launched his own independent record label in 1968 called Blue Thumb Records, which he once told Holzman he planned to grow into the next Elektra. Instead, he moved on, eventually becoming vice-president of talent for Warner before taking charge of Elektra on January 1, 1983. Over the course of the next 11 years, Krasnow was to transform the Elektra, Asylum, and Nonesuch labels into a true entertainment group, adding a classical music division as well as a video company. At the same time, he returned Elektra to its roots, moving the company's headquarters to Rockefeller Center.
After a long run of success, Elektra began to experience some difficulties in the early 1990s. By 1994, the company's market share among U.S. labels dipped to just 2.8 percent, with revenue under $200 million. In the same year, Krasnow quit during a management shakeup at Warner in which Atlantic co-chairman Doug Morris was put in charge of all Warner music labels. According to press reports, Krasnow balked at the idea of reporting to Morris. In any case, he was replaced by Sylvia Rhone, the first African American woman to head a major music company. She was given the mission of building Elektra's sales to the $300 million level in three years.
Raised in the Harlem section of New York City, Rhone graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School with a BS in economics. She became a trainee at Bankers Trust Company in New York, but after a year quit in order to make a career in the music industry. She got her foot in the door by taking a secretarial position at Buddah Records but quickly advanced to the position of national promotion coordinator. After serving in that same capacity for small independent label Bareback Records, in 1976 she moved to ABC Records, where she became regional promotion manager, a position she later held at Ariola Records. In 1980, she moved to Elektra and for three years served as northeast regional promotion manager in charge of special markets. For two years, she then became director of marketing. As a result of this varied experience, she was well prepared in 1986 to become vice-president and general manager of Atlantic's Black Music Operations. Some 18 months later, she was named senior vice-president for the label. She was instrumental in the rapid growth of the Black Music Division: from March 1988 to May 1990, revenues increased by 400 percent.
Taking over Elektra, Rhone was just as successful as she had been at Atlantic. In just two years, she was able to reach the $300 million goal for Elektra. According to Billboard, in November 1996, Elektra commanded 5.47 percent of album sales, making it the sixth-largest label in the United States. Of particular achievement was the revitalization of the career of singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman and the emergence of rock group Phish. In addition, Elektra's heavy metal act Metallica would become the biggest selling band of the 1990s.