Mo Ostin, the powerful chief executive of Warner Bros. Records, died at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday at the age of 86. There was a man who was 95 years old.
His granddaughter confirmed that he had passed away.
According to the music industry trade publication Hits, no company was more successful at artist development between the 1960s and the 1990s.
The list of artists signed to Warner Bros. labels when they were guided by Mr. Ostin is like a dream world music hall of fame. Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., and Van Morrison are just some of the pivotal singers of the 1950s and 1960s.
Mr. Ostin told The Los Angeles Times in 1994 that Warners' focus was always on the music.
He left Warner Bros. in 1995 due to a corporate power struggle and formed DreamWorks Records with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. There he signed a lot of new and old talent, including the Isley Brothers and the Furtado's.
Mr. Ostin was able to hire and hold onto a tight executive team thanks to a group of producers and A & R people like Russ Tit.
He created joint-venture deals with a number of labels, including Sire, which brought to the stable New Wave stars like Talking Heads and the Pretenders.
Mr. Ostin didn't play his part in public. Unlike his peers, he kept a low profile on the party circuit and granted few interviews.
The artist should be in the center of the picture.
The significance of his work was acknowledged. He was a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Recording Academy and received two awards.
He was born to Russian immigrants who came to the United States during the Communist revolution of 1917. He moved with his family to Los Angeles to run a produce market.
He was a music fan from a young age, but his introduction to the music business happened by chance. The brother of Norman Granz owned a jazz label and promoted concerts in the 1940s and 50s. He majored in economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and later helped Mr. Granz sell programs for his concerts. Evelyn Bardavid was his wife in 1948.
Mr. Ostin dropped out of the law school he was going to attend to support his wife and son. Mr. Granz hired him to be the controller for Clef at a time when the label was home to some of the greatest jazz artists of the 20th century.
The name of the company eventually changed to Verve.
Frank Sinatra tried to buy the label at the end of the 1950's. He formed Reprise after losing out to MGM Records. He wanted to model the new company on Verve.
Frank's idea was to create an environment which would be more attractive for the artist than anyone else had to offer. That wasn't how it was in other places.
Reprise's economics didn't match its artistic efforts because of Sinatra's ban on signing promising new rock 'n' roll acts. "I went to Frank and said, 'Look, we're not going to be able to survive unless we become competitive.'" He didn't like rock 'n' roll, but he realized what I was saying was correct. He decided to lift the ban. It was a turning point.
The Kinks scored a Top 10 hit in 1964 with "You Really Got Me", followed by two more in 1965, and four more in 1968. Sinatra sold Reprise to Warner Bros., which merged the companies and gave him creative control.
Petula Clark, the Association andHarpers Bizarre were signed by Mr. Ostin before he moved on to more hard-edge rock bands. Jimi Hendrix was signed by Mr. Ostin in 1967.
Warner-Reprise had a new president that year. He held the position of chairman and chief executive for over 25 years.
The WEA distribution system was launched in the early ’70s and made the company even more powerful. Mr. Ostin was able to take on CBS Records because he added more and more affiliated labels.
In the late 1970s, Walter Yetnikoff, the chief executive of CBS, wooed James Taylor away from Warner Bros., in order to retaliate by signing Paul Simon away from CBS. The same thing happened in the 1980s when Mr. Ostin was able to lure Miles Davis away from CBS. WEA had overtaken CBS as the market leader.
By incorporating influences from South Africa and elsewhere, Mr. Simon's album "Graceland" became a major hit and stood as a game-changer in Western awareness of global music.
Mr. Simon told The Los Angeles Times that there was no indication that the album would have a commercial payoff. Mo encouraged me to go for it.
Warner Bros. nurtured scores of culturally important acts. Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Van Halen, Dire Straits, ZZ Top, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Sex Pistols are included in the list.
The band went from a cult band to a historic album seller during that time. Mr. Ostin tried to get Prince to join the company. Mr. Ostin took the risk of guaranteeing a three-album deal and giving him creative control in order to win him over.
Neil Young and Prince were the most significant artists signed during the peak of his reign because of their prestige. Neil Young is mentioned by a lot of new artists when they are trying to sign them.
He left Warner Bros. in 1994 because he would have had to report to the new chairman of Warner Music Group. The business is about freedom and control. The executive needs to be able to make risky decisions.
He joined with his son Michael and Mr. Waronker to manage the record label. After the sale of the DreamWorks label to Universal Music Group, Mr. Ostin retired from the music industry, but continued to work for Warner Bros.
He is survived by his brother, Gerald; his son, Michael; three other grandsons, and a great-granddaughter. He lost his wife in 2005. Two of his sons, Randy and Kenny, passed away.
They lionized him because of his unflagging support for artists. Flea, whose band the Red Hot Chili Peppers was signed by Mr. Ostin, said in an interview that he was an intelligent man. I felt like I was understood when I spoke to him.
Flea wrote and recorded a song in honor of Mr. Ostin after he left Warner Bros.
The song began, "Mo, Mo, why did you have to leave?" That looked me in the eye.
Alex was a contributor.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
