1970s: Rough Trade

How did Rough Trade start?

Rough Trade started when Geoff Cravis took a trip to Canada where he was able to purchase some music records. When he purchased these records he realised that there was nowhere in London. He decided to bring backthe records he bought in Canada and open a music shop in West London.

What music trends were popular?

Reggae and Punk were the two most popular music trends in the 1970s.

What was the ethos of

Rough Trade at this time?

Rough Trade stood for the 'intellectual political wing of punk'; Communism and Marxism heavily influenced them.

How was Rough Trade different to large corporations?

Rough Trade was different to large corporations as they were an independent company. This made them separate from the large music corporations like EMI and CBS. Corporations like this normally over shadowed smaller independent corporations.

What techniques were used to expand the independent music scene?

Rough Trade is an independent company so therefore doesn't have a lot of money. They used to do their own pressing and marketing, which artists thought was a good idea as they didn't have to use a lot of money to make a record cover. Also the artists could say how many records they wanted to be produced and sold. The band 'Desperate Bicycles' had an idea to of turning record sleeves into instructions of ho

w to make your own records. 'Scritti Polliti' kept the trend going by printing the budget on the front of his record sleeve to prove how cheap it was to produce your own music records.

How did this lead to Rough Trades expansion?

To get into the music industry it is known that you are better going to an independent record label first then trying to go for the massive corporations. Where the original Rough Trade shop was, was in an area that was cheap to live in therefore bringing in musicians. This increased the shops popularity.

Explain the successes of the distribution department and record label.

The distribution department wa

s developed in 1977 and bought in more money than the actual record label. The departments job was to distribute records to other small shops all around the country. The record label however, said they didn't want to be like any other record label so they made two clauses. 1. When the partnership between the artist and record label was no longer working they wouldend it. 2. Any profit that was made would be split equally between the artist and Rough Trade.