Konichiwa Records

Konichiwa Records
Parent company	Universal Music Group
Founded	2005 (2005)
Founder	Robyn
Distributor(s)	Interscope Records (North America) Island Records (Europe) Universal Music Group (rest of the world)
Genre	Pop, dance, synthpop, dance-pop
Country of origin	Sweden
Location	Stockholm
Official website	konichiwa.se

Konichiwa Records is a record label founded by Swedish pop singer Robyn. The label has only one other artist signed, Zhala. The name "Konichiwa" is derived from the Japanese greeting こんにちは (Konnichi wa (with 2 n's)), meaning "hello" or "good day" (literally "this day is").

Background[]

Building tension regarding numerous creative differences (even as a minor) since 1996 between Robyn and her A&R team/handlers (especially at label Jive specifically regarding her marketing in the United States) finally came to a head in 2003, leading to Robyn to strike out on her own, buy out of her contract and start her own label. The first followed the release of the U.S. version of her 1995 debut Robyn is Here in early 1997 when following her hits "Do You Know (What It Takes)" and "Show Me Love" Robyn's star was rising globally. With grunge and Britpop stalling on either side of the Atlantic, a new renaissance of teen-marketed dance-pop was rising from Europe and making waves in the United States following the release of the Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe". Cheiron Studios led by Denniz Pop and Max Martin had a vision to combine R&B with pop.^[1]

As many other labels only saw girl groups or boy bands working commercially, her A&R aesthetically wanted to craft her in a new image translated to the late 90s, warping, repackaging then commodifying Madonna's message of sexual expression to mass market for multiple demographics, seen decades later more charitably by some outlets as "girl next door" and by others more derisively as the "jailbait dynamo". Rejecting this direction and the demo, Robyn's working relationship was Max was strained, and he molded his vision for this new lane of teen pop to Britney Spears, with the latter's input. Denniz would pass away from stomach cancer in 1998 prior to Britney's massive debut that became the blueprint for subsequent debuts from Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, and Mandy Moore, with Cheiron being dubbed at the close of the teen pop era in 2003 by Rolling Stone as "Sweden's Lolita-pop dollhouse".^[2][3][1][4]

The second creative difference arose from Jive Records' concern in early 1999 about the lyrics regarding her abortion in October 1998 at the age of 18, addressed in the songs "Giving You Back" and "88 Days" for her album to be released in 1999, "My Truth". Robyn rejected any demands to get rid of those songs. As a result of the stalemate the album was only released by BMG in Sweden and limited territories. The final creative difference between her and Jive came following her album cycle Don't Stop the Music in mid 2003 when they rejected the harder synthpop direction of her new demos influenced by Swedish band the Knife, especially "Who's That Girl", which was later released and charted at #26 in the UK and #37 in Sweden. Robyn decided in early 2005 to leave Jive and start her own record label Konichiwa Records. Robyn’s first album under the new label was called Robyn, and included collaborators Klas Åhlund from Teddybears STHLM, Swedish duo the Knife, and former Cheiron producer Alexander Kronlund. Robyn and Max Martin would later reunite on 2010's "Time Machine".^[5]

References[]