Business & brands / Music
Armen Boladian
· record label founder, music publisher
Founder of Detroit's Westbound Records (1968), home of Funkadelic, the Ohio Players and the Detroit Emeralds, and of the publisher Bridgeport Music.
- Detroit years
- 1968–
- Field
- Business & brands, Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Boladian founded Westbound Records in Detroit in 1968. The label's most influential act was Funkadelic, whose Westbound albums included Maggot Brain; it was also the early home of the Ohio Players, who had a Top 15 hit with "Funky Worm", and of the Detroit Emeralds, who scored "Feel the Need in Me". Westbound's biggest single was "The Americans" (1974), spoken by local news reporter Byron MacGregor. Distribution passed from Janus to 20th Century and then Atlantic, and a sister label, Eastbound, and a gospel subsidiary, Sound of Gospel, which issued the Thomas Whitfield Company and the Clark Sisters, broadened the catalogue. In 1969 he founded Bridgeport Music, which controls George Clinton and Funkadelic copyrights and became widely known, and criticized, for suing hundreds of hip-hop artists over sampling. The company is based in the Detroit suburb of Southfield.
Highlights
- Founded Westbound Records in Detroit (1968)
- Released Funkadelic's Maggot Brain (1971)
- Founded Bridgeport Music (1969)
- Sound of Gospel subsidiary issued the Clark Sisters and Thomas Whitfield
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1968–
Westbound Records office
Westbound's office is on West Ten Mile Road in Southfield.