1. The Impact of Stax Records on Music History is monumental and will always be
remembered for many generations to come. In 1957, a brother and sister started
a small record label called "Satellite " in Brunswick, Tennessee. Jim Stewart and
Estelle Axton had a dream of putting out records and recording artists of all types
no matter the race. They both took out loans and mortgage, and quit their jobs, to
make this dream a reality. During the spring months of 1959, Stewart recorded
and produced his first black group, the Veltones. In 1960, they moved the label
back to Memphis, to rent the old Capitol Theater located at College and
Mclemore. There they converted the candy shop that was located next door to
the theater into a small record store to make extra income for the recording
studio. They named the record store "Satellite Records." In 1960, Stewart
recorded a group called the Mar-Keys. The Mar-Keys recorded an instrumental
titled "Last Night" that became a big hit for Estelle and Jim. When this song
started up the charts, Jim Stewart became aware of another record company in
California called "Satellite" so rather than risking a lawsuit, the name of the
business changed to "Stax," the ST from Stewart and the AX from Axton. Stax
Records brought together many soul artists to their label. Musicians from all
different races were coming together and playing and recording their passions
through music. Even though prejudice race wars were at its height in America at
that time, Stax Records was able to bring both white and black musicians
together. Stax Records made a significant impact on music history, by breaking
the race barriers, and brought black and white societies together through their
love of music. As the early 1960s were coming alive, Memphis was thriving with

2. all types of music. Music was everywhere in Memphis, from North Memphis,
South Memphis, and all the United States. What made the Stax record so unique
was the fact that they never look at the color of people’s skin, they looked at
people.
Stax hit the big time with the discovery of Otis Redding.
He became the ‘’moneymaker’’ for the Stax records. During the 1960’s all the
black power movement, marches were coming along, and Otis wrote respect for
it and put it in a sense of love relationship. However, it was about life. Al Bell had
a vision and moved into a different realm. Also, he was a top DJ on the east
coast before joining the Stax records. Stax was struggling at that time because it
lacked business even though it was strong on music. Stax’s business skyrocket
and reached the million dollar mark. They called it ’’heaven''. Sam and Dave
moved from Atlantic and with the songwriting talent of Isaac Hayes and David
Porter to Stax. The hits kept coming with the record label. Because of the song
‘’you don’t know like I know’’ from Sam and Dave, they became comfortable in
their skin. Stax opened their doors to capture the sound of the street and feeling
was all that mattered at the moment. Up north on Detroit Motown was created.
Motown was doing what Al Bell wanted to see with Stax records in term of how
society accepted the company at that time. Stax was competing with Motown.
The two companies were different in the sense that Motown didn’t have an open
door policy. To make people notice the difference Stax records became ‘’soulville
U.S.A.’’. in the 1970’s the city of Memphis was a hotel for ‘’blacks’’ where they

3. could meet and write songs. This hotel was crucial for the Stax records at that
time. There was a lot of racial discrimination in the United States at that point and
all the black business if they write ‘’soul’’ they would get into trouble. Because of
it Sam and Dave wrote the song ‘’Soulman’’. Things were about to change for the
Stax records. Many of their artists went on a tour to Europe. They became
internationals. However, sadly Otis Rodding die at the age of 27. It was a
significant loss for the Stax records. Their first big time hitter was dead. Although
Stax had also lost their most valuable artists, they recovered quickly. Johnnie
Taylor gave Stax its first big post-Atlantic hit with "Who's Making Love" in 1968.
To build up a catalog to replace the record lost to Atlantic/Atco Records,
Stax/Volt/Enterprise released whopping 27 albums and 30 singles in 1969.
Producer and songwriter Isaac Hayes stepped into the spotlight with Hot
Buttered Soul, which sold over three million copies in 1969. By 1971, Hayes was
established as the label's biggest star and was particularly noted for his best-
selling soundtrack to the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft. Hayes' recordings were
among the releases on a third major Stax label, Enterprise, which was founded in
1967. By this time, the Stax recording studio was accepting outside work again.
In 1973, Stewart and Bell purchased the label back, and Stax subsisted on its
own for two years. Despite the success of Wattstax, the future of Stax was
unstable. In 1972, Bell bought out Stewart's remaining interest in the company
and established a distribution deal with CBS Records. CBS Records President
Clive Davis saw Stax as a means for CBS to break fully into the African-
American market and successfully compete with Motown. Bell had originally

4. proposed that CBS buy 50% of the company, but Davis discussed it with CBS's
corporate attorneys, who saw anti-trust problems, so a national distribution deal
was worked out instead. However, the company fired Davis shortly after signing
the Stax distribution deal. Without Davis at the helm, CBS very quickly lost
interest in Stax.
The Stax labels' profits were cut severely, particularly since the CBS distribution
agents bypassed the traditional small mom-and-pop record sellers in the black
community. Which had been the backbone of Stax's distribution, and weren't
pushing the Stax product to the larger retailers for fear of undercutting rack space
for CBS R&B artists such as Earth Wind and Fire, The Isley Brothers, and Sly &
the Family Stone. Reports came into Stax of stores in cities such as Chicago and
Detroit being unable to get new Stax records despite consumer demands, and
the company attempted to annul its distribution deal with CBS. However,
although CBS was uninterested in fully promoting Stax, it refused to release the
label from its contract, for fear that Stax would land a more productive deal with
another company and then become CBS's direct competitor. That was the end
for Stax records.