Jayrem Records is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 record company which has been operating since the early 1980s. Initially concentrating on alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 and indie music, the Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

-based company was, for many years, the main rival to South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

 based Flying Nun Records

Flying Nun Records

Flying Nun Records is an independent record label formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1981 by music-store proprietor Roger Shepherd.-History:The label was formed in the flurry of new punk rock-inspired labels forming in the early 1980s...

, and produced records which had a similar sound to its southern compatriot, though concentrating less in the Dunedin Sound

Dunedin Sound

The Dunedin sound was a style of indie pop music created in the southern New Zealand university city of Dunedin in the early 1980s.-Characteristics:...

 groups, which were a major part of Flying Nun's repertoire. In place of these sounds, Jayrem's repertoire extended into Urban Pasifika

Urban Pasifika

Urban Pacifika Records is a sub-genre of hip hop which combines American style hip hop or R&B rhyming and beats with Pacific Island or Māori instrumentation and Pacific Island or Māori language singing/rapping....

 and Māori music, as well as folk/roots and reggae.

Over 100 albums have been released on the Jayrem label, with notable releases from artists ranging from Upper Hutt Posse

Upper Hutt Posse

Upper Hutt Posse is a musical band in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The progenitors of Hiphop music in the South Pacific originally formed as a four piece reggae group in 1985, the Posse emerged at the forefront of the local response to emerging rap culture...

 and Dalvanius Prime

Dalvanius Prime

Maui Dalvanius Prime was a New Zealand entertainer and songwriter. His career spanned 30 years. He mentored many of New Zealand's Māori performers, and was a vocal and forthright supporter of Māori culture.-Early life:...

 to Jordan Reyne

Jordan Reyne

Jordan Reyne is an experimental musician from New Zealand, who has been variously described as "industrial-tinged folk“ and "antipodean Steampunk“ yet defies any cut and dried description. She combines the two usually disparate genres of folk and industrial, bringing in celtic vocal melody,...

 and Cassandra's Ears

Cassandra's Ears

Cassandra’s Ears was an all-female music group formed in 1985 in Dunedin, New Zealand and later based in Auckland, New Zealand.Their first release was the song “Replacements” for the National Student Radio compilation, Weird Culture Weird Custom...

.