Editing K Records (section)

===Philosophy===
Though the label was part of the punk and underground scenes of the 1980s, the term has reflected the label's philosophy more than the sound of its roster.<ref name="dougher">{{cite web|url=http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/revolution-come-and-gone-on-k-records|title=Revolution Come and Gone|website=LA Review of Books|last1=Dougher|first1=Sarah|date=13 January 2013 |access-date=14 March 2015}}</ref>

Al Larsen of the band [[Some Velvet Sidewalk]] was part of the K Roster. In 1989, he wrote an article for the Snipehunt zine which reflected and distinguished K's approach to "punk" music with an ethos he called "Love Rock," in which he wrote: "It's a scary world, but we don't need to be scared anymore. We need active visionary protest, we need to grab hold and make the transformation, from complaining that there is NO FUTURE to insisting there be a future."<ref name=dougher /> This manifesto, which focused on a [[DIY ethic]], became an unofficial label philosophy.<ref name=dougher />

This philosophy viewed lo-fi, homemade projects as a preferred alternative to corporate culture,<ref name=Walton>{{cite book|last1=Walton|first1=Charles|editor-last1=Rojas |editor-first1=Eunice |editor-last2=Michie |editor-first2=Lindsay|title=Sounds of Resistance: The Role of Music in Multicultural Activism|chapter=You're Equal but Different: Women and the Music of Cultural Resistance|volume=1|date=October 8, 2013|publisher=Praeger|location=Santa Barbara|isbn=978-0-313-39805-6|page=215}}</ref> which maintained a philosophical link to punk. The first K Records newsletter includes the K shield as a knight, described as battling "the many-armed corporate ogre."<ref name=Azzerrad>{{cite book|last1=Azzerrad|first1=Michael|title=Our Band Could Be Your Life|date=2001|publisher=Back Bay Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-31678-753-6|page=454}}</ref>

Some critics have considered this philosophy to be a liability in regards to mainstream success. Author Mark Baumgarten has observed that [[Pitchfork Media]]'s "Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s" included six bands with direct relationships to the label (Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Fugazi, Built to Spill, Beck, and [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]]) but only one proper K Records release.