In 1979, rock was at a transitional point. Punk had packed its torn bags and left town, paving the way in America and the United Kingdom for post-punk, an elusive category that simultaneously captured the sounds of Joy Division, The Cure, The Talking Heads and Sonic Youth. That year, Ivo Watts-Russel and Peter Kent created 4AD, an alternative rock label in England, as a starting point for the talented innovators of the first generation after purist punk worship. Today, the label exists as a driving taste-maker in contemporary experimental rock while also proudly preserving its impressive history of relationships with some of the legendary shoegaze and dream-pop artists of the ’80s and ’90s.

4AD’s catalog illustrates the old standard for record label culture: musicians seeking other musicians who share similar aesthetic visions. While Universal (then MCA), Epic and Warner Brothers often signed huge acts like Michael Jackson and Madonna, 4AD searched through the ’80s and early ’90s for artists that took tropes from pop and rock music and made them surreal and outlandish. The label’s origins were saturated by the newfound, reverb-heavy dream-pop and shoegaze of the early 1980s. Scottish act Cocteau Twins and British band Bauhaus built a distinct sound and look that exploded in the underground niches of England and America, fortified by 4AD’s funding. Grainy album art of surrealistic landscapes replaced the confrontational imagery of the ’70s while vocals and lyrical content retreated behind walls of thundering noise and synthetic loops. Prototypes of Goth and New Wave culture sprung from the ’80s 4AD artists, whose hairstyles looked like David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” and eye shadow was anything but subtle.

The label didn’t stop with a one-dimensional genre, however; they signed the Pixies in the late ’80s, who released “Surfer Rosa” and “Doolittle,” now high watermarks in alternative rock history. And while Frank Black searched for his mind in a maelstrom of emotional guitar, Throwing Muses and Colourbox were making delightfully strange dream worlds out of classic rock that still feel fresh today.

Today, the 4AD legacy is one that mixes the specificity of the old world of the music industry signing process with a restless hunger for new sonic territory. Right now, 4AD is home to Gang Gang Dance, Purity Ring, Bon Iver, Grimes, St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs. Each belongs to an entirely unique and different sound world while sharing a similar goal — instead of rehashing the successes of past musical pioneers, each of these artists excels under the same roof by allowing their musical influences to guide them, not define them. Grimes’ Claire Boucher builds on a sound established by the great art-pop artists before her but turns the catchiness meter to 11 and transforms her songs into constant refrains, while St. Vincent’s Annie Clark combines the demure seductions of the feminine singer-songwriter with an asymmetrical guitar screech. It’s this versatility that 4AD is known for, consistently signing bands that speak for a continuing generation of misanthropes in a culture that thrives on easy pop and reductive rock.

Still, 4AD seems to have a soft spot for contemporary musicians that evoke a nostalgic return to the dreamy reverb from 30 years past. Deerhunter, Twin Shadow and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti have all dabbled in pure revivalism, taking what worked in the past and nuancing it with modern studio equipment and digital sheen. Deerhunter, who began as a purist shoegaze outfit through releases such as “Cryptograms” and “Microcastle,” is now an adventurous, adept rock and roll profit in the alternative scene, always surprising with each new release. Twin Shadow, however, seems comfortable in his Reagan-era ’80s macho pop music, existing on 4AD as homage to a decade that pushed rock into spacey depths and away from power cords and arenas.

If anything, this nostalgia only widens the record label’s audience, attracting older crowds that seek to return to the coveted sounds of the past. However, 4AD will always be the flagship label for an endless sea of young audiophiles who enjoy the fringes of popular music. Every entree in the label’s catalog is palatable, stimulating and, most importantly, approaches music discovery in a thoughtful, panoramic view. If one artist on 4AD is appealing to you, it’s likely that more than 100 other bands and musical collaborations will be too.