Happy Birthday! Motown Turns 50!

[Brian Damage]

When Berry Gordy, erstwhile boxer and assembly-line worker, founded Motown (then called Tamla) in 1959, the pop-music industry was little more than a hustle. But like so many post-war industries, the record business was a hustle that was intimately tied to the American Dream, and men like Gordy, Leonard and Phil Chess, Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegŭn, hitched their ambitions to the sounds emanating from black America. Where Gordy distinguished himself from the legendary founders of Chess Records and Atlantic Records, there was a belief that he was not simply trying to sell black music to the crossover masses, but making black artists—and by extension black people—palatable to white audiences. As Gordy recently recalled, he often told radio-station executives, “Wait a minute—it’s not really black music. It’s music by black stars.” That simple distinction made all the difference for Gordy, who championed his company as the “Sound of Young America.”

To that end, Gordy’s artists were enrolled in what was essentially an in-house finishing school: To his credit, he turned a group of lower-middle and working-class black Detroit youth into some of the most popular figures of the 1960s and 1970s. Indeed, the Motown Star system turned Diana Ross—never the best singer on stage or the prettiest woman in the room—into the very symbol of glamour, particularly for a generation of Americans who were not familiar with black women such as Lena Horne or Dorothy Dandridge. Gordy’s strategy was simple; capture the attention of white audiences in the span of two minutes and 30 seconds with a series of catchy hooks, easily-remembered lyrics and sweet harmonies and make them comfortable with the black artists delivering the goods.

By the end of Motown’s first decade, the company was easily the most recognizable black brand in the country, if not the world, even as the tenor of the times and cutting-edge production of the late Norman Whitfield pushed the label’s music more in sync with the militancy of the day. If Motown hadn’t produced another record after it jettisoned its Detroit roots in the early 1970s for Los Angeles, its legacy as one of the most important black-owned companies would have remained intact.

But by the early 1970s, Gordy saw Motown as much more than a record company, branching out into film, with movies like Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Mahogany (1975), The Wiz (1978), television (The Jackson 5ive cartoon series) and even musical theater with Pippin. As Gordy devoted much less attention to his recording artists, acts like Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder were still at the peak of their careers and a new generation of artists like Lionel Richie & the Commodores, Teena Marie, Rick James and later, DeBarge helped carry the Motown brand beyond its first two decades. Even Michael Jackson, who left the Motown fold with his brothers in late 1975, could claim the influence of Gordy and Motown just as he established himself as the “King of Pop.”

http://www.theroot.com/views/happy-b...otown-turns-50

[MickeyMac]

That article says it all

As much as I like the classics I have to admit I really did the lesser known Motown like The Marvelettes, Chris Clark, The Funk Brothers, The Contours, Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston and J.J. Barnes among others.

[phoebe7165]

I saw Berry Gordy at Madeo's in W.Hollywood in Dec. He was sitting RIGHT behind my sister. A really nice man.

[MonarC]

50 Years Of Motown Magic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEX6SUttSQM

[browneyes106]

Happy Birthday Motown

[catlover79]

YAY!! Motown rocks!!

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

That article says it all

As much as I like the classics I have to admit I really did the lesser known Motown like The Marvelettes, Chris Clark, The Funk Brothers, The Contours, Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston and J.J. Barnes among others.

Plus my favorite, Syreeta.

[isiahthomas]

Happy birthday Motown. Thank you Berry Gordy for starting the first black owned record label that had black artists. I just got a book from the library about Motown. I haven't read it yet. I guess the book talks about how the label got started and the artists that were with the label. Did ya'll know Berry Gordy didn't approve of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On album? He felt the album was too political and it wouldn't sell. My dad told me that Marvin and Berry were having differences often because Berry didn't like the type of music Marvin was doing in the 70's. I saw 2 documentaries about Marvin Gaye and they were good but also sad. It's a shame how he died. He was a very good singer but he had too many issues like drugs and not paying his taxes. I also think it was wrong how Florence Ballard was replaced in The Supremes. I heard that her and Diana Ross didn't get along.

[GARFIELDKOOL]

Motown will always have a place in history for music to me.

[isiahthomas]

I've been seeing commercials lately for Time Life magazine and they're selling Motown's records hits. The commercial has Billy Dee Williams and a white lady talking about the cd's. I think it's like 6 cd's that they're selling that has all the Motown hits by black artists and the commercial said the price is a good bargain considering all of the songs on these cd's are hard to find in record stores. Before Motown came along, r&b music was boring to me. I know i wasn't born back in those days but i've never listened to a lot of r&b artists anyway because i don't like a lot of love songs. I like uptempo jams.

[MickeyMac]

For you Motown fans with a few hundred bucks lying around you should go to www.hipo-select.com and check out the boxed sets they are doing of every single Motown single from the beginning up until the company moved to Hollywood. I got a buddy of mine who has all of those and he cant stop raving about them. Only thing is each box is expensive, and the 1966 boxed set has already sold out.

[MrCleveland]

Too bad Motown left Detroit, they could use something more positive there...again.

[brie]

Happy Birthday, Motown! Thanks for the great music.

Originally Posted by catlover79

Plus my favorite, Syreeta.

Syreeta is my favorite, too. Such a beautiful voice and so underrated. She left this world too soon.

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

For you Motown fans with a few hundred bucks lying around you should go to www.hipo-select.com and check out the boxed sets they are doing of every single Motown single from the beginning up until the company moved to Hollywood.

I bought Syreeta's CD from hipo-select about three years ago. If it was available at other places, it was too expensive. hipo-select's price was very reasonable and the CD includes both of her albums. What a find!