Berry Gordy Research Paper

Emerging out of the turbulent civil rights period in the United States, the majority of the black minority population finally found a means by which to express their voice to the world through music. This music would originate from two extremely different music studios located in opposite regions of the United States.

Detroit, Michigan was the northern city where the company Motown was birthed by Berry Gordy on January 12, 1959. His vision was for the company to produce black artists to bridge the gap between white and black segregated music markets and audiences. He dreamed about making an entity that would appeal to both the wider white pop music audiences as well as the narrower black Rhythm and Blues one. To obtain this objective, he

Love songs, which appealed to the emotions of both races, were the easiest way to crossover and enter into the hearts of people no matter where they lived or what culture they came from. After the initial favorable entrance into consumers hearts, the music was morphing into issues the Black community was dealing with. An example of an artist starting with fluffy and easily palatable songs at the beginning of their career and then progressing to music with lyrics that express social issues would be Diane Ross and the Supremes. They had number one pop hits with upbeat crossover love songs that appealed to the masses. They were polished with previous experience as "The Primettes" a female singing group in Detroit, Michigan in 1959. The Supremes' members attended Motown's in house finishing school and Artist Development Department. There, they took their lessons seriously and projected a more refined and glamorous appearance than black singers before that time They heavily depended on professional make up artists, higher end fashion styles for costumes and dance classes to perfect their choreography dance routines. The woman who ran the finishing school taught social

It was called specifically "The Motown Sound". This sound was designed with pop appeal in mind, the back beat usually being complemented with tambourines and electric guitar to go along with structured chords and singing habits borrowed from gospel music. To ensure all music fit this criteria, Berry Gordy held quality control meetings every Friday morning and used veto power to ensure that only the best material and performances would be released. Motown, more specifically Gordy, was not only very controlling over the song writing process, artist development and music production but he also managed to have a hand selected group of professional musicians known as the "Funk Brothers" play and record the background instrumental tracks of the individual and group artists. Motown music was precisely managed, controlled produced and commercialized with the goal of reaching wider and wider audiences and markets than any single, organic or original artist or band ever