An assembly line at Lincoln-Mercury automobile plant is where the idea of Motown first developed in the mind of Berry Gordy. Every day, Berry Gordy watched a bare piece of metal frame roll down the assembly line and reached the end only to become a shiny brand new automobile. He believed that this concept was ideal and could be used to produce music. Mr. Gordy’s vision was to take an unknown person with just a dream and raw talent and turn them into a star in the music industry. His assembly line idea and vision later became a reality we all know and love as “Motown” (motownmuseum.org) Mr. Gordy is responsible for many stars in the music industry who just like the strap of metal became a vision of beauty once Gordy finished with them. The term ‘Motown’ is popular and refers to a legend, a style of music, a state of mind, and a successful music industry. The beginning of the Motown legend started when Berry Gordy borrowed eight hundred dollars from family members to launch Tamla Records in 1959. By 1961, Gordy scored a million selling recording, the Miracles’ “Shop Around” (Waller 11). Within ten years, the legendary Motown had released twenty-two number one pop hits, forty-eight number one rhythm and blues hits, and had become the largest black-owned business in America (15). Actor Sidney Poitier best described Barry Gordy as a person who was set out to make music for all people regardless of race. In doing so, Berry Gordy made black music, the Motown sound, part of the mainstream popular culture in America (mackinac.org). Gordy had white teens all over America humming the catchy tunes of the Four Tops and the Temptations. After that, he promoted a flurry of black stars including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder. Gordy wanted their music, and that of other Motown singers, to reach the larger white audience in America (bsnpubs.com).
This paper will be an updated version of my last paper which talked about a portion of Barry Gordy's background, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations and their start at Motown. How Motown was the first American music label owned by an African-American, the first music label to successfully market black artists to white mainstream audiences. How Motown was responsible for discovering, mentoring, and perfecting a lot of American popular music's most influential and successful artists and the best albums and artists and what new artists have entered Motown.
Ross moved to California to launch her solo career. Her reworking of the Ashford and Simpson standard “ain’t no mountain high enough” became their first #1 hit as a solo artist. In 1971, Her first child Rhonda was born later announced as berry Gordy child (the founder of Motown).
...influenced by many genres of music and wanted to cultivate a sound that was their own and like nothing else out there. Artist flocked to them to receive something that was completely different and to bring out put out the best recordings that were possible. The studio was influenced an array of artists who possessed individuality, a sound that differentiated them from other artists, and a will to try to experiment. The studio created a sound like no other studio and much different from the prominent studios from the north, west, and south. It was a studio that will leave a legacy of risk takers, who had a desire to produce a sound that would stand the test of time and influence many generations to come. Their production style mixed genres and may music boundary less. It influenced the sound of today’s music to not be boxed in or classified as just one type of genre.
After being established as the most successful black-owned music business of all time Motown Records became one of the most enduring independent record label in the history, it was established in a row of houses in Detroit, known as Hitsville USA. The success of Motown arose from Berry Gordy’s great business mind and additionally the sound that played in his head. Berry Gordy mixed together a group of professional musicians who specialized in their instruments, well known as the Funk Brothers who played essentially on every record that came out of Hitsville USA during its famous “Golden Decade” (1962 – 1971). The result of this risky combination came to life from Berry Gordy’s desired sound for Motown Records “we started to hear it from the Funk Brothers, the powerful beat, the clever wordplay, the emphasis on hooks and bright, hot production. It was not quite pop, not quite soul, but distinct, compelling, and bristling with energy” (Gordy, 1994). Apart from the music and sound, the business structure of
“We stuck to who we were at Motown, and the world came around…” Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown records relayed at the Occidental College’s 125th commencement ceremony in 2007. Motown was “the new voice of America” due to its great impact and influence on the music industry and society. Numerous events were happening in America at that time and Berry Gordy identified several of these factors to target the music of Motown and its artists to young audiences in specific ways. There were various social, musical and cultural factors that were critically important and of these factors, Gordy identified the segregation and the civil rights movement, the music and cultural aspects of the black community at that time. These factors had huge impacts
"Motown Music - The Sound that Changed America - Motown Museum Home of Hitsville U.S.A.." Motown
“The Godfather of Soul”, better known as James Brown grew to be one of the most influential artists in Michael Jackson’s life. As a child Michael Jackson was intrigued by Brown’s flamboyant performances on stage and would soon begin to implement them into his own stage acts. By the age of five Michael Jackson was already sealed into a world of show business by his father, Joseph Jackson. Deprived of a childhood at a very young age, Michael and his siblings began a family-musical group called “The Jackson 5.” They began playing the soul hits they listened to on the radio all across the country. The band toured the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968, frequently performing at clubs and bars. In 1966, they won a major local talent show with renditions of Motown hits and a cover of “I Feel Good (I Got You)” by James Brown. It wasn’t until July 23, 1968 where they received major recognition by Motown owner, Berry Gordy. Gordy was reluctant to sign the “Jackson 5” but after their audition performance of the song “I Got the Feelin”, by James Brown, he changed his mind. In March 1969, “The Jackson 5”, were officially signed into Motown records. This marked a historical point in Michael Jackson’s life where his musical influences from James Brown would be noticed. Song’s from Michael Jackson that s...
Motown of course, stands for more than just historic music. The label and it’s remarkable legacy is a reflection is the hard work of dedicated individuals overcoming incredible obstacles to achieve a great success. Because Detroit, has long been known as the “Motor City”, Gordy in tribute what he felt like was down-home quality of the warm, soulful people he grew up around, used town in place of city. Which gave him the contraction “Motown” and the perfect name for his company and new label “Motown”. A man of vision, drive, talent, and determination, Berry Gordy was also a producer, Innovative entrepreneur, and teacher. The great success of Motown records contributes all the embodies and all the talent he brought out in others. Under his leadership and through determination and support of the family Motown and artist, Gordy forged new grounds
The birth of Motown music came to be in a small recording studio aptly named Hitsville, U.S.A. Barry Gordy, who came from a large middle class family had borrowed money in order. The main stage of Motown music came from a small house that had been remodeled into a recording studio, the name of the company was Hitsville, U.S.A. Mr. Gordy had gathered the best jazz and blues players in and Motown was born through his genius. This small but dynamic record company has produced and help make many stars that we all know today such as Diana Ross and the Supreme, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and more recently the Jackson 5, Boyz II Men , and Queen Latifah. It is very surprising that both the genre of Motown and Hitsville remind unharmed by racism for the most since Detroit has been historically known for severe racism and segregation. Hitsville U.S.A. was one of the first African American owned record companies, this was just one step in popularizing and taking a step for African’s Americans many talents to become well known and chart topping.
Before the war started, a wealthy white man by the name of John Hammond worked to integrate black and white music.1 Since his childhood, he enjoyed the music of numerous black artists, and he wanted to share his love with the rest of America. He used much of his inherited fortune to make this possible. He went against the general opinion of society and his parents, who despised black people. Hammond refused to ignore black artists’ musical abilities because of their color, “I did not revolt against the system, I simply refused to be a part of it.”2 He used his money to organize the most eclectic group of musicians ever assembled, for an integrated audience of his time. Hammond’s efforts made an indelible impact on the music industry. The musicians Hammond introduced in...
Henry Ford's assembly line in Detroit was the largest one in the country. When Ford first started making cars, the only car he made was a black Model-T. Almost everybody in the United States had a car. Three-out-of-four families owned one or more cars. With the assembly line they made a lot more cars in one day than they did before. Instead of payin...
Mainstream music in the 21st century is known to blend many different genres. Chuck Berry has influenced such genres as rhythm and blues (R&B), country, and today’s pop music. He realized at a young age he had to play more than just “black” music as a black artist. He had to appeal to whites since most Americans in the 1950s were white.
The American Dream. This concept is well known as the picture perfect family, nice house and the white picket fence. As well as succeeding and excelling in life and making the future generations lives better than the current one. This concept has contributed much of the immigration from as early as 1931 to present day. However, many immigrants immigrate to the United States in order to escape oppression as well as uprising and turmoil which may reside in their home country. Though society often places people none the less immigrants into categories from social class, heritage, and prejudice they share a common thread of hope as well as facing obstacles in their journeys and once they arrive to the states. An example of this common thread of escaping their homeland in order to pursue new experiences and hopeful new life yet experiencing different hardships are shown when looking at both the Mexicans and the Irish.
The beginning of racism in the music industry began only 13 years after the creation of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877. Recorded sound was still pretty new at the time, but it didn’t take long for record companies to form: Berliner, Edison, and Columbia, all of which functioned under the plan that the artist didn’t matter, but the song did. Under this plan, companies skipped over the talent from stage and focused on finding anyone who could carry a turn and had good diction. By the 1890’s, they “had established a cadre of profession white recorders” that “could reproduce works of African American performers with “authentic” dialect”. This group of white singers were grouped together and made to sound like black artists
The American Dream, it’s something as old as America itself and continues to live on. However, what is the “American Dream” exactly? It’s something that has changed over and over, and has been disputed over for centuries. First, it was to become the perfect society and person through God as defined by the Puritans (the first settlers in America), the it shifted to being the peak of moral and intellectual perfection with the Rationalists, who were revolutionaries such as Benjamin Franklin. The Transcendentalists are a group undefined by an era in time, for they were present in all stages of America’s history, and continue to be present. They had more modern views such as self reliance, and individualism; a continual theme we see today in what people describe as the American Dream. Besides that however, one wouldn’t see much resemblance to our country’s past ideals. Today the American Dream is all about money. As a nation we idolize people who have seemingly overcome huge life obstacles by themselves in rags-to-riches stories, and then we question why we can’t do the same. We ask ours...