The 1960’s – Motown
Motown and its musical featuresMotown is a Soul record label that originated in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The word comes from motor town which is a nickname for the city, as Detroit has a large auto industry. Berry Gordy Jr founded the label in 1959 and made Motowns first single ‘Bad Girls’ by The Miracles. However Berry already had his own record label before Motown called Tamla Records, which later had a number 1 hit with ‘Please Mr Postman’ by the Marvelettes. In 1960 Berry decided to join the two labels together to create Motown Record Corporation. As it became more popular, Motown became known as a genre, with people calling it the ‘Motown Sound’. Berry managed this by hiring the same session musicians for every song and live gig which gave the music its own unique sound, and these musicians were known as The Funk Brothers.
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/%A5Artist%20GIF%20Images/Stevie-And-Funk-Brothers.jpg
The Funk Brothers were a group of guitarists, keyboard players, bass players, drummers and percussionists. They played a big part in giving Motown its unique sound and included musicians such as Earl Van Dyke and Robert White.
Significant artists
http://i43.tower.com/images/mm105800566/ultimate-collection-smokey-robinson-miracles-cd-cover-art.jpg
The Temptations
Marvin Gaye
The Supremes
Jackson 5
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Stevie Wonder
The Marvelettes
The Isley Brothers
The Contours
Commodores
The Four Tops
Diana Ross
Martha & The Vandellas
Kim Weston
Influences
Motown is heavily influenced by soul music, but also by rhythm & blues, gospel and even rock and roll from the 1950’s. Elvis, Ray Charles, James Brown and Little Richard are all artists that could have influenced the sound. However Motown used these elements with pop and created a unique sound.
http://tennesseeguy.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/james-brown.jpg
Artists Motown has influenced
Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow, Paul Weller and Oasis are all known to have influences from Motown. More recent artists like Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Alicia Keys, Corinne Bailey Rae, Joss Stone, Paloma Faith, Macy Gray, Gabriella Cilme, James Morrison, Pixie Lott, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Florence & The Machine, Michael Buble and Paolo Nutini all have elements of Motown in their music.
Artist – Stevie Wonder
Album – For Once in My Life
Single – You Met Your Match
Music and the society
Motown was dominated by black artists, but unlike earlier black music like blues, it became popular with white people also, and some say helped America be seen as a multi-cultural country. This may be because the lyrics in Motown music were not about slavery, discrimination etc. This and its unique sound of pop – soul made it acceptable for any audience.
