It is always a treat for this lil ole chiweenie Sportsphile to post a video that has a subject matterr that is totally American…..which “soul music” and “rhythm and blues music” certainly is…..for there has never been a greater influence on these two genres of music than those records produced Berry Gordy, Jr’s “Motown Music Label” became known worldwide as The Detroit Sound….as Motown created more superstars of recorded music during their first 25 years of existance than any other music label from 1960 to 1975….when Motown celebrated their 25th Anniversary with this video production…..buy introducing the likes of Smokey Robinson and the Miracle, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gay, Michael Jackson and The Jackson Five, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Martha Reeves, Mary Wells, The Isley Brothers, The Marvellettes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Little Richard, Rich James, Junior Walker and the All Stars, Lionell Richie and The Commodores and so many more…..cuz The Motown Sound caused a revolution in American music that change the perception of black music for generations to come…..which started out quitely with “cover records” of white entertainers recording blace music….as the only thing mainstream about black music at the time was the vynil the music were recorded on….but by the mid-1960’s had become a “black is beautiful” explosion.
Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned record label that achieved significant crossover success….which in the 1960’s, Motown and its subsidiary labels (including Tamla Motown, the brand used outside the US) were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as the Motown Sound….a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence….by achieving spectacular success for a small record company….producing 79 records in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 record chart between 1960 and 1969.
Following the events of the Detroit Riots of 1967, in addition to the losses of songwriters Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Brian Holland….who left the label due to dissatisfaction with their success and level of pay the same year….so Gordy relocated Motown to Los Angeles in 1972….where it remained an independent company until June 28, 1988….cuz that is when Gordy called it quits in the music industry….having been drawn into the Hollywood lifestyle after releasing two movies starring Diana Ross….Mahogany and Lady Sings the Blues, a biopic of legendary blues singer Billie Holliday…..as that is when the company was then sold to MCA….with Motown being later sold to PolyGram in 1994….before being sold again to MCA Records’ successor….Universal Music Group…when it acquired PolyGram in 1999.
Motown spent much of the 2000s as a part of the Universal Music subsidiaries Universal Motown and Universal Motown Republic Group….and was headquartered in New York City….then from 2011 to 2014, Motown was a part of The Island Def Jam Music Group division of Universal Music. On April 1, 2014, Universal Music Group announced the dissolution of Island Def Jam….subsequently Motown relocated back to Los Angeles to operate under the Capitol Music Group….which now operates out of the landmark Capitol Tower.
For many decades, Motown was the highest-earning African American business in the United States….and this video covers the golden era of Motown music…..making it a piece of history unlike any other.
