The Motown Sound

What do Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars, Ne-Yo, The Jackson 5, Mary Wells, Boyz II Men, Tammi Terrell and many more have in common? Aside from the fact that they are all musical geniuses and have created unforgettable tunes like "What's Going On", "My Girl", "Finger Tips", " You Really Got a Hold On Me and "ABC", they are all artists under the company MOTOWN RECORDS. As an R&B and Neo Soul artist a lot of my musical influences and flava come from these very artists and songs. In 2nd year University, I took an elective in Popular Music and did it ever open my eyes and ears to the Motown Sound. This week's blog will take ya'll down memory lane that inspired and changed America!

January 12, 1959 Berry Gordy Jr. launches initially what was known as Tamla Records in Detroit and became one of the main factories in the city but instead of pumping out automobiles, Motown Records produced music that changed America! TIME magazine stated "Motown was a black-owned, black-centered business that gave white America something they just could not get enough of — joyous, sad, romantic, mad, groovin', movin' music". Berry Gordy buys a two-story house at 2648 West Grand Boulevard for his growing new business and establishes Hitsville USA. Detroit was known as "motor city" that saw Gordy model his hit factory after the Detroit car assembly line: Make a good product, then make something similar, and make it quick. Motown saw the greatest and most talented musicians, talents and song writers Robinson and the team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Brian Holland (Holland-Dozier, Holland, or H-D-H). In 1960, Smokey Robinson who is the lead singer of his band The Miracles wrote the label's first hit song, "Shop Around" and not long after that The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman" became the label's first No. 1 song - and many more hits would follow.

All of the names listed at the beginning of this blog and many more all became a part of what is known as the Motown Sound. What IS the MOTOWN SOUND anyways? It incorporates lots of tambourine along with drums, bass instrumentation, a distinctive and memorable melodical and chord structure, and a "call and response" singing style. (this is totally bringing me back to the Popular Music classes I took in University...) The 60's saw countless chart topping hits that were love songs that told simple happy or heartbreaking stories such as "Baby Love", "Where Did Our Love Go," "Stop! In the Name of Love" and so on.

As the saying goes, "all good things come to an end" and changes started happening at the end of the 60's when the H-D-H team broke off from Motown after noticing a disparity between the success of their work and pay. Gordy started looking at how Motown can tap into Hollywood. By this time, most the rock-steady Motown were beginning to fade but also saw the last few Motown creativity rise such as The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye's 1971 socially conscious album, What's Going On that did not reflect what the Motown Sound was known for, and of course Stevie Wonder's release of Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. 1972 saw Motown move from Detroit to LA and saw Gordy's release of two films starring Diana Ross. The 80's saw Rick James and Lionel Richie but seeing the waning popularity and success of what he started and a "slap in the face" to the legacy Motown was in the 60's as seen in the movie The Big Chill, Gordy sold Motown to MCA in 1988, who then sold it to Polygram, and who was then eventually bought by Universal. But this doesn't really matter because everything in life comes right back in full circle!

Yes, something that was a huge success will disappear but give it time, it will sneak back on us and become something shiny and new again. That is a trend, a slow trend that I'm noticing - music is starting to move backward and as I mention A LOT in my previous posts about why an Asian girl like me is drawn to this genre and to "old" music is because it makes me feel good and I can tell real life stories and give it groove and come up with awesome melodies! The Motown glory is making a comeback my beautiful friends and Natalia Chai music has always been ready for that!!