Clockwise from top, Motown albums by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Jackson 5, The Temptations, and Diana Ross & the Supremes.
Half a century ago, American popular music was nearly as segregated as the rest of American life.
And then came Motown: from a little house on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, hit after hit that soared across the color line and left a generation of young Americans — coast to coast, North and South, black and white — dancing to the same tunes.
The Supremes, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five. It was a pop music earthquake.
This hour, On Point: Motown, and its legacy, at 50.
You can join the conversation. What made the Motown sound work across the country? What made the country ready for Motown?
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Joining us from New York is Lisa Robinson. She covers music and the music industry for Vanity Fair. Her feature story in the December issue, “It Happened in Hitsville,” is an oral history of Motown.
Joining us in our studio is Tim Riley, a music critic and frequent contributor to PRI’s “Here & Now.” His latest book is “Fever: How Rock Transformed Gender.”
From Los Angeles, we’re joined by Suzanne de Passe, the former president of Motown Productions. As creative assistant to Motown founder Berry Gordy, she discovered Jackson 5 and The Commodores. A winner of Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody awards, she’s now CEO of de Passe Entertainment.
And from Amsterdam, we’re joined by Raphael Saadiq, the singer, songwriter, and award-winning producer for artists such as Joss Stone, The Roots, and Snoop Dogg. His new album, “The Way I See It,” is new material in the style of ’60’s soul. He describes it as “the culmination of a lifetime of experiences informed by the music I grew up on.” He’s currently on tour with John Legend.
More links:
Motown Records’ Classic Motown site offers a rich interactive timeline covering the label’s history and the 50th anniversary music video below:
The Hitsville U.S.A. building in Detroit, Michigan, which served as Motown’s headquarters from 1959 until 1968:
Tags: arts, culture, Motown, Music
I grew up in Dearborn in the ’50s, next to Detroit, and just down the way from Inkster, and Joltin’ Joe Howard DJ’ed on my radio every day, despite the pure whiteness of my home town (”thanks” to Henry Ford). Thank goodness for Inkster (then pure black) and Motown!
Posted by Margaret, on November 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am ESTJust a point of correction. While there were cross inspirations going on, Amy Winehouse’s record and sound is more of a direct inspiration from Phil Spector out of New York rather than Motown. He had the “wall of sound” and that’s what’s in her record.
Posted by Jeff, on November 13th, 2008 at 11:53 am ESTI just noticed that there is no current visual presence of Diana Ross in Vanity Fairs’ annual music issue celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Motown. This fascinates me as she is the most recognizable, most prolific in terms of continued and varied impact on every generation of singers and performers since and even during the 60’s. Diana Ross’ impact and reach is much farther than here i the US, her’s is a brand immediately recognizable across the globe. Her image and likeness is certainly the most photographed, most honored and most imitated, and yet she is one of a kind. Even today, young artists are not only emulating her style, her sound, and career, but also the trying to emulate her reach across color, culture and language barriers. Considered one of the most beautiful and most iconic images in American and music pop culture, her portrait is a glaring omission from the current vanity fair issue highliting the 50th Anniversary of the Motown movement. Glaring omission.
Posted by Kevin Peck, on November 13th, 2008 at 7:55 pm ESTTo quote Smokey Robinson, the Motown sound was James Jamerson. The electric bass was a new invention at the inception of Motown and James redefined the role of the bass. Combined with the innovations in stereos and radio fidelity (now you could hear the bass) James was able to use the Fender bass to create bass lines that made you have to get up and dance. His importance can not be underestimated.
Posted by Jim Lawrence, on November 13th, 2008 at 8:49 pm ESTA good chef never reveals recipe secrets. Not only did Motown have great artists, writers, and musicians, but founder Berry Gordy created a marketing plan of mystique, that made the artists and music bigger than life. From a simple plan and a lot of hard work, God used Motown to confound the world in many ways and on many fronts. And it was all done decently and in order. One could say Motown was the Disneyland of the music world!
Posted by Larry Buford, on November 14th, 2008 at 10:13 am ESTI grew up in Flint Michigan and Motown was king for me when it came to music.
Looking back 45-years later I am sure that it had a positive affect on how I preceived Blacks.
Here is to Motown! The best music there was.
Posted by steve banicki, on November 16th, 2008 at 10:00 am ESTIt was nothing but pure soul…and white kids dug it…
Posted by John Gheringhelli, on November 19th, 2008 at 2:25 pm ESTthe music had crossover appeal – they spoke of things that everybody could identify with and the music was addictive. Motown does not have that kind of juice today, largely because (I think) they have lost the desire to appeal to the large audience; they would rather target just the young black culture and have long ago left the “wholesome” image and delved into sexually suggestive and graphic material. That would explain why most of the fondness people speak of concerning Motown is in the past tense.
Posted by jim, on January 12th, 2009 at 7:51 pm EST