History Creator / Motown

->''"[[FracturedFairyTale Once upon a time]] in a kingdom known as UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, there lived a young warrior named Berry … [who] took on the ways of the minstrel, and he began to write songs for others to sing. And a local celebrity, Sir Jackie of Wilson, heard some of the songs and put them on circular platters called “discs.” And the townspeople liked the sounds that emanated from the pressed discs, and turned them into something called “hits.” … So Berry went out on a great quest, and he found Miracles and [[Music/StevieWonder Wonders]] and [[OddNameOut Marvelettes]]. And he brought the discoveries to a secret place called Hitsville, and there he taught them wondrous things. There was young Smokey of Robinson, and Mary of Welles, and Martha of the Vandellas. [[Music/MarvinGaye Marvin of the Gaye]] and Tammi of Terrell. And there were Pips and Knights named Gladys. And [[Music/TheTemptations Temptations]] and Tops, Contours and Spinners. And before anyone realized what was happening, it happened: Hitsville became like its name."''

** It was noted by Berry Gordy, while he worked at a local music store, [[SlobsVersusSnobs that jazz music sold far less than pop music]]. Gordy, keen to make an R&B/pop crossover style that appealed to whites and blacks, with both a sophistication and elegance not usually found in R&B, but not too sophisticated or uncommercial that it would alienate pop audiences ("[[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth Don't Bore Us, Get To The Chorus]]" was reputedly a popular motto of his when auditioning new songs) insisted that the Funk Brothers ''not'' play anything too jazzy. As the Funk Brothers were jazz musicians determined not to become too bored playing formulaic pop-R&B, and as Berry often kept the musicians interested by promising them they could make jazz music at some point and time, the musicians were limited by what they could play, but often did their best to sneak jazz into their accompaniment without Berry losing his patience with them. One might classify the "Motown Sound" as a compromise between the two worlds, to some degree. This, along with the sociopolitically charged/uncompromised lyrical content might explain Gordy's hesitance to allow concept albums like ''[[Music/StevieWonder Music of My Mind]]'' and ''Music/WhatsGoingOn'' to be released.

* Music/Nelly +

->''"[[FracturedFairyTale Once upon a time]] in a kingdom known as UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, there lived a young warrior named Berry … [who] took on the ways of the minstrel, and he began to write songs for others to sing. And a local celebrity, Sir Jackie of Wilson, heard some of the songs and put them on circular platters called “discs.” And the townspeople liked the sounds that emanated from the pressed discs, and turned them into something called “hits.” … So Berry went out on a great quest, and he found Miracles and [[Music/StevieWonder Wonders]] and [[OddNameOut Marvelettes]]. And he brought the discoveries to a secret place called Hitsville, and there he taught them wondrous things. There was young Smokey of Robinson, and Mary of Welles, and Martha of the Vandellas. [[Music/MarvinGaye Marvin of the Gaye]] and Tammi of Terrell. And there were Pips and Knights named Gladys. And Temptations and Tops, Contours and Spinners. And before anyone realized what was happening, it happened: Hitsville became like its name."''

This American record company had a huge impact on popular music in general and {{Soul}} in particular, so much so that it was revived in 2011 after being closed for six years; it's noted for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the "Motown sound", which was developed primarily by company session group the Funk Brothers; this was characterised by tambourine-accented percussion, melodic basslines, gospel-influenced call and response singing and lush string arrangements. The Motown sound was highly influential on subsequent artists, especially those of UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion.

Second, Motown labels were noted for their factory-like production process. Berry Gordy was very keen to see black musicians getting into the upper reaches of the pop charts, so songs were tailored with crossover appeal in mind. Much of the production work was centred around staff songwriters and songwriting teams, the most famous of which was Holland-Dozier-Holland. New tunes were written during the week and then presented at Gordy's quality-control meetings on Fridays, where they were played in a sequence of the top five singles of that week. If Gordy felt that the song lacked promise, he wielded an executive veto.

* ''Music/98Degrees''

* Music/98Degrees

* Music/98°

* ''Ninety Eight Degrees''

* ''NinetyEight Degrees''

* Music/NinetyEightDegrees

* Music/TheTempations

Finally, Motown was famous for the sheer number of hugely successful acts they signed. At one time or another, Music/MarvinGaye, Music/StevieWonder, [[Music/MichaelJackson Michael]] [[Music/TheJacksonFive Jackson]], Music/LionelRichie, Music/BoyzIIMen and Music/RickJames were artists signed to one of Gordy's Motown labels, while famous acts from the glory days of the label like the Temptations, the Four Tops, Music/TheSupremes or Martha Reeves and the Vandellas quickly became household names.

This American record company had a huge impact on popular music in general and {{Soul}} in particular, so much so that it was revived in 2011 after being closed for six years; it's noted for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the "Motown sound", which was developed primarily by company session group the Funk Brothers; this was characterised by tambourine-accented percussion, melodic basslines, gospel-influenced call and response singing and lush string arrangements. The Motown sound was highly influential on subsequent artists, especially those of TheBritishInvasion.

* Music/NickiMinaj +

* Music/NeYo

* Music/MichaelJackson

This American record company had a huge impact on popular music in general and {{Soul}} in particular, so much so that it was revived in 2011 after being closed, and it's noted for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the "Motown sound", which was developed primarily by company session group the Funk Brothers; this was characterised by tambourine-accented percussion, melodic basslines, gospel-influenced call and response singing and lush string arrangements. The Motown sound was highly influential on subsequent artists, especially those of TheBritishInvasion.