10/26/2022 0 Comments Motown recordsHailing from Tennessee in a family with Mississippi roots, Franklin grew up in a westside church led by noted preacher father. The young powerhouse singer was dubbed the Queen of Soul as she piled up hits such as “Respect” and “Chain of Fools.” She brought the altar to the airwaves, putting a gospel-steeped R&B sound atop the charts.įranklin became a beacon in the Black community, particularly among women. She paved the way for assertive, independent Black women becoming superstarsīy the time Beyoncé took her place atop the pop-culture throne in the 2000s, the world took such a possibility for granted: Franklin had paved the way for the concept of an assertive, independent Black woman reigning as a superstar. And Detroit became a magnet for aspiring African-American talent - including the Indiana-based Jackson 5 and their precocious kid dynamo front man, Michael Jackson.įor Black America, the little musical house on West Grand Boulevard became, as the Rev. Jesse Jackson put it in 2019, “the Bethlehem of music.”Īretha Franklin, meanwhile, forged a Detroit legacy outside the Motown brand. MOTOWN RECORDS FREEPhotos: AP, Detroit Free Press, AP/Klaus Frings, Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images, Jimmy Ellis/The Tennessean Illustration: Andrea Brunty, USA TODAY NetworkĪt its height, Motown Records was the largest Black-owned corporation in the world. Photos: AP, Detroit Free Press, AP/Klaus Frings, Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images, Jimmy Ellis/The Tennessean Illustration: Andrea Brunty, USA TODAY Network Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight are products of Motown. Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight are products of Motown. In its cavalcade of young stars, Motown presented the world with a new vision of Black American celebrity: glamorous, charismatic, aspirational. Even on the saddest of the songs - the Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears,” Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” - a poignant, sweetness shined. The massive, enduring body of work created by Motown during its Detroit heyday was largely concocted in the cozy studio dubbed “the Snakepit.” The music was uplifting and infectious, generously lathered in strings and melodies without masking the rhythm and soul at its core. “To know we accomplished that to this degree - that kids and generations and people from all over the world are singing the music right to this day - is a real, real wonderful legacy.” Great, quality music,’” said Robinson, Gordy’s best friend and a former Motown vice president. “Berry sat down and said: ‘We’re not going to make just Black music, we’re going to make music for all the world. Photo: AP, Illustration: Andrea Brunty, USA TODAY Network Photo: AP, Illustration: Andrea Brunty, USA TODAY Network Smokey Robinson, left, and Berry Gordy at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles in 1981. Smokey Robinson, left, and Berry Gordy at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles in 1981. “We all owe our debt to the car manufacturing developing here in Detroit,” said Motown star Martha Reeves, an Alabama native who moved to the city as a child and cut her teeth singing in her family’s church. In Detroit, amid the middle-class living fostered by the auto industry, that music had a new environment to evolve and flourish - a place ripe for the blossoming of Motown and myriad other R&B labels in the 1960s. The Great Migration, as it came to be called, didn’t just fill northern cities with eager transplants. The new residents brought their customs with them, including the rich, musical traditions passed down through generations in the South. It wasn’t a fluke that Motown Records took flight in Detroit, part of a surge of creative energy that transformed the city into one of the world’s music capitals. The industrial boom sparked decades earlier by Henry Ford had drawn more than a million migrants - many of them Black southerners lured by the chance of prosperity and a fresh start. Photo: Tony Spina, Detroit Free Press, Illustration: Brian Gray, USA TODAY NetworkĪs the National Museum of African American Music opens its doors, journalists from the USA TODAY Network explore the stories, places and people who helped make music what it is today in our expansive series, Hallowed Sound.ĭETROIT - Like nearly everything else that mattered in 20th century Detroit, you can chalk it up the automobile. outside the Hitsville USA on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. Photo: Tony Spina, Detroit Free Press, Illustration: Brian Gray, USA TODAY Network Berry Gordy Jr.
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