The Creation of Motown music came from the city of Detroit. The birth of Motown started with the songwriter, Berry Gordy who realised he had a skill for spotting musicians with talent. In 1959 he created the label called “Motown Records”. The first music label to successfully market black artists to white mainstream audiences, Motown Records was responsible for discovering and perfecting a number of American popular music's most significant and successful artists.
Motown is inspired significantly by jazz music as most of the musicians that were hired to play for the label were in jazz club bands before they were picked for the label. Jazz uses many orchestral instruments such as strings, brass and percussion just like many Motown tracks to create a full rich sound. Motown is also very inspired by Rhythm and blues as it is much rehearsed and creates a hypnotic texture which does not make any instrument stand out as a solo instrument.
“Turn on your love light” is a good example of a Rhythm and blues song which influenced Motown music
The reason why the motown songs all have a similar sound is because Berry Gordy hired session musicians to play with the bands and he hired a song writing team to produce hits, these were called Brothers Brian & Eddie Holland and colleague Lamont Dozier. Normally they would have to get the approval of a song from Berry Gordy before the song would be released. If the song is not approved then the writers would rework the song and produce an improved version, the two most notable examples being a pair of Marvin Gaye songs, "I Heard It through the Grapevine" and "What's Going On"
The session musicians were referred to as “the funk brothers.” Were all picked out by Berry Gordy to accompany and go on tour with the artist on his record label. The Funk brothers consist of many different sections like string section, horn section, percussion section as well as conductors and arrangers. Many of these musicians have contributed to the sound of motown and the Funk Brothers band used a number of innovative techniques to develop the Motown Sound.
Motown usually keeps to the rule of keeping everything simple.
Motown usually contains two drum kits playing either over dubbed or playing in unison on a track to make the beat sound more full. In Marvin Gaye’s song “I heard it through the grapevine” the recording includes three drum kits.
There is commonly a use of tambourines to accent the back beat. The bass lines were played on an electric bass and are usually melodic and colourful because the bassist (James Lee Jamerson) usually wrote all the bass lines and he was a very talented musician. The orchestral arrangements are used to elaborate many of the classics on Motown. It usually contained a string section and charted horn sections. Motown music usually contains carefully arranged backgrounds and carefully arranged background vocals with catchy lines and hook lines just look the Supremes song “Someday we will be together”
There are distinctive melody and chord structures. The guitar plays on offbeat chord on a lot of tracks which is a main characteristic of Ska and was perhaps influenced by the genre. There is normally three or four guitar line to make the song sound rich and full.
There is typically a call and response singing style which is very much influenced by Gospel music and gospel choirs. A good example of this is the supreme’s song “where did our love go”
Motown lyrics are usually about love, as the musicians and songwriters were trying to make singles to make it in the charts they would choose a topic that people can relate to. Lots of motown songs tell stories this was possibly influenced by blues artists and country artists who have lots of meaning in their lyrics.
In the pictures below you can see that the musicians and artists are dressed in uniform and smart clothing. This is because Motown music is organised and well presented. Normally the lead singer would be in the middle or slightly in front of the backing singers this is because Motown music is organised and preformed well by the artists.
Most of the Motown artists were African American; Motown allowed white people to hear music from the black culture without it being processed or touched by a white man.
Motown music emerged at a time when the mass struggle for civil rights and social and racial equality had a profound impact on youth. This is what Smokey Johnson said about Motown’s cultural impact.
“I recognized the bridges that we crossed, the racial problems and the barriers that we broke down with music. I would come to the South in the early days of Motown and the audiences would be segregated. Then they started to get the Motown music and we would go back and the audiences were integrated and the kids were dancing together and holding hands.”
Some of Motown’s best sellers would go on to provide the foundation for some of the most well known breaks of many hip hop songs. Run DMC, sampled the Temptations’ classic “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, while Public Enemy used some of the Temptation’s less popular songs, such as “Psychedelic Shack” and “I Can’t Get Next to You”.
Motown inspired and influenced so many famous popular artists which are in the charts today. Female singers such as Beyoncé and Mariah Carey obviously take factors from motown stars Diana Ross, Martha Reeves and Gladys Knight. The way they perform, the way the music is arranged, the way they look is all in some way influenced by Motown artists. Kanye West and Justin Timberlake are noticeably influenced by Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, and Marvin Gaye.
Motown is an extremely important genre in the history of music and inspired most of today’s artists but it not only bridge racial and generational gaps, but it also succeeded in crossing cultures.
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