When was motown started

It created a bond that echoed throughout the world. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc. Music Pop music. Motown: The music that changed America. Then, ask a friend or family member to be your backup singer. Soon, you may have your very own band. Did you get it?

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Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity. And 1 question, what is a Motown? Please reply. A s surely as Atlantic was the greatest independent record company of the Fifties, Motown was the greatest of the Sixties. As one after another of the independents have sold themselves to the conglomerates, and as each, to one degree or another, has lost touch with its original source of strength, only Motown continues to reflect the musical as well as business vision of its founder: namely, Berry Gordy , Jr.

It is a flawed vision but a consistent one and the fruits of his labor have been on view since he started running the company; they will continue to multiply until the day he stops. Independent record companies are started by men personally involved with the art they intend to distribute. The late Leonard Chess discovered his artists in his bar, recorded them himself, and then sold their releases from out of the trunk of his car. He knew blues so he recorded blues.

I would venture to guess that for most of his years at Chess it never occurred to him that he might be recording anything else. And consequently, for the twenty years he ran the company, the Chess label signified something musically. Related Black Sabbath on the Making of 'Vol. The inner determination of a Leonard Chess, the personal commitment to a specific musical outlook, has always been the strength of the independent. Ultimately — in a business sense — it is their weakness too.

For when the blues market or country, or gospel, or whatever the case may be can no longer support the company financially, these are not the men who know how to diversify: they have no heart for it. The major exception: Atlantic. Unfamiliar with the market and the music, the new men as well as the older record men still active do not run an in-house operation with all of its fixed expenses, but instead prefer a system of independent production in which the company invests in specific projects, finances and distributes them, and occupies itself as little as possible with the actual details of artistic production, about which it knows very little.

Today, no one on the Atlantic staff has anything to do with the actual recording of Led Zeppelin or Emerson, Lake and Palmer, no one at Warners pretends to understand the musical virtues of Black Sabbath, and when the Band goes into the studio for Capitol these days, one assumes they do as they please. As long as these artists can turn out profitable records, the executives of their companies are happy to let them do as they wish.

Of all the major companies, only Motown remains completely an in-house operation. One has the feeling, whether it is true or not, that Berry Gordy passes personal judgment on every single that comes out on his label. There is still a Motown look to the album covers, a Motown touch to the song-writing, a Motown style of singing, and, above all, a Motown sound. Anyone with ears can still tell a Motown record ten seconds after it comes on the air.

So the history of Motown over the last 10 years is the history of two things: the growth of an independent corporation and the development of a creative musical collective factory responsible for a specific musical style.

That style has resulted in a series of records and a body of music so commanding, so sophisticated, and so fine, as to make Motown a contender for the supreme pop achievement of the last ten years.

Motown began the decade groping for a style. Dancers Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan brought the band's songs to life — without singing a single note. The guitarist woke up one morning to find the famous riff from " I Can't Get No Satisfaction" on his cassette recorder and no memory of writing the song.

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