If you are an American, you should know the saga of Motown. A Black owned and founded record label created by Berry Gordy in the 1950’s. An imprint that had a roster of some of the most famous and accomplished artists of all time: Smokey Robinson. Stevie Wonder. Marvin Gaye. The Supremes. Diana Ross. The Temptations. The Jackson 5. A phenomenon that placed 53 number one hit singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart from 1961-1985. An institution that re-introduced Black music to the general public as a commercial and cultural force. That word ‘cultural’ is important, because Motown’s biggest accomplishment…
…was changing the world.
Motown’s cultural explosion was a Big Bang-like happening the likes we wouldn’t see again, until Hip-Hop came along years later. The music and aesthetic of the label smashed through social barriers (mainly racial) in ways that even Rock & Roll couldn’t. If you want to see Motown’s seismic sociological impact, here are a few examples below:
Motown’s impact on race..
society…
other massively important musicians…
and the crossover popularity of Black musical artists.
If you want to find out more about Motown’s total impact, stream it’s magic music and Google it’s fantastic facts. The label became an agent of change for a generation, and an epic real life fairy tale to pass down to future generations. And, much like most cool stuff in this country, it was created by African-Americans.
Wait until I write about Hip-Hop.
