MUSI 401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Music Of Latin America, Complete Control, Gladys Knight
Document Summary
Motown was a recording company created by berry gordy in detroit in 1959. He loved jazz but he knew he could make more money from pop music. The slogan of motown was the sound of young america. Gordy wanted to make records that would appeal to both black and white americans. He wrote many of the songs for motown performers. The first hit song for motown was shop around, performed by smokey. While gordy and some of the motown performers wrote songs, the professional songwriting team of holland-dozier-holland wrote many motown hits. Motown, like stax, had a house band, the funk brothers that accompanied the singers. Blues, jazz and classical musicians also performed on many of the songs. While motown songs contained call and response and polyrhythms created by percussionists, african influences were downplayed in order to create a crossover style that appealed to a wide audience. Gordy hoped motown music would help fight racism and help integrate the country.
