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Overview
In January 1959 Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and founded the Detroit-based record company that in less than a decade was to become the largest black-owned business in the United States. It also became one of the most productive and influential producers of popular music anywhere in the world, mainly by combining the best features of black and white American popular music.
Even a short list of the recording and performing talent that Gordy recruited, trained and produced for his company is awesome: Diana Ross, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells.
The Story of Motown is the story of Berry Gordy’s triumph over powerful, established financial interests, entrenched popular taste, bigotry and racism. By inventing a sound that appealed to whites as well as blacks, and that was immediately identifiable to an entire generation of listeners, Gordy demonstrated his genius as a producer; by breaking the exploitive practice of "cover" records, he helped black artists control their own music and share in the proceeds of hits; and by the sheer force of his will, courage, and intelligence, he demonstrated that a black man from the urban ghetto could aspire to and conquer the heights of traditional American business, including the movie business.
Unfortunately, while doing all of this, he also found new ways to exploit his talented artists and eventually lost many of them to companies that paid them more.
The Story of Motown is the story of the rise and fall of one of the most important cultural touchstones in American history
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781947856233 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Rare Bird Books |
| Publication date: | 11/13/2018 |
| Pages: | 192 |
| Sales rank: | 742,889 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Foreword Greil Marcus 9
Introduction 13
Prologue 17
Chapter 1 The Gordys 19
Chapter 2 Gordy in the Ring 25
Chapter 3 Gordy in Transition 29
Chapter 4 The Gordy Family Sets up Shop 37
Chapter 5 Many Times 39
Chapter 6 The Motown Sound 45
Chapter 7 Starmaking Machinery 51
Chapter 8 Motown Pushes Forward 55
Chapter 9 The Motortown Revues 65
Chapter 10 Success 73
Chapter 11 Recruiting Gets Easier 83
Chapter 12 Motown Creates a Machine 89
Chapter 13 Motown Becomes a 'Conglamorate' 95
Chapter 14 Gordy Arrives 101
Chapter 15 Gordy and Ross 109
Chapter 16 Motown Moves and Changes 115
Chapter 17 Motown Goes Hollywood 121
Chapter 18 The Motown Plot 131
Chapter 19 Ups and Downs: Motown Branches Out 139
Chapter 20 Artists and Money 149
Chapter 21 Exodus 157
Chapter 21 Motown Matures 169
Chapter 23 Motown: The Seventies and Beyond 173
Afterword 175
Motown Top Twenty Hits: 1961-1971 177