The Impact Of Motown Motown is one of the most influential music genre. Motown wasn’t just music that was fun to listen to. It helped with the civil rights movement, and It also had crossover success. Motown was founded in the 50s when there was a lot of racism. The creator of Motown Berry Gordy’s main ambition was to produce the sound of young America no matter what color. Berry Gordy, who is the father of Motown tried many occupations like a boxer, a record store owner, and even an auto worker. He didn’t have any luck, so he decided to try having a record label. He started out with a loan of $800 from his family, and with that money he created Hitsville U.S.A. founded in 1959, in Detroit, Michigan. He discovered Smokey Robinson and the
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A lot of white people wouldn’t listen to songs that African Americans have made, or watch a show with an African American in it. White people saw African Americans as a threat because they were different. The artists of Motown were primarily African American artists. To get them popular with the white population Gordy controlled their image. He made sure they looked white by the way they dressed, danced, and manners. To accomplish making the artists be the best he created an assembly line to create the artists, like what he learned when he was an auto worker. First he had them to go to a school to learn grammar, how to talk like a white person, how to act on stage, and even how to have good posture. Next he called on the best people for hair and makeup. If you look back at pictures of the Motown artists they were always dressed nice, even in the studio. Girl artists in Motown also had popular white hairstyles of the time. Gordy also booked his artists on The Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand, because a lot of Americans were watching those shows, even white people. By doing that he got his artists more known and more accepted by the white Americans. By making the artists look and act white, white people saw African Americans as less of a threat. Motown also played a huge part in the civil rights …show more content…
On July 23, 1967 one of the worse riots broke out in Detroit, Michigan. It was so bad, 43 people were dead, 342 were injured, a ton of buildings were burned down, and many national guards and U.S. troops were called down to Detroit. Due to the riots in Detroit Gordy moved Motown records to Los Angeles in 1968. He also moved Motown records to Los Angeles so Motown could be more apart of the entertainment industry like movies, TV, and publishing. Motown didn’t do so good in Los Angeles as it did in Detroit. Motown was eventually sold to MCA and Boston ventures in 1988 for 61 million
A lot of white people wouldn’t listen to songs that African Americans have made, or watch a show with an African American in it. White people saw African Americans as a threat because they were different. The artists of Motown were primarily African American artists. To get them popular with the white population Gordy controlled their image. He made sure they looked white by the way they dressed, danced, and manners. To accomplish making the artists be the best he created an assembly line to create the artists, like what he learned when he was an auto worker. First he had them to go to a school to learn grammar, how to talk like a white person, how to act on stage, and even how to have good posture. Next he called on the best people for hair and makeup. If you look back at pictures of the Motown artists they were always dressed nice, even in the studio. Girl artists in Motown also had popular white hairstyles of the time. Gordy also booked his artists on The Ed Sullivan Show and American Bandstand, because a lot of Americans were watching those shows, even white people. By doing that he got his artists more known and more accepted by the white Americans. By making the artists look and act white, white people saw African Americans as less of a threat. Motown also played a huge part in the civil rights …show more content…
On July 23, 1967 one of the worse riots broke out in Detroit, Michigan. It was so bad, 43 people were dead, 342 were injured, a ton of buildings were burned down, and many national guards and U.S. troops were called down to Detroit. Due to the riots in Detroit Gordy moved Motown records to Los Angeles in 1968. He also moved Motown records to Los Angeles so Motown could be more apart of the entertainment industry like movies, TV, and publishing. Motown didn’t do so good in Los Angeles as it did in Detroit. Motown was eventually sold to MCA and Boston ventures in 1988 for 61 million