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Welcome to the History of Rock and Roll. In this session, we will be investigating Soul Musicfrom the 1960’s to 70’s, focusing on Motown, otherwise known as “Hitsville, USA.”
Motown was located in Detroit, Michigan and was founded in 1959 by Berry Gordy Jr. "Motown" was short for "Motor City" due to Detroit’s thriving auto manufacturing scene.
Many musicians moved to Detroit to work in the auto factories by day and perform and record music by night.
Motown was similar to late '50s Brill Building songwriting process of having paid professional writers and arrangers on staff that included many of the popular musicians such as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Rick James.
Motown also housed amazing soul groups such as The Temptations, Jackson Five, The Commodores with Lionel Richie, The Supremes, and The Four Tops.
Motown’s house band was a lineup of great backup musicians known as The Funk Brothers.
The Funk Brothers were on almost every Detroit-era recording made and were on more #1 singles than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, and The Beach Boys combined.
Their jazz experience made background parts more active and included great melodic hooks and Latin rhythms.
Motown was known for its bright, clear production and this was an amazing achievement considering the recording engineers often only used three tracks to record.
Barry Gordy Jr. always made sure his artists were always impeccably dressed, and given fancy names such as Steveland Morris who became Stevie Wonder.
Motown achieved 100s of crossover and Top 20 hits within its Detroit Era making it a very powerful hit machine.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were formed in 1955 and was an early 'find' for Berry Gordy Jr. Smokey always wrote tuneful hits, sung in his high tenor voice.
In 1961, Robinson was named vice-president of Motown and became one of its best and most prolific songwriters.
Here is an example of his melodious voice performing “Tears of a Clown” written by a very young Stevie Wonder.
The Temptations, formed in 1961, were most successful group in Black Music history and were initially called the Elgins until Berry Gordy renamed them the Temptations.
They were the definitive male vocal act of the '60s at Motown and performed lush pop to politically-charged funk.
Many of their hits were written by Smokey Robinson as he exploited the unique sound of David Ruffin’s gruff baritone voice and Eddie Kendricks -wispy falsetto.
Here is an example of their lush sound on the ballad “Just My Imagination.”
Stevie Wonder was born in 1950 and began recording in 1962 at the age of eleven. In two years, he became one of Motown's finest artists and was great pianist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer.
Stevie wrote for himself and others, for example, "Tears of a Clown" for the Temptations and Smokey Robinson.
In 1971, Stevie Wonder began to make albums as cohesive artistic statements, not just singles. Not just love songs, but political and social commentaries.
Stevie Wonder was also a pioneer in the use and development of the Synthesizer. Here is Stevie Wonder performing “Uptight, Everything is Allright.”