Motown
Motown, also known as The Motown Sound and Northern Soul, is a style of soul music popularized in the late 1960s in the United States by a roster of artists signed to Motown Records. Distinctive characteristics are the use of tambourine along with a drum kit, Rhythm and blues instrumentation, and a 'call and response' singing style originating in gospel music. While there were popular African American musicians prior to the 1960s, including Mamie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald and Chuck Berry, Motown was the most consistently chart-topping genre until perhaps hip hop. In contrast to previous genres of black popular music, Motown soul used African American performers instead of grooming white musicians for crossover fame. It was also the first genre of African American popular music to move beyond simple lyricisms into the realm of socio-political topics, allowing for a wide range of African American viewpoints to be expressed in song.
The Motown Sound was also defined by the use of orchestration, string sections, charted horn sections, carefully arranged harmonies and other more refined pop music production techniques that borrowed from British Invasion styles.
It was also one of the first styles of pop music of that era wherein girl groups were showcased as as an act, as opposed to individual female artists. The acts on the Motown label were fastidiously groomed, dressed and choreographed for live performances. Motown artists were told that their breakthrough into the white popular music market made them ambassadors for other African-American artists seeking broad market acceptance, and that they should think, act, walk and talk like royalty, so as to alter the less-than-dignified image (commonly held by white Americans in that era) of black musicians.
It was popularized by Motown Records of Detroit, Michigan in the 1960s. The many artists of Motown Records collaborated to produce several hit songs.
Examples
Other artists
From 1959 to 1971, many of these acts were backed by Motown Records' major studio band, The Funk Brothers which was credited for being instrumental in creating the essential sound of Motown. The band's career and work is chronicled in the acclaimed documentary, Standing In The Shadows Of Motown.
See also: Berry Gordy
List of record labels
External Links
Motown Records -- http://www.motown.com/
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