Berry Gordy Jr.: The Birth Of Motown

Between 1964 and 1967 Motown recorded sixty top fifteen pop chart hits, fourteen of which were number ones. But Motown’s success was almost unfathomable to the music industry as a record label ran by an African American with African American musicians and producers. Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, managed to create black music and commercialize it directly to a white American audience that was often times only willing to consume music that was at least covered by a white musician. This all occurred in the wake of the “British Invasion”, from 1964 to 1966, where young white Americans became drawn to male-dominated guitar-based groups. With Billboard’s decision to combine

Elvis Presley was signed to Sun Records in 1954. This was monumental for Phillips’s stand on racial boundaries in music. Elvis drew national attention to Sun Records which, in part, sparked slight popularity for other Sun artists such as Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, and Roscoe Gordon (Sun Records 1). This point in time is known as the origin of Rock and Roll. Contrary to what Rock and Roll is now, it was only popular within a certain demographic of people for a long time

Jazz, folk, R&B, spiritual, reggae and gospel were big genres during the Civil Rights Movement and the singers that came with them proved to be a big impact on the movement

     The birth of Motown music came to be in a small recording studio aptly named Hitsville, U.S.A. Barry Gordy, who came from a large middle class family had borrowed money in order. The main stage of Motown music came from a small house that had been remodeled into a recording studio, the name of the company was Hitsville, U.S.A. Mr. Gordy had gathered the best jazz and blues players in and Motown was born through his genius. This small but dynamic

2.With performers like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gay, the Temptations, and Diana Ross and the Supremes, Motown Records changed music history. Who founded Motown Records in 1959?

Motown was established by Berry Gordy Jr. in the later winter of 1959. Then about 3 to 4 years later Motown Records,”was selling more singles and releasing more hits than any other record company.” (Classic Motown) Motown then soon became known as a central icon for many artists and just ordinary people. Motown had such a different and new sound that the people loved it and they wanted more. The love for this music has not gone away. People still listen and talk about the Motown sound and how it changed the way we looked at music. Motown created such fascinating sounds that would make you want to get up and dance. They would put soul, pop, and rock into everything they did. The best thing about Motown was that the artists and the bands and the recording people loved what they did they loved to sing dance play the instruments. This is what made them so successful that they did not have to try hard to love what they did.

B.B. King or ‘The King of Blues’ was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi. His young parents unfortunately divorced, and his mother passed away when he was 9 years old which left him to be raised by his grandmother. King attended school until the 10th grade when he dropped out of school and started to work at a cotton gin near his hometown. Despite dropping out of school he continued to teach himself math and different languages well into his later life. He worked at the cotton gin earning a penny a pound and singing gospel music on street corners. His musical career started when he was studying under his cousin Bukka White. King met a woman and was married at 17 years old. “I guess I was looking for love, because I never had anybody I believed truly loved me” (B.B. King). The marriage quickly came to end when they got a divorce months later. “Since my early childhood, I had a problem trying to open up. Please open me up. Look inside!

For more than half a century, Riley B. King -better known as B.B. King- has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has released over fifty albums (many of them classics). B.B. was born September 16, 1925, on a plantation in Itta Bena,

They blended country music with R&B in a unique way that hadn’t been done before. However, the way they got their big breaks was significantly different. Chuck Berry had created a quartet while he was in prison for auto theft. He had obstacles ahead of him as a black man that Elvis would never have. In fact, Elvis had just walked into Sun Studios to privately record his music, a very different opportunity that Berry would not have gotten.

In 1951, Alan Freed, a European American disc jockey for a Cleveland radio station, first coined the term rock’n roll. Fifty years later, if you were to poll the general public on which race would dominate that genre of music, the response would be overwhelmingly whites. But rock’n roll is not a white mans music. African American’s were and still are an essential cornerstone of the genre known as rock’n roll. But rock’n roll simply would not exist if it weren't for African Americans. Their presence is felt in almost every genre of music known to the United States. Early twentieth century black musicians helped shape, influence and create my favorite genre of music today.

Shortly after all that Chuck Berry was very quick to follow with a bundle of other unique singles that seemed to continue to mold out what appeared to be the new genre of rock 'n ' roll. These single included "Roll Over, Beethoven," "Too Much Monkey Business" and "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," these are just a few songs among many others. Chuck Berry had managed to “achieve crossover appeal with white youths without alienating his black fans by mixing blues and R&B sounds with storytelling that spoke to the universal themes of youth” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). In the late 1950s, songs like "Johnny B. Goode," "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "Carol" had all made the Top 10 chart of pop music by accomplishing the equal popularity with youths on both sides of the racial divide (Biography.com. A&E Networks Television). "I made records for people who would buy them," Berry said. "No color, no ethnic, no political I don 't want that, never did. ' ' (Rolling Stone)

Chuck Berry’s big break came when he went to Chicago in May of 1955 and met up with Muddy Waters who suggested he contact Chess Records. As a result he recorded “Maybellene” which went on to sell over a million copies and rose up to number one on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues chart. Berry was a success and popular by the end of the 50s. He opened up his own nightclub in St. Louis, Missouri Berry’s Club Bandstand.

In the 1960's, America was ready for a change. Black rhythm and blues known as Motown became popular. Bob

This judgment began unexpectedly to spread as African American music, especially the blues and jazz, became a worldwide sensation. Black music provided the pulse of the Harlem Renaissance and of the Jazz Age more generally. The rise of the “race records” industry, beginning with OKeh’s recording of Mamie Smith’s

The first Motown group to receive a Grammy Award is the Temptations for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance/Duo or Group for “Cloud Nine” in 1969. Stevie Wonder is Motown’s most prolific Grammy winner wining fourteen times while Gordy was at Motown.