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The History Of Motown

Decent Essays

Music was tied to the black identity because of the historical significance that songs had. Slaves had not lost their interest in music when the owners forced them to work on plantations, and their songs were one of the few things that slave owners could not take away from them. [!crendentials] Eileen Southern discussed how slaves were part of the musical tradition even during the colonial era. Slaves sang their own music for recreation, but they also sang psalms and hymns from the Bible and performed for their masters. While living in captivity, music was one of the few areas of life in which slaves had autonomy. In addition to having group time away from their physical tasks, the structure of the songs allowed for more bonding because of …show more content…

Producers usually separated Motown groups by gender, but in either case, it was a group of black people singing about love and relationships: the same themes that existed in R&B and soul. With Motown, however, the target audience of these songs were teenagers and young adults, because the singers in these groups were also around that age, making their music relatable. Motown was a unique scenario in terms of race relations because the performers were black, but many producers who made money off these groups (especially girl groups) were white …show more content…

This exploitation minimized the value of the singers, as they seemed easily replaceable as long as the next one could sing the same old song and make it a hit on the charts. Despite good integrationist intentions, the music in this industry was a result of the commoditization of black culture, further complicating the relationship between the music and the Civil Rights Movement. Listeners would receive glamorous snapshots of life as a black American, and not garner the complexity of the issues that existed. On the other hand, using this frame of a neatly packaged life made white audiences more receptive of black music, allowing them to ease themselves into the idea of

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