Motown

Somewhere about the same time it came to prominence as the Motor City and long before it was known as Rock City, Berry Gordy's Motown put Detroit on the map as a city, a record label, and a sound that, for most of America, was soul music in the 1960s. Gordy, a talented songwriter and producer, founded the label in 1959. From 1961 to 1971, the label produced no less than 110 Billboard Top Ten hits. The songwriting of Gordy and his team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland came to be the Motown sound: a strong backbeat, punchy three-chord pop-R&B songs that often involved a horn section, and vocal styles rooted in the traditions of soul and Doo-Wop. Like the Doo-Woppers, Motown's groups were made up of vocalists; and the label's finishing school taught them how to behave like stars. Motown's influence extended far beyond the musical realm. As the largest black-owned record label in the country, it was at the forefront of the cultural and economic dimensions of the civil rights movement.