Isaiah Woods
11 June 2018
MUS-368U
Professor Higgins
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Motown Final Paper
Motown was created with the intention to break out of the stereotypical confinements within
ethnic communities that surrounded the genre of music. It was created to allow musicians to
thrive within the confinements, but also to be able to become successful as an artist on their own.
Many artists made it their goal to be recognized purely off of their talent, not of off the type of
music they were connected to. There were stereotypes flooding the industry at the time due to the
heavy black influence and simply because the sound was so different than what anyone had
heard before. It is hard to imagine American culture today without the influence of Motown
music. Not only within other genres of music, but in the rhetoric, we use and the way we carry
ourselves. Motown was truly a musical revolution.
Throughout this country one of the most popular genres of music amongst my generation is
rap, hip/hop and of course, pop. All of these categories are heavily influenced by Motown, and
wouldn’t be as popular as they are without that influence of the unique sound. Motown has
birthed some of the most notable and talented artists to this day. Some examples would be Stevie
Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Jackson 5, and many more. Artists in this generation accredit
Motown music to their careers as well. Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Janelle Monae, Usher and
many more have taken that feeling of Motown music and incorporated it into their own career.
Throughout this essay I will discuss the impact that it has and continues to have on music and
artists today.
Berry Gordy was the man who is accredited for finding Motown. “Berry grew up in
Detroit, Michigan in the late 1920’s (Pinkney, pg. 1).” As a teenager Berry was extremely
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passionate about jazz, dancing, and of course, making money. All of these factors eventually
came together and helped Berry come up with the idea of being successful with music. His first
goal started with attempting to incorporate a way to teach white people about African American
culture, through music especially. The fact that Berry was able to create a successful company
that not only allowed people to enjoy the new sounds he made, but also allowed for white
Americans to be more accepting of black performers and their success. In the time of the 1960,’s,
Motown was the largest black-owned company in America (Light, 2014). “Because Berry Gordy
was able to implement principles from the Civil Rights Movement, he created a business that not
only aided the Civil Rights Movement by encouraging integrationist principles, but
simultaneously disproved years of negative stereotypes that were used to oppress African
Americans (Pinkey, pg. 13).”
