Motown Records was an American record company that produced some of the most successful recordings in the history of popular music. The polished and catchy “Motown sound“ combined rhythm and blues, soul, and pop. It brought black artists into the mainstream of American popular music in the 1960’s. Popular Motown artists included the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Mary Wells, the Four Tops, the Jackson Five, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Marvin Gaye. Motown was the first record label owned by an African American to primarily promote black artists who achieved crossover success with larger audiences.
Motown began in Detroit in 1959 as Tamla Records, founded by the songwriter Berry Gordy, Jr. Gordy started the Tamla label with an $800 loan from his family. Tamla’s first release was Marv Johnson’s “Come to Me” in 1959. The label’s first hit was Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want)” (1959). Tamla was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in 1960. Motown takes its name from a blending of the words motor town, a nickname for Detroit. At the time, the city was the automobile manufacturing capital of the world. The company’s first national hit was “Shop Around” (1960), recorded by the Miracles and co-written by Gordy and the Miracles’ lead singer Smokey Robinson. It sold more than a million copies and helped establish Motown as an important independent record company. In 1961, Motown had its first number-one pop hit with “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes.
Motown produced more than 100 hits from 1959 to 1972. Many of these songs were written by Gordy, Robinson, Norman Whitfield, Lamont Dozier, and the brothers Brian Holland and Edward Holland, Jr. An important part of the “Motown sound” was the company’s use of a group of studio musicians who called themselves the Funk Brothers. The largely uncredited group performed the instrumental backing on nearly all of the Motown recordings during this period.
In 1968, Gordy moved Motown’s headquarters from a small, two-story house to a larger building in Detroit. In 1972, he relocated Motown operations to Los Angeles. Popular later Motown artists included Lionel Richie, the Commodores, Rick James, Teena Marie, DeBarge, Queen Latifah, and Boyz II Men. Gordy sold Motown Records to MCA, Inc., in 1988. In 2005, Motown merged with Universal Records to form Universal Motown. Popular Universal Motown artists include Erykah Badu and India.Arie. In 1985, the original Motown headquarters, dubbed “Hitsville U.S.A.” by Gordy, became the Motown Historical Museum.
