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In the previous article we intimated that Berry Gordy Jr’s days with Motown were numbered and indeed, that is exactly what happened.  Despite successes with artists such as DeBarge and Lionel Richie, Motown began to lose money in the mid 1980s.  In 1988 Gordy decided he had had enough and accepted a $61 million offer from MCA Records and Boston Ventures for his stake.  The following year he also sold his interest in the film and television production company Motown Productions to fellow Motown executive Suzanne de Passe.  Thus ended Berry Gordy Jr’s involvement with the label he created.

Although signing successful artists such as Boyz II Men, MCA also struggled to turn Motown’s fortunes around and in 1991, unhappy with

Danny Goldberg

MCA’s involvement, Motown sued to end its distribution deal with MCA.  Polygram took over and consequently purchased Motown in 1994.  After a succession of CEOs, Polygram eventually appointed one of its own senior executives, Danny Goldberg, to run Motown.

During the period of record label consolidation in the late 1990s, Polygram was acquired by Seagram (Universal was its entertainment arm) and this actually brought them together once more with MCA Records, who had also been bought out.  This activity did then precede a period of relative success, introducing artists such as Erykah Badu, Indie Arie and Michael McDonald, as well as keeping hold of some of the original performers such as Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross (today, Stevie Wonder is the only ‘veteran’ remaining at the label).

In 2005, there was more reorganisation when Motown was merged into Universal Records, becoming Universal Motown Records.  While some may mourn the passing of the original, independent Motown Records, it seems unlikely that the label would have survived without outside help.  Unlike some other labels, it has at least retained its name and its sound.  It still remains the one label that successfully introduced black music to a wider audience so we should be thankful for Seagram’s decision not to close it down when it looked as though to do so would have been a good move.

Welcome back to our brief Motown history.  Although Motown’s influence in the field of popular music up until the 1970s had been duly recognised, it was its contribution to racial integration which was most important.  It introduced a style of music to a proportion of the American (and global) population which previously had been unable to access it.  It’s effect was most deeply felt in the Deep South and this is what Smokey Robinson had to say when reflecting on the subject:

Into the ’60s, I was still not of a frame of mind that we were not only making music, we were making history. But I did recognize the impact because acts were going all over the world at that time. I recognized the bridges that we crossed, the racial problems and the barriers that we broke down with music. I recognized that because I lived it. I would come to the South in the early days of Motown and the audiences would be segregated. Then they started to get the Motown music and we would go back and the audiences were integrated and the kids were dancing together and holding hands.

In 1972 Berry Gordy Jr. started Motown Productions, which was a television production company largely dedicated to programmes about

Smokey Robinson

Motown artists.  It featured among others, The Jackson Five and Diana Ross in what could be described as some of the first reality television.  Motown Productions also began to produce movies and this led to a wholesale move to Los Angeles in the early 1970s.  The ties to Gordy’s Detroit home town had now effectively been cut – music and movies were now based in Los Angeles and a small music production facility was based in New York.

The 1970s and the early 1980s saw a continuation of the label’s success.  It showed no sign of suffering from it’s move away from it’s heartland and artists recording during this period included Lionel Richie, De Barge and The Commodores.  Berry Gordy Jr. however, was about to part company.

Part Three Follows….

For a record label with such a distinguished history as Motown, it maybe something of a surprise that it was only formed in 1960 but that is the case.  Berry Gordy Jr, was the man who started up Motown Records.  He was the seventh of eight Gordy children, all of whom became successful in their chosen fields.  Berry was the one who dropped out of high school to pursue firstly a boxing career, then a stint in Korea with the U.S. Army before returning to Detroit where he opened a Jazz record store called the 3D Record Mart.

The record store did not succeed but Berry was also a songwriter who came into contact with several influential artists of his day.  One of these, Jackie Wilson, recorded one of Berry’s songs – Reet Petite - in 1957 and the records respectable global sales allowed Berry to invest the profits in production.  He established Tamla Records in 1959 and the Motown name in 1960.  Motown is a combination of the words Motor Town – a reference to the motor city of Detroit.

Motown’s first major success also came in 1960 and it was Shop Around by The Miracles.  It was their first million selling release and reached number two in the Billboard charts.  Within a couple of years, Motown had established itself as a major force in the U.S. music industry – its philosophy of marketing black soul and R & B music to a wider white audience proving immensely successful.  Major releases during this period included The Marvelette’s Please Mr. Postman and songs from Diana Ross, The Jackson Five and The Four Tops.

The rest of the 1960s only added to the success of Motown.  They managed 110 top ten hits in the period up to 1970 and this did not include release

Berry Gordy Jr.

from Tamla Records artists such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.  Three more spin-off labels, Gordy, V.I.P. and Soul also signed up a range of what are now household names – The Temptations, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and Jimmy Ruffin and these artists only helped to cement the Motown group as a major U.S. label.