MOTOWN
A look at how the music of Detroit turned into one of the most lucrative businesses in the world and why it left its home.
BERRY GORDY JR.
EARLY LIFE
Berry Gordy Jr. was born on November 28, 1929 in Detroit MI. He is the seventh of eight children. Seven years before his birth, his father was lured to Detroit by the promise of work in the automotive industry.
Berry's siblings were prominent black citizens in Detroit, but Gordy chose to go a different route when he dropped out of high school in the eleventh grade to pursue a career as a professional boxer. This dream was differred, however, when he was drafter into the United States Military for the Korean War in 1950.
THE RISE OF MOTOWN
After returning home from the war, he began writing songs and opened up his own record store featuring jazz music. Unfortunately, the store wasn't successful and Gordy began looking for work at an auto plant until family connections put him in touch with Al Green, the owner of the Flame Show Bar talent club which was where he met Jackie Wilson.
In 1957, Wilson recorded the song Reet Petite which had been written by Gordy and his sister Gwen. The song gained moderate success in the US andgreat acclaim in the UK. Gordy was able to parlay this into six more songs over the next two years, and in 1959, with the encouragement of Smokey Robinson, the lead singer of the Miracles, he took an 800 dollar loan from his family and opened Tamla Records.
SUSTAINED SUCCESS
Gordy began to write and produce music for talent which he was able to bring into his labal, and began building a machine for sustained success over the next decade. After merging the Tamla and Motown labels into Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1959, Gordy signed several new artists like the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5 and martha and the Vandellas.
Gordy had a gift for identifying musical talent and pairing it with others in order to bring out its full potential. He carefully managed his artists' public images which led to major national and, eventally, international success. Gordy was able to find a way to promote his African American artists in such a way that they were able to garner broad acclaim across race, gender and class boundaries - one of the large keys to the unprecedented success of Motown which also differentiated them from their competition.
Though Gordy would eventually move the label to Los Angeles and continue to build on the success of the Detroit years through the late 80's, he would ultimately sell his interests in Motown along with most of his interests in Jobete publishing. A few years later, Polygram would purchase the Motown catalog from EMI for $330 million.