Motown

The Motown Sound

Berry Gordy has often been quoted as describing the Motown Sound as “rats, roaches, and love.” What makes Motown a distinct form of music beyond Gordy's description, however, is the aesthetic presence of Africanisms in its instrumentation. This includes the heavy use of stringed instruments (guitar and bass); percussion such as drums and tambourine; other items that are struck or shaken, including chains, wood blocks, and hardwood floors in the recording studio; and the use of the hands for clapping and feet for stomping. Other African-based aesthetic characteristics of the Motown Sound include the use of melisma, vibrato, and call-and-response delivery in vocal performances.

Motown became famous for infusing blues-, jazz-, and gospel-inflected rhythms and vocal stylings, all of which are rooted in an African cultural aesthetic, into a popular music framework. To articulate and produce the Motown Sound, Motown's roster of artists, songwriters, and executives was predominantly African American but also included whites. This reflected Gordy's ambition for Motown to cross over and appeal not just to African Americans but also to young whites as well. As such, Gordy nicknamed Motown “The Sound of Young America.”

Berry Gordy, Jr., founded Motown Records. In 1959, he purchased a piece of property at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit that would become Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. Studio. It became the Motown Historical Museum in 1985.

Most of Motown's musicians and vocalists were originally from the southern United States and migrated to Detroit. They received their training in the music programs of Detroit's public schools. Collectively, the musicians were known as the Funk Brothers. Several of them had initially honed their craft as jazz musicians in house bands in local Detroit nightclubs and applied their jazz sensibilities to studio recordings and live performances. Motown's vocalists were largely influenced by other popular recording artists of the day including Nat King Cole, Della Reese, Sarah Vaughn, Etta James, and the Shirelles. Gordy himself was profoundly influenced by pop vocalists, having named Motown's first subsidiary label Tamla for Debbie Reynolds's 1957 hit record “Tammy.” Moreover, Gordy wrote his first song with the intention of it being recorded by singer/actress Doris Day.

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