Pop music in practice James Cockerill: 60's Genre: Motown

Motown is a record label that was founded in Detroit, Michigan by former professional boxer Berry Gordy Junior in 1959 initially under the name Tamla Records but he changed the name of his label to Motown in 1960. This label spawned a multitude of hits from artists that have become household names across the world such as Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye and many more all made their names whist recording at “Hitsville U.S.A.” (Motown’s recording studio).

The sound of Motown is essentially Soul with catchy pop hooks that were performed by a tight-knit group of session musicians that played around the Detroit area in Jazz and blues clubs, these musicians collectively became known as the Funk brothers.

Features of the Music

The “Motown Sound” is a very distinctive style of pop music as most Motown records use 2 drummers that were recorded either simultaneously or one at a time being overdubbed over each other, using unpadded bass drums to create a open sounding thump giving life to a simple 4/4 groove, with a final touch of percussion usually in the form of a tambourine Three Drummers can be heard be heard on Marvin Gaye’s “Heard it through grapevine” which personally I think is a bit extravagance but that certainly didn’t stop it from being Motown’s biggest hit in the 1960’s.

The Bass guitar also featured prominently with James Jamerson being the most note-worthy and influential. Jamerson is widely considered to be the first virtuoso on bass guitar. Bass playing before Jamerson was a mixture of root and fifth notes and repeating patterns, whereas Jamerson’s style of playing was more syncopated, creating a melody to compliment the vocal melody as well as using dissonance. He used tricks that had never really been used such as 16^thnote runs. He did all this using just one finger. People even make the incredibly bold statement that every person who has picked up a bass guitar since has been influenced by James Jamerson, considering that bass players such as Paul McCartney, John Deacon (Queen), John Entwistle (The Who), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Larry Graham (Sly and the family stone) and countless others. With all these bass players spreading his influence, Jamerson, in my opinion, couldn’t have been more influential even if he had invented the bass guitar.

The relationship between Society and the Music

When Berry Gordy’s label started being successful in the early 1960’s it was during the American civil rights movement where the African-American population of America campaigning for equal civil rights to white Americas white citizens as well as equal wages and racial dignity. Also the Vietnam War was in full swing. During the early years of Motown, the songs steered well clear of taking any firm political stance or attitude towards either of this issues as Gordy as a business man who want to make as much money as possible and attacking the government with a group of black artists probably would have made his fledgling label run it self into the ground before it had taken off.

Gordy tightly controlled the music as well as the image of his artists and looking at old photographs and film footage there seems to be a strict uniform for male performers of well kept hair, clean shaven, polished shoes and the wearing of a suit.The women were given lessons in etiquette and I how to use make up. All of this control was part of Gordy’s successful attempt for his artists to cross over and be marketable to the largest group that bought records at that time; the white middle class.