Before it was a name, Motown was an idea. A concept. Almost a way of life... the famous Detroit label is also the product of a town. Detroit. An industrial inferno where factories churned out cars night and day. Michigan became a kind of Eldorado for the Black community who left the cotton-fields of the south to toil on the production lines of northern capitalists, in the automobile industry. There, in this motor town, one man would work to build a connection between Blacks and whites. This was the idea behind the label that was launched in January 1959: selling Black music to white audiences. Segregation was not only to be found in the public spaces and apparatus of American society. It was also found at the heart of music production. Berry Gordy bet on overcoming the barrier and built (in the true sense of the term) soul and rhythm’n’blues songs with a pop spirit. The soul was Black, the salesmanship white. To achieve this, his music factory was filled with composers who were shut in from morning to night in offices where they would turn out hit after hit after hit - and hand-picked artists who could bring these songs to life. Nothing was left to chance. Minutely choreographed routines; head-to-foot image control; lyrics voided of any political content and solely concerned with teenage preoccupations (I love him, he doesn’t love me; why did you leave me; when will you come back; you are my reason to live, etc.); meticulous production and unbeatable rhythm sections: it all added up to make the Motown sound. This iconic sound, centred around a beat accentuated by handclaps, or - Gordy’s personal weakness - a simple tambourine.
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