Characteristics Behind Motown Music

Motown music was created in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan in the late 1950s. Motown was born when Berry Gordy founded his record company Tamla Records, a branch of which was called Motown. Gordy, an entrepreneur and visionary, helped write and produce many early songs of the type. The company became a big hit in the midwest and eventually all across America. Gordy, being an african-american man in the 1950s, was a huge believer in Civil Rights. He recorded and put out Martin Luther King, Jr's I Have a Dream speech, his Great March to Freedom speech, and his Great March to Washington speech. He believed and hoped that many whites would accept these african-american artists across the nation and that they would look past their race for the
Motown is considered a branch of R&B music. It is very soulful. The music typically consists of drums, woodwinds, guitar and piano. Most all singers are tenors, and the singers avoid riffs most of the time. Motown music is typically in major, with a few exceptions being in minor. Many songs use piano as a main harmony, with horns building off of it. The drum line is never very hard, and it occasionally utilizes tambourines as part of the drum line. It typically follows the KISS principle in terms of music complexity. There are a few techniques used very frequently. The drum and guitar pattern is sometimes an accented 2 and 4, or for the drums on every downbeat. Guitar is rarely syncopated, with the exception of a few songs like “Heatwave” by Martha and the Vandellas. While the vocal is rarely riffed, the piano or guitar sometimes is, with The Temptations “My Girl” and the Four Tops “I Can’t Help Myself” as examples. The songs also follow some unique chord patterns in select songs. Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” follows the Mixolydian pattern of F-Eb-Bb. This pattern is also used in Hey Jude by the Beatles. The vocals are very frequently harmonized with. Bands like the Temptations and the Supremes do it quite often, whether it’s in the form of call-and-response or just vocal oohs and ahhs. Finally, one of the biggest aspects of motown music is the choreography. Again, following the KISS principle, the
The people who made it, those who performed it, and those who listened to it all helped further the development of this musical form. The energy and unique style this form brought to the music world changed the way people looked at african-american artists around the world and the way people listened to music. Without Berry Gordy and his music company, many famous and talented artists may not have had their chance to shine and share their talent with the world, leading to a what could have been a very uncultured