Why Was Berry Gordy Significant in the Development of the American Soul Music Genre?
Why was Berry Gordy significant in the development of the American Soul music genre?
The aim of this essay is to analyse what significance Berry Gordy, the founder of the Tamla record label, had to the American Soul music genre. To accurately analyse this it is important to research and understand how Gordy ran Tamla and why he started the label. All the decisions he made involving Tamla would have an affect on the American Soul music industry because of the huge popularity of Gordy’s music.
Gordy created Tamla in 1959 with a mission statement stating that he aimed to become ‘The sound of young America’ (Ward, 1998. p 161). This is a statement that had great intention; it was music for both black and white people to enjoy, and for many a symbol of the end of segregation. Furthermore, in this statement Gordy opened the soul music genre to all of America, though he did target young people. He may have done this because he had seen the success of country artists such as Johnny Cash with young people throughout America and hoped to imitate this. However, Gordy hoped to be successful with the soul music style that he had started to write in 1957 and 1959, ‘co-writing such hits as Reete Petite, To be Loved and I'll be satisfied for Jackie Wilson, You've got what it takes for Marv Johnson and Money for Barrett Strong.’ (Bowman, para 1)
In 1961 Gordy then created a record label named Motown, a subsidiary of Tamla, which would perform the soul music that Gordy hoped to sell to America. As well as setting up Motown Gordy set up other subsidiaries such as Miracle, Mel-O-Dy, VIP, and Divinity. Ward (1998, p. 260) states that ‘this strategy was primarily designed to protect against the possible failure of individual labels.’ (Ward, 1998) This meant that for example if Divinity collapsed Motown could continue unaffected by the collapse. Furthermore, when the labels made a profit, they could support the other labels that were financially struggling. This led to Motown
The aim of this essay is to analyse what significance Berry Gordy, the founder of the Tamla record label, had to the American Soul music genre. To accurately analyse this it is important to research and understand how Gordy ran Tamla and why he started the label. All the decisions he made involving Tamla would have an affect on the American Soul music industry because of the huge popularity of Gordy’s music.
Gordy created Tamla in 1959 with a mission statement stating that he aimed to become ‘The sound of young America’ (Ward, 1998. p 161). This is a statement that had great intention; it was music for both black and white people to enjoy, and for many a symbol of the end of segregation. Furthermore, in this statement Gordy opened the soul music genre to all of America, though he did target young people. He may have done this because he had seen the success of country artists such as Johnny Cash with young people throughout America and hoped to imitate this. However, Gordy hoped to be successful with the soul music style that he had started to write in 1957 and 1959, ‘co-writing such hits as Reete Petite, To be Loved and I'll be satisfied for Jackie Wilson, You've got what it takes for Marv Johnson and Money for Barrett Strong.’ (Bowman, para 1)
In 1961 Gordy then created a record label named Motown, a subsidiary of Tamla, which would perform the soul music that Gordy hoped to sell to America. As well as setting up Motown Gordy set up other subsidiaries such as Miracle, Mel-O-Dy, VIP, and Divinity. Ward (1998, p. 260) states that ‘this strategy was primarily designed to protect against the possible failure of individual labels.’ (Ward, 1998) This meant that for example if Divinity collapsed Motown could continue unaffected by the collapse. Furthermore, when the labels made a profit, they could support the other labels that were financially struggling. This led to Motown