Re-release of the first book ever published in America about the
legendary Motown Record Company, with a new foreword by legendary music
journalist Greil Marcus!
In January 1959 Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and founded
the Detroit-based record company that in less than a decade was to
become the largest black-owned business in the United States. It also
became one of the most productive and influential producers of popular
music anywhere in the world, mainly by combining the best features of
black and white American popular music.
Even a short list of the recording and performing talent that Gordy
recruited, trained and produced for his company is awesome: Diana Ross,
The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey
Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells.
The Story of Motown is the story of Berry Gordy's triumph over
powerful, established financial interests, entrenched popular taste,
bigotry and racism. By inventing a sound that appealed to whites as well
as blacks, and that was immediately identifiable to an entire generation
of listeners, Gordy demonstrated his genius as a producer; by breaking
the exploitive practice of cover records, he helped black artists
control their own music and share in the proceeds of hits; and by the
sheer force of his will, courage, and intelligence, he demonstrated that
a black man from the urban ghetto could aspire to and conquer the
heights of traditional American business, including the movie business.
Unfortunately, while doing all of this, he also found new ways to
exploit his talented artists and eventually lost many of them to
companies that paid them more.
The Story of Motown is the story of the rise and fall of one of the
most important cultural touchstones in American history
