music Motown

[AegisReflector 886]

Anybody here a fan of the Motown style of music? In case you don't know what it is, Motown is an American record company that was most prominent in the 60's to early 70's in producing many famous musical artists, such as Michael Jackson/Jackson 5, Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Four Seasons, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, etc. The "Motown Sound" is basically a mix of pop, early disco, do wop, and rock, and it can also be referred to the beats produced by the legendary music group "The Funk Brothers", who produced the majority of instrumentals for many songs for Motown releases in the early days.

 

Motown began to decline in importance by the 1990's, but major artists in that era such as Boyz II Men and Ne-Yo signed on and became hit wonders. Heck, even in 2008, Drake Bell from the show Drake & Josh signed on with Motown even though he has a alternative rock influence. Today, it's beginning to resurface but it's still nowhere near as popular as the 60's and 70's eras.

 

So, Motown is one of my favorite styles of music (I know, I know, Aegis?! The Grunge/Alternative/Progressive Rock guy? Oh please!!!) but nobody seems to ever have grasped on to it's essence whenever I try to talk about it. I will share two of my personal favorite songs from the golden age of Motown.

 

 

You might know this song from those new stupid "hip" JCPenney commercials. Ugh.

 

 

[Music Chart Fan 819]

@@AegisReflector,

 

I enjoy some Motown hits as part of the spectrum of classic hits from the 1960s-1980s that I listen to. Motown was a hit-making factory, especially during the 1960s, with a relative handful of people doing most of the songwriting and a handful of different people performing the backing tracks for the artists on the label. As a result, a "Motown sound" developed which was obviously catchy and successful, although it can be a bit too formulaic if listened to too much at one time.

 

Just FYI, none of Earth, Wind & Fire's hits were on any Motown label - they had their hits during their peak period of success on either Columbia or ARC. Same for The Four Seasons - their peak-period hits were on Vee-Jay, Phillips, or Warner/Curb. Therefore, they probably would not be considered Motown artists. You can find a list of Motown artists here.