|
The Good and Bad of Motown Records
by Erika Cox
Motown was a very popular music recording company that helped many young
black music artists start their music careers.
Motown was very
beneficial to the world of Rock and Roll music. The company produced
quality music and contributed to the sounds of Rock and Roll, Pop, and
of course, Soul music.
It was also very beneficial to those who signed
on with the company enabling them to achieve successful careers.
However, Motown seemed to run a cookie cutter factory company. Since
many of their artists were young, controlling their sound, style, and
talent was easy.
Motown seemed to have complete control over their artists and what type of
music and style they promoted. There are those who say
Motown taught
appropriate behavior and professionalism to poor, inner city youths but
that sounds like a stereotype to me.
Why would one think poor, inner city youths need to learn
professionalism and appropriate behavior? There were a good deal of
young, black artists not signed with Motown that acted “appropriate” and
were not subjected to hours of someone teaching them how to look, dress,
talk, and walk.
Also, there were many young, both poor and suburban, white music artists
who were not “taught” how to act professionally or appropriately. In
fact, many times their rebellious and “wild” ways seem to make them all
the more attractive or popular in the music business.
Since I was not born until 1967, I did not have personal experiences
with all the social issues that were going on during the 1960’s and
before but I am well aware of them. So, that leads me to believe that
race issues were such that black artists had to act a certain way to be
accepted in mainstream society and perhaps that is what
Berry Gordy, the
owner of Motown Records, had to consider and what he was trying to
convey.
Mr. Gordy wanted to succeed. He wanted his music recording company to be
successful, and to prove that a black man could run a successful
business, and prove to mainstream society that black artists knew how to
act appropriately and professional. However, it also seemed that he
hindered a lot of his artists’ natural and individual talent and
ability, except for Diana Ross for obvious reasons.
Many of the groups like the
Temptations and the Four Tops, all sounded
alike, looked alike, and danced in similar ways. Also, the
girl groups
looked, sounded, and performed in similar ways.
This type of factory producing artist just seemed to take away from the
individual talent, which I’m sure most of these artists contained. For
example, Florence Ballard had a wonderful voice. Some say her voice was
better than Diana Ross’s
but she was never able to use it, at least not
with Motown. Many of the Motown artists eventually became unhappy with
the restraints of Motown and left the company.
Marvin Gaye was one of Motown’s artists who didn’t appreciate the
artistic constraints and let Gordy know it. He was one artist at Motown
that was able to promote his own sound and style.
Other group members eventually left Motown as well, including David
Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations.
Some artists left because
of control issues and others because of financial reasons. The control
Motown tried to keep over their groups eventually failed because the
artists matured into adulthood and sought greener pastures – less
control over their creativity and talent.
However, although
Motown had its’ issues, like any other recording
company, it served a great purpose helping black young artists get into
the music business and have a successful career or at least the
beginnings of a successful career.
|
|
