The culture-shifting sensation that was Motown music began in January 1959, when Berry Gordy Jr. founded Tamla Records in Detroit, Michigan.
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After Gordy incorporated the name "Motown Records" in 1960, the label and its subsidiaries would usher in the careers of a number of legendary artists, including Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Diana Ross, along with decades of soul and R&B classics.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.From its first major hit with Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "Shop Around" in 1960, Motown utilized a prolific "assembly line" approach to song production that Gordy said he adapted from working on the factory lines of Detroit's automotive industry.
At "Hitsville U.S.A.," the small Detroit home that served as the label's studio throughout the 1960s, musicians and songwriters would circle in and out to collaborate on, and produce, hit records at a rapid pace. The company eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1972, which roughly coincided with artists like Wonder and Gaye breaking from the conventional "Motown sound" to produce innovative and influential concept albums.
After nearly three decades of immense commercial success, the label had financial difficulties toward the end of the 1980s, and an era ended when Gordy sold the label to MCA for $61 million in 1988. But the power of the company's timeless music endures.
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In honor of Black History Month, the following is a brief retrospective on Motown's 7 most essential artists and the contributions they've made to music:
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