Topics:The Motown Legacy

Catalog description

Started in 1959 in Detroit by songwriter and then budding entrepreneur Berry Gordy, Motown quickly became dubbed "Hitsville USA," as it served as home to artists like The Supremes, The Temptations, Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, Michael Jackson and the Four Tops, to name a few. Motown literally changed the concept of the record label and redefined the very idea of entrepreneurship in recorded music, serving as core inspiration to artists from The Beatles to Beyonce. Motown's incredible legacy of success served a crucial role in helping to integrate popular music and thereby helped to rewrite the narrative of race and class in America. One of the greatest examples of an artist expanding the boundaries of his art, of his company?s limitations, of the public?s expectations, and subsequently of what it meant to be a pop artist, is the album What?s Going On by Marvin Gaye, issued by Motown in spring 1971. As we narrow our focus to study this album its roots, its creation, the difficulty with its release, its astonishing success students will be introduced to the legacy of Motown Records. Readings, class lectures, guest speakers, video and audio clips will answer the questions, Who was Marvin Gaye? How did he get to a place where felt he needed to create this album? Why was it difficult for him to get the song and the album released? What was Motown doing politically the years before? What was company policy that created an issue around the album content? What did it mean to be an artist and a producer at Motown or not?