The end of an era: How leaving Detroit destroyed Motown Records
Robocop, the automotive industry, and endless Tim Robinson quotes; the great city of Detroit has made countless cultural contributions to the wider world, but perhaps its greatest was Motown Records, founded by Detroit local Berry Gordy back in 1959, and rapidly rising to become one of the greatest record labels in American history.
From the very beginning of the Motown story, back when the label was still operating under the Tamla name, a key motivation for Gordy was to amass nationwide hits. Within a few years, in fact, those plans expanded to include world domination, infiltrating the airwaves of the United Kingdom with a little help from his friends, in the form of both The Beatles and Dusty Springfield, who tirelessly championed the Motown sound on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Despite these grandiose, border-defying plans, though, Detroit always remained the de facto home of Motown.
After all, even the label’s name, Motown, was indebted to the surroundings of its native city, being a portmanteau of Motor and town, in tribute to the automotive industry that dominated Detroit during that time. Particularly during those early years, the label released multiple tracks that might as well have been theme tunes for the city, like The Satintones’ forgotten B-side ‘Motor City’.
What’s more, the majority of Motown’s roster during its 1960s golden age hailed from Detroit or the surrounding Michigan area; Gordy had monopolised the local talent pool of virtually all R&B performers, producers, songwriters, and, eventually, rival labels. It might have become a global powerhouse of hits by the mid-1960s, but there was no doubting that the cultural roots of the label were forever tied to Detroit.
Bizarrely, then, by the end of the 1960s, Motown had already moved the core of its operations to the West Coast, abandoning Detroit in favour of the Los Angeles sun. By music industry standards, the move made sense; LA is where the bulk of the music industry during that time was based, and it had no shortage of recording studios, producers, and songwriters ready and rearing to go. On the other hand, leaving Detroit also ripped out the soul of the label.
As well as losing the underdog spirit that drove them back in Detroit, the label’s move to LA drastically reduced its roster, too. While a number of its flagship artists were happy to make the move with Motown, many more weren’t, and subsequently left Motown to stay put in their native surroundings of Detroit. Even the key figures who remained – the likes of Martha Reeves, Gladys Knight, and Diana Ross – witnessed a sharp decline in the quality of their output.
By 1972, Motown had completely shifted to the West Coast, and it is no surprise that its hit records began to dry up around that time. In 1970, when the label was still splitting its time between Detroit and LA, there were seven chart-topping singles released by Motown, as opposed to just two in 1972.
Whereas before they were at the forefront of cutting-edge R&B excellence, Motown’s relocation project saw them bowing down to trends and tending to follow the crowd, save for a few innovative outliers within its ranks – Stevie Wonder being the primary example.
It might have made sense in terms of money, power, and illicit substances, but when Motown moved from its home base of Detroit, it marked the beginning of the label’s slow decline.
