Who founded Motown Records?
There is certainly no shortage of record labels that could truthfully be deemed ‘legendary’, but virtually none of them could stand up to the all-encompassing power of Motown. From its inception in 1959, the label proved itself to be nothing short of a hit factory, producing now iconic names like Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and Marvin Gaye. Quickly becoming one of the most profitable labels in the music industry, nobody made hits quite like Motown.
The history of Motown is indefinitely tied to the city of Detroit. In fact, the name ‘Motown’ is a portmanteau of ‘motor’ and ‘town’, owing to Detroit’s nickname as ‘Motor City’ due to its heavy reliance on the automobile industry. Detroit is a city built upon two things: car manufacturing and soul music. Soul music is the sound of defiant joy and became an important aspect of artistic expression for Black Americans during the civil rights movement.
While Motown did not originate soul, it had an inescapable effect on the genre. What Motown was so effective at doing was giving soul tracks a universal appeal, rocketing them into the charts both in the US and on a global scale. Granted, the label was gifted with attracting a wide range of truly incredible artists, but much of that commercial success can be attributed to the label’s founder, Berry Gordy Jr.
Gordy had established Tamla Records in 1959 before founding the Motown Record Corporation the following year. As the head of the Motown label, Gordy has had perhaps the greatest impact on the face of American pop music, spearheading countless global superstars from his offices in Detroit. However, the mayor of Hitsville, USA, is a fairly contentious figure in music.
Ultimately, Gordy was a businessman, he was not in it solely for the love of the music. He has been criticised over the years for taking advantage of young musicians, ripping them off through oppressive contracts and bargain-bin prices for songs that would go on to make him a very rich man. Nevertheless, if it were not for the questionable business practices of Gordy, soul music would have never been as prominent or wide-reaching as it became under Motown.
Impressively, Gordy managed to keep Motown as an independent label throughout its golden age. Even during his relocation of the label to Los Angeles, following the Detroit riots of 1967 and the incorporation of television and film, Gordy managed to resist the pull of major record labels. Inevitably, though, it was eventually purchased by MCA Records in 1988, followed by Polygram in 1993, which was eventually incorporated into Universal Music Group.
Motown is still active to this day, with a roster including Vince Staples, Lil Yachty, and Lakeyah among many others. However, the 94-year-old Gordy has long since retired from the music industry, with his last project being the 2013 Broadway show Motown: The Musical.
How many number ones did Motown produce?
It is difficult to recount every single hit single released by Motown due to how long the album has been running and its constant ability to produce hit songs with apparent ease. During the ‘golden age’ of the label, between 1961 and 1971, Motown was responsible for 110 top ten hits in the US charts. However, not all of those tracks managed to reach the dizzying heights of number one.
Under Gordy’s ownership of the label, before it was sold to MCA, he had managed to produce 53 US number one singles in total. Unsurprisingly, The Supremes had the most of any Motown artist, with 12 number ones on the label, followed by Stevie Wonder, who had eight, and then by Diana Ross, who had six number ones as a solo artist outside of The Supremes.
