Motown acts were enjoying a widespread popularity among black/white audiences alike where William “Smokey” Robinson stated “Into the ’60s, I was still not of a frame of mind that we were not only making music, we were making history. But I did recognize the impact because acts were going all over the world at that time. I recognized the bridges that we crossed, the racial problems and the barriers that we broke down with music. I recognized that because I lived it. I would come to the South in the early days of Motown and the audiences would be segregated.
Then they started to get the Motown music and we would go back and the audiences were integrated and the kids were dancing together and holding hands” Thus stating Motown’s cultural impact. The record company specialised in a ‘type’ of soul music it referred to with the trademark “The Motown Sound”, made and crafted with an ear towards pop appeal, Motown Sound typically used tambourines to accentuate the back beat, melodic electric bass-guitar lines, distinct melodic and chord structures, plus a call and response singing technique style that originated in gospel music.
The use of complex arrangements and elaborate melismatic vocal riffs were avoided and Motown producers believed in the principle of “KISS” (Keep it simple, stupid).
Many of Motown’s best-known and popular songs including The Supremes’ early hits were written by many important Motown producers and songwriters, such as William “Smokey” Robinson, Gloria Jones, Frank Wilson, Stevie Wonder, even Gordy himself, etc.
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Motown’s contribution to Music include being the first American music label owned by an African-American and to successfully market black artists to white mainstream audiences, responsible for discovering, mentoring, and perfecting a number of American popular music’s most influential and successful artists, etc. Urged on by one of his other artists, William “Smokey” Robinson, Gordy created the Motown Label as a pop counterpart to Tamla’s R&B aspirations. 1960’s “Shop Around” by Smokey and the Miracles, was the label’s first pop smash where Gordy expanded his stable of mostly-black artists, grooming them to be ‘presentable’ to White America’.
