Motown #1s

brianlux said:

Looking at this list of marvelous songs, I find myself yet again rueing what I see as the rise and fall of black music in America. 

When black slaves were brought over from Africa, they began to pick up instruments that were new to their culture and began to incorporate African beats and singing to eventually form ragtime and blues.  Those musics evolved into jazz which itself went through several amazing changes while blues expanded from prison songs and Delta Blues in Chicago electric blues and West Coast blues. 

In 1959 Barry Gordy Jr.  founded Tamla Records which not long after was incorporated to become Mowtown Record Corporation and a new era a great black music evolved.

And then there came rap and hip-hop which took some of it's best influences from Jamaican and African elements which were interesting in of themselves, but then ruined the whole concept with endless repetitions of the same urban themes of sexism, violence and decadence and an over-reliance on sound stolen from other recorded sources ("played" by what Henry Rollins so aptly referred to once as "record player players"). 

I'm thrilled to see that the great music of the Motown era is still getting its due.

dankind said:

brianlux said:

By the way, I'm open to any one challenging me on what I said about hip-hop.  Prove me wrong, please!  I tried to get into hip-hop.  I have a couple of classic hip hop LP's- Wu Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory.  I like some of both records OK but I actually like the album covers more than the music.

Apologies for the late reply, Brian. I grew up worshipping at the altar of Henry Rollins, but that dismissive "record player player" comment is just fucking stupid coming from (primarily) a vocalist/spoken word artist. Seriously, what does he fucking play? His mouth? Best just to keep it shut when something this fucking idiotic is about to pour out of it. It's not apt at all; it's just plain ignorant. I'd like to see him try to DJ--hell, I'd even cue up "Funky Drummer" and "The Big Beat" to give him a head start--and then if he still feels the same way, fine. But that wouldn't happen. What he'd discover is that it's incredibly difficult and takes an intense amount of focus and creativity to keep the party going.

And since it's at least somewhat obvious that the music doesn't really speak to you (or Henry Rollins), I would recommend a book instead of an album or artist/group--specifically, Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. Maybe then, after reading the background of how this culture was created, how it evolved and why it continues to thrive, you'll develop some appreciation of the hustle and the artists who have made and continue to make it their medium. You might even be tempted to check out some of the records mentioned. And with the background the book gives you, maybe, just maybe, you'll hear the music in a whole new light.

If you don't have it in stock and don't want to buy it, I'll lend you my copy.

tempo_n_groove said:

I wonder how many of these songs Phil Spector produced/wrote?

Also I didn't notice any James Brown records?!?

tempo_n_groove said:

dankind said:

tempo_n_groove said:

I wonder how many of these songs Phil Spector produced/wrote?

Also I didn't notice any James Brown records?!?

Mr. Dynamite didn't record anything for Motown. 

King records wasn't part of Motown I take it?

PJ_Soul said:

brianlux said:

Looking at this list of marvelous songs, I find myself yet again rueing what I see as the rise and fall of black music in America. 

When black slaves were brought over from Africa, they began to pick up instruments that were new to their culture and began to incorporate African beats and singing to eventually form ragtime and blues.  Those musics evolved into jazz which itself went through several amazing changes while blues expanded from prison songs and Delta Blues in Chicago electric blues and West Coast blues. 

In 1959 Barry Gordy Jr.  founded Tamla Records which not long after was incorporated to become Mowtown Record Corporation and a new era a great black music evolved.

And then there came rap and hip-hop which took some of it's best influences from Jamaican and African elements which were interesting in of themselves, but then ruined the whole concept with endless repetitions of the same urban themes of sexism, violence and decadence and an over-reliance on sound stolen from other recorded sources ("played" by what Henry Rollins so aptly referred to once as "record player players"). 

I'm thrilled to see that the great music of the Motown era is still getting its due.

Gosh Brian... You must not be aware of all the fantastic new music being made by black people right now. There is a lot that is not rap or hip hop (I personally don't care for either of those genres, with rare exceptions). I know you're aware of Gary Clark Jr. and Ben Harper, and probably Leon Bridges, right? There's also Fantasic Negrito, Andra Day, Moses Sumney, Jacob Banks, Michael Kiwanuka, Trombone Shorty... of course the list goes on and on, full of current black artists that are just amazing, who are blending genres into something new, and renewing well-known genres with their own unique and modern styles.