November 28
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1929
Berry Gordy, the talented founder of Motown Records, was born at Detroit's Harper Hospital. After his Jazz record store in Detroit went bankrupt and he turned to songwriting for R&B acts, Berry Gordy, Jr., a Korean War veteran and former boxer, started Motown Records in 1957. The company’s name was a stylized version of Detroit's traditional nickname, "The Motor City." The headquarters for the new business was prolifically named "Hitsville, U.S.A." and was located at 2648 West Grand Boulevard. By 1973 when Gordy left the company at age 46, he had built the nation's largest African-American-owned entertainment conglomerate. It had an almost unbelievable hit ratio. Indeed, 75% of the songs released under its label made the national Top 40 lists.
Motown mixed elements of blues, gospel, swing and pop with a strong backbeat to create a new dance music that was easily and readily recognizable by music fans throughout the nation. The Motown sound has left a significant and lasting legacy in American music and culture. It radically altered the public's perception of African-American artists and their music, which for years had not been a part of the American mainstream. Whites as well as blacks became fans of Motown's rhythm, originality, and talent. Gordy took it upon himself to turn the raw Detroit talent that he discovered into an array of dazzling artists who transformed pop music forever. Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, the Four Tops, the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, the Contours, Stevie Wonder, the Marvelettes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Diana Ross, and the Jacksons were only some of the performers who Gordy helped to discover and make successful.
For more information see Berry Gordy, To Be Loved: the music, the magic, the memories of Motown: an autobiography, 1995.