29 dez 1958 ano - Motown company founded by Berry Gordy Jr.

Descrição:

Motown was initially formed under the name
Tamla Records on January 12, 1959 and was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan.

The infectious beat of rhythm and blues and the exuberance of gospel combined to enhance one another in soul music. With the same impassioned performances gospel singers used in praise of God, soul singers conveyed their messages of human love and relationships. In
fact, most of the singers who sang soul were also gospel singers. Their use of melismas added to the melody quick emotional changes ranging from sobbing to shouting and a falsetto vocal quality.These characteristics of black gospel singing also became important qualities in the soul vocal style. The smooth flow of uneven beat subdivisions, the stress on the backbeat, and the energetic horn or sax solos gave soul its gutsy richness. Soul styles varied from one part of the country to another, but all shared a dramatic emotional appeal. Motown is considered separately from the other soul styles because the company intentionally toned down gospel and blues influences to better reach .a large white audience.

Some of that emotional appeal was directly related to the civil rights movement. During the fifties and early sixties, soul music was being written, produced, and per­ formed by people who were very aware that they would not necessarily be welcome to sit in the front of a bus, to attend any school or live in any neighborhood they: wanted, or for that matter to purchase a meal in the very restaurant where their music was played on a jukebox. Soul singers, along with other African American per­ formers, would sometimes see their names on a hotel billboard where they were performing but would have to enter and exit by a back door and were not allowed to stay at the hotel as guests. They would have to stay at hotels that catered only to African Americans, and those, generally, were not nearly as well appointed. Until 1965, the singers knew that they would not even be able to vote in some parts of the South. When Aretha Franklin sang out "Respect" (1967), the message was heard as more than just her desire for her man to respect her. She wanted respect from all of her listeners, and she wanted it for other African Americans, not just herself. Throughout the sixties, James Brown used his tremen­ dous appeal to African Americans to cool racial tensions with positive statements of "black pride" alongside ad­ monishments against violence. His song "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968), for example, stressed the need for hard work to obtain the independence he and his people deserved. He carried his message far, touring in both Korea and South Vietnam to entertain American troops.
Some soul styles, particularly those produced in southern cities such as Memphis or Muscle Shoals, tended to include gritty and gutsy vocals and instru­ mental playing that had much energetic intensity. Northern soul styles from Chicago, Philadelphia, and

Detroit' were often more refined. The reason for that is probably that most soul singers were trained on black gospel music and the styles of singing in the worship services varied from one part of the country to the other. Of the northern styles, the Motown Company in De­ troit stands out as being different from other soul styles in that its music was refined in such a way that it was aimed primarily at white audiences. All of the soul styles had interracial appeal, but Motown particularly tended to stress much more pop-and jazz- influenced, studio­ produced sophistication than other soul styles in which the recordings sounded live. That sophistication cut through the image of the television shows that had African Americans portrayed only as servants and in­ stead displayed them as highly refined people. That im­ age helped some white listeners gain a new and more positive image of African Americans and also helped African American listeners have positive role models for their own lives.
The term soul did not really come into common usage to describe this style of music until the middle-to-late sixties, but the style was developing in the fifties through the work of such singers as Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. Out of their influences came the many artists discovered and recorded by the Atlantic Record Co. in New York, Stax and Volt Records in Memphis, Chess and Vee Jay in Chicago, Motown in Detroit, and Philadelphia International in Philadelphia, to name only the biggest labels. To introduce ourselves to soul there is no better place to begin than with its genius, Ray Charles.

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