The city of Detroit in the state of Michigan became the USA’s automobile capital, the Motor City. Black workers from the southern states were amongst those attracted by the promise of jobs in the city’s automobile factories. During the 40’s and 50’s many settled in the city’s East side and brought with them their love of the music that had developed in the South. Hastings Street was the centre of this musical evolution, where Gospel, Blues and Jazz began a new fusion that gave birth to the Motown Sound.
Detroit districts overview map 2009
Source: Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMap.org (Wikimedia Commons)
The Hitsville Building is situated just north-east of the interchange of Highways 94 and 96, at the centre of this plan.
By the late 1950’s, Detroit was one of largest cities in America without a major independent record label. There seems to be no clear historical reason for this, as the city had a wealth of creative talent hidden within the inner-city housing projects waiting to be discovered.
Tamla Records was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. on January 12th 1959. The first recording act to be signed to the label was a group called The Miracles, led by singer, songwriter and producer Smokey Robinson who would later become the vice president of Motown.
During the early years of the company, several members of the Gordy family were involved in the day to day operations, including Berry’s sister Gwen and his late father Berry Gordy Sr. After establishing the company, Berry Gordy Jr. purchased a property at 2648 West Grand Boulevard that would eventually become known as Motown’s Hitsville USA. The house soon contained the recording studio and administrative offices of the label. The recording studio, Studio A, was built in the basement, to facilitate the company’s activities. Motown had a golden era from 1959 to 1969. The creative output of the first ten years was extraordinary, with hit after hit from a group of artists who have become household names around the world.
Motown Records became the major independent label operating in the city during these ten years, giving the company a distinct advantage in the discovery of new talents that were eager for success on the big stage, and the label certainly made full use of this mine of uncut diamonds.
The city of Detroit was an important recording centre for over three decades. The music that came out of the city was often revolutionary, trend-setting and timeless in its appeal. During its heyday, its success could not be duplicated by any other city in America or around the world.
It is breathtaking to explore the richness and depth of such an iconic body of work. The timeless institution known as the “Sound of Young America” is now over sixty years old and has diversified into musical productions, television documentaries, movies, music history courses and multi-media platforms based around the internet.
The legendary Berry Gordy proved to be a multifaceted, creative genius, a visionary who managed to change contemporary music forever by building a tiny record label with a small group of performers drawn largely from the working-class streets of Detroit into an empire that became a global music brand.
He could not have achieved this without a formidable group of people, who came together in Studio A (known by the session musicians as “The Snake Pit”), which Gordy had built in the Hitsville USA building. This group consisted of artists, songwriters, arrangers, session musicians, producers and sound engineers. They are the musical Icons of Motown.
Header Image: Detroit Cityscape (Patricia Drury, Flickr: Wikimedia Commons)
