Pop in practise – Motown 1960’s.

• Features of the genre.
• Lyrical content.
• Important artists and albums/singles.
• Artists that have influenced.
• Artists that have been influenced
• The image at the time.
• And the relationship between the genre and society at the time.



The features of this genre are very political. Motown played a huge role in the racial interrogation. The reason African American artist became successful and important was because of the record label ‘Motown’, which remarkably also became the genre name too. The owner who was also African American, Berry Gordy Jr. He founded this label in Detroit, America in 1960, April 14th. Motown, just like funk and soul, made the culture of African Americans to stand for their own beliefs, it was a very cultured genre.



The lyrical content of Motown wasn’t just about politics or culture it was also about growing up and the personal side to some of the artists lives, for example, Cloud nine by The Funk Brothers. In this song they speak of growing up and how hard it was, ‘The childhood part of my life
Wasn't very pretty, see I was born and raised
In the slums of the city’, these lyrics tell us he wasn’t brought up in a good environment and it was a possible struggle for him to get a break there. The political side of the lyrical content involving this genre was very much to do with the culture and the troubles in the world. Marvin Gaye song, ‘what’s going on’, was very representative of this. But not all lyrics were to do with politics and culture there was a fair share of love songs too. Love songs such as ‘my girl’ by Temptations, ‘I don't need no money, fortune or fame. I've got all the riches, baby, one man can claim.
Well, I guess you'll say, what can make me feel this way? My girl’, this was a very important love song of the time.




The funk brothers were a very important band when it comes to motown. The record label motown used the same session musicians for every studio recording because they were snappy and quick at learning fast paced and all other songs, also they always came out with the same motown sound. There were many great and important artists that made a statement in this music, artists such as, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Supremes and Four Tops. The first motown release that made a huge impact on music was, ’Bad girls’ by The Miracles, in 1959.

Elvis Presley was a huge inspiration on this genre, the music and the dancing. I also think the artist Howlin’ Wolf was an influence on the genre of motown, as he was a very influential blues singer. The reason I think these two artists could have had an influence was because of the genres they were known for. Rock n roll and blues are a heavy influence on motown.

Since this genre and since new genres were introduced, such as, funk and soul, new artists were coming along with music that they had made by influence of motown. Marvin Gaye started making RnB records which is a genre that is greatly inspired from motown. Artists such as James Brown and Stevie Wonder were also artists that have been inspired by this music. Girl groups now have some inspiration from girl groups of motown, groups such as sugababes.

The image at the time, for motown, was very clean cut and tidy. Women wore smart dresses and small heels and men wore nice clean cut suits. There was a lot of sparkle also when i came to the image of the females. And artists such as Stevie Wonder wore sunglasses.

The relationship of the genre and society at the time was yet again about culture, standing up for your rights as an African American and that followed onto the genre funk too. I think that a lot of artists wanted to show people that they have come from having hardly anything to becoming known for their music. And I think that by singing and writing songs about this kind of stuff they wanted to send a positive message to all people.

Faine Dovaston.