Articles tagged "motown"

Books Review

The Supremes by Mark Ribowsky

by Mike Garrett

[29.Jul.09] :. Without these players actually telling the story firsthand, it starts to read a bit like a Wikipedia entry.

Recent Book reviews

News

When Motown met Michael

by Brian McCollum [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[30.Jun.09] :. Michael Jackson’s iconic fame in the 1980s came under the watch of Epic Records, an arm of the CBS conglomerate. But his route there began in less glittery circumstances, in a bare room with a...

PopWire

20 Questions Feature

Nona Hendryx

by Christian John Wikane

[7.Jun.09] :. In 1962, Nona Hendryx shared a bill with everyone from Bo Diddley to the Marvelettes. She took some time with PopMatters to talk about Buster Crabbe and her knack for fixing TVs.

20 Questions

Sound Affects

Spectacle: Elvis Costello with Smokey Robinson (Episode 13)

by Zeth Lundy

[25.Feb.09] :. The great Smokey Robinson joins Elvis Costello for the final episode of the first season of Spectacle: Elvis Costello With…, airing tonight at 9pm EST/PST on the Sundance Channel....

Sound Affects

Calling Out Around the World: Motown Turns 50 Feature

Needles in the Haystack

by PopMatters Staff

[30.Jan.09] :. To supplement our list of favorite 25 singles, we offer a quick look at a handful of under-appreciated gems in the Motown catalog.

Calling Out Around the World: Motown Turns 50

Calling Out Around the World: Motown Turns 50 Feature

What It Was Like

by Diane Leach

[30.Jan.09] :. In the early '80s Detroit, Motown was as unquestionable as air. Who didn't like air?

Calling Out Around the World: Motown Turns 50

Yesterday’s Dreams: Motown in the 1980s

by David Camak Pratt

[29.Jan.09] :. The music of Motown's third decade does not quite deserve the close attention that the label's first two decades warrant, but even a cursory look at the label in these years reveals that things weren't all bad.

What’s Going On: Marvin Gaye’s Liberation from the Motown Sound

by Charles Moss

[29.Jan.09] :. When Obie Benson of the Four Tops brought him a song he had co-written with Al Cleveland, Marvin Gaye found something that had reflected the way he had been feeling ever since Tammi Terrell's death -- anger, sadness, and disillusionment about his friend's death and the chaotic world around him.

These Are the Breaks: The Motown Sound’s Influence on Hip-Hop Sampling

by John Bohannon

[28.Jan.09] :. For any influential group in the hip-hop game, specifically in the early 1990s, Motown's stamp of approval and its variety of subsidiaries were undeniably influential.

Twirling the Dial: My Motown Memories

by Bill Gibron

[28.Jan.09] :. For those of us in tune with the sounds of the genre-redefining decade, a transistor radio was the seminal social sidekick. We loved listening to that little mono wonder, its tiny shrill speaker sparking a hundred journeys directly into the center of our mind.

Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead

by Dave Heaton

[27.Jan.09] :. If "I've Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying" could work as a slogan for Motown, the song itself works as both a dance song and a tearjerker.

Manufacturing Motown

by Vince Carducci

[27.Jan.09] :. Like the nameplates on the auto industry's productive output, Motown's headline acts were brand identities under which cultural commodities were sold.

Our 25 Favorite Motown Singles

by PopMatters Staff

[26.Jan.09] :. ...

Dancing in the Street: Our 25 Favorite Motown Singles

by PopMatters Staff

[26.Jan.09] :. From the Four Tops and the Temptations to the Marvelettes and the Velvelettes, we narrow down our favorite singles from the "Sound of Young America" era to 25 indisputable picks.

At Motown vault, the songs live forever

by Brian McCollum [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[16.Jan.09] :. NEW YORK - It’s a plain little room. The size of a small garage, maybe. For Detroit, this is a very important 150 square feet. Housed here, on the fifth floor of an office building 500 miles...

Motown left Detroit in 1972, but its spirit hangs on

by Brian McCollum [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[16.Jan.09] :. DETROIT - The dried ferns that blow across the vacant lot at Woodward and the Fisher Freeway are like little rolling cliches, bits of tumbleweed emphasizing where life used to happen. Motown...

Europe welcomed a brand-new beat

by Ben Edmonds [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[16.Jan.09] :. Motown’s conquest of Detroit and then the United States might have seemed improbable, but Berry Gordy Jr. was hardly finished. At a time when England was exporting even more improbable rock...

Tributes go global to mark Monday’s Motown anniversary

by Brian McCollum [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[12.Jan.09] :. For diehard Motown Records buffs, the label’s upcoming 50th anniversary could be a time to fling around some fun numbers. Figures like the 10 million all-time radio plays for “Baby I...

Motown No. 1’s sound and look good in new boxed set

by Brian McCollum [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[10.Dec.08] :. Fans of Motown have certainly had plenty of compilations, reissues and other treats to sink their ears into over the years. But they’ve never had one quite like this. “Motown: The...

Stevie Wonder promises a fan-pleasing concert tour

by Jim Harrington [Contra Costa Times (MCT)]

[23.Aug.07] :. Stevie Wonder doesn’t need the money, that’s for sure. Impressive bank account statements, however, haven’t kept other rich stars from touring consistently throughout the years....

Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power by Gerald Posner

by Lary Wallace

[5.Mar.03] :. Gordy wasn't running a record company; he was running a factory.