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How Did Berry Gordy Influence The Motown And The Civil Rights Movement

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Motown and the Civil Rights Movement Berry Gordy Jr. asked for a $800 loan from his family in order to open Motown Records in January 1959. Soon after Motown Records opened, it began shelling out hit after hit, single after single from popular black artists. Gordy tried other jobs before sticking to songwriting and opening Motown Records. Gordy was born in Detroit on November 28, 1929. He was the 7th of a big family of 8. Gordy showed a strong liking for music at the age of 7 when he began songwriting. His songwriting career was based around the singer Jackie Wilson. Nicknamed “Mr. Excitement”, Wilson had a wide vocal range. In November 1957, Wilson set out on a solo career with a song written by none other than Gordy himself. The song titled “Reet Petite (The Finest Girl You’ll Ever Want To Meet) was written before Berry Gordy established Motown Records. Wilson’s breakthrough didn’t come until November 17, 1958 when “Lonely Teardrops” was released. Yet another Gordy song was a huge hit and climbed to the top of the R&B chart. But Wilson wasn’t the singer Gordy focused on In 1958, Gordy met a local group by the name of The Miracles, in which he would teach song …show more content…

Gordy’s main ambition was to produce the ‘Sound of Young America’, no matter what colour. The label’s releases gained popularity among both white and black Americans alike. From the song R.E.S.P.E.C.T by Aretha Franklin, it was a Civil Rights demand. Motown helped bridge a racial divide. African Americans wanted respect so they sang about it. Even Martin Luther King Jr. was a Motown artist. The label recorded him at the Detroit Freedom March in 1963 and they released it the day of the famous Washington March. Another standout hit that was a political anthem was James Brown’s 1968 hit “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” This hit helped African Americans express their love for their

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Despite this his talent and passion were songwriting. He began his career by writing singles for the singer Jackie Wilson but this did not get him far. It was not until in 1959 that he discovered William “Smokey” Robinson established his company. It was name Motown because it is short for Motor City. 0The 1960’s are the years that Motown bean to establish its place in music of America.

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Motown was a transformative sound that arrived just at the height of the civil rights movement. Such success coming from a black business and black artists forced the rest of America to reexamine their racial prejudices that they still clung to. It seemed that it’s founder, Berry Gordy, knew from the start that Motown was something special when he hung a sign that read “Hitsville USA” above the recording studio’s headquarters. The success was almost instant for most Motown artists with song after song becoming number one hits on major music charts. However, the success was not easy, as it took strenuous amounts of work to mold the artist’s looks and sounds into something that would popularize them among the white population.

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