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. The artists were expected to look and act the part at all times and at all places. The hard work eventually did pay off as Motown will have forever influenced history, the civil rights movement, and the music industry by catapulting black culture into a primarily white civilization.
Motown records was founded by American songwriter, Berry Gordy, on January 12, 1959 in Detroit, Michigan. Berry borrowed just $800 dollars from his family and started up what would become one of
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Although Motown did not start the civil rights movement or resolve any major problems in America, it definitely drew attention to the movement itself. For the first time in America, black artists were beating white artists in the charts and popularity. It was then that it became a lot harder for white people to justify their hatred towards the black population when they were listening to their music and watching them on tv. Although the lyrics of Motown were not dominated by pro-civil rights imagery, there were several songs such as Aretha Franklin's RESPECT that did help bring some attention to the cause (Motown: It’s True