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I have read articles and books which essentially say that Motown music has a great influence on American popular music.
However, I still try to understand what is its influence on the music that we hear today, or the music that we have heard since the 1990s.
When I listen to the original Motown hits, I can see that the rhythms are very distinctive and different from today's music. Of course, when you listen to Happy by Pharrell Williams, you can recognize its Motown vibe. But what about other music?
So what do musicians like Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, etc learn from Motown and use them in their own songs?
Could you pls help explain?
Thank you.
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Consider what Motown did in little more than a decade;
Diana Ross & the Supremes, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson & the Jackson 5, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Lionel Richie & the Commodores .. and most of the above had multiple hit albums for Motown.
Even if 'Alicia Keys and Mariah Carey' never consciously learned from the above artists, their trainers sure did.
Also, Motown artists were trained to handle success. This part really perked my ears when I learned it. I think it might be a really important part of developing talent.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Hmmmm
The question is a great one, and RHarv's answer is absolutely appropriate.
For me, it's impossible to know where the influence for what we are hearing now came from. Musically, most of it is a world apart from what came out of Studio B - "on another planet" might better describe some of it...
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fantasyn,
All music builds upon the past, whether immediate past, or distant past. This is actually true with clothing fashions as well.
Other influences that may not be obvious on the surface would be song structure in terms of it's intro verse chorus prechorus bridge sections (not that this is the pattern of Motown songs), overall song length, instrumentation, EQ of the songs themselves, the concept of a studio 'house' band (Funk Brothers) which underlaid countless hits (you have the Muscle Shoals folks down south, and the Wrecking Crew out in La-La-Land) that were slightly after the Motown guys (I think - someone might jump in here and correct this assumption), etc.
Something else that Motown brought to the forefront - more than 4 tracks to work with when mixing down. I think it was Motown that had one of the first 8 track simultaneous recording capabilities anywhere, with ability to pan - (even though much were mono mixes).
If you want a deep answer to this, you could hit up some of the Detroit chapter AES folks. I was in the Detroit section for a couple of years and my favorite meeting was on the main studio floor of the Motown studios and this was the lecture:
"May 2008: Tony Bongiovi of Bongiovi Acoustics spoke at the Motown Historical Museum on the secrets behind the famous “Motown” sound. Tony gave a presentation on the methods that were used to give Motown recordings that unique sound. The methods gave a small midwestern recording studio an advantage over larger more established studios in New York and LA, and allowed Motown to make its mark on music history. The meeting drew a large turnout including former Motown engineers. "
I could also possibly connect you to David Clark, one of the engineers referred to above (not of the Dave Clark 5). Dave co-presented with Tony Bongiovi in that May 2008 meeting - they talked quite a bit about the EQs that were in the rack at Motown. Hit me up with a private message if you want me to make the connection for you.
-Scott
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Again, just taking the tour makes you realize the influence.
Pictures of the studio in use (and the little control room) with more stars than you can imagine, and they were coming in regularly.
I'm pretty sure they had the process covered right down to actually cutting the vinyl .. so they knew exactly how to get the end result. I know they created new Labels at will. That way I Heard It Through the Grapevine could be played twice as often according to the common Radio Playlist rules at the time. If it was two versions on two different labels it could be played twice. Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, and Marvin Gaye all recorded that song within a couple year span.
Marvin Gaye, hired as studio drummer in the beginning, then moved up the ladder.
Diana Ross and the Supremes, Jackson 5, Martha & Vandellas etc etc.
In their day Motown was 'the sound'. And it lasted for quite a span. Abbey Road Studios may have had such a span, but not many others. Funny how close in time the success of these two studios are.
For Comparison Abbey Road has claims to recording the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Hollies, Badfinger .. again pretty powerful in it's day.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Motown is one of my favorite sounds - loved it growing up and love it now. You can still hear it's influence today in artists like Bruno Mars and Adele to name two.
I think the other huge influence that was influenced by Motown was the soul sound out of Muscle Shoals. If you haven't seen it, watch the movie MUSCLE SHOALS - that rhythm section and those players were on more hit records than anyone before or since. Incredible. Great movie too.
Josie
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