SOCIAL IMPACT
Motown encouraged America’s youth, urging them to look beyond racial divides and to simply sing and dance together in a time where the theme of unity was becoming increasingly important. Although the founder of Motown, Berry Gordy, never had the intention of proclaiming a message of black independence and empowerment. The establishment and success of Motown was an intrinsically political act that served as proof to Civil Rights claims that African Americans could be just as independent and successful as whites.
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As author David Brackett explains, if a song was ranked high on the R&B charts, it meant that African American DJs were playing the songs on African American radio stations to a predominantly African American crowd. If a song was high up on the Pop charts, however, it meant that all races were listening to it. This meant that white kids were listening to Motown.
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“Cross over” meant targeting the mainstream audience, which was assumed to be “northern, urban, middle or upper class, and also white.” Berry Gordy was so focused on creating “crossover music” as a means of ensuring high record sales that, as author Gerald Posner discusses, Gordy even attempted to distract attention from the fact that the voices on the popular hits were from African American artists.
Posner notes that, “The Marvelettes’ Please Mr. Postman had only a line drawing of a mailbox on the cover and Bye Bye Baby by Mary Wells showed only a love letter. When these records were released in the early 1960s it was still considered controversial to listen to, let alone buy, black music if one was white. By visibly hiding the fact that the artists where black, the theory was that more white people would be more willing to purchase the records. The video above, The Motown Effect, expertley discusses this controversy and includes more information about the album covers.
Overall, Motown revealed an awakening towards white audiences everywhere. White citizens were finally acknowledging the black population as talednted and independent young individuals. It is important to note that prior to Motown, Detroit was heavily charcterized by its white citizens. With the creation of Motown came the creation of equality in the Motor City.