This episode is about Motown's golden age from 1959 - 1967. It traces the Detroit label's extraordinary rise from cottage industry to mighty record giant before chronicling its fall from pop innocence.
The Motown sound and its incredible flood of 1960s hits unquestionably changed the landscape of pop. With the Supremes, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, the label rewrote the cultural rule book and created THE sound of young America. Ultimately, it was Motown svengali Berry Gordy who cleverly, brilliantly and ruthlessly concocted a formula that appealed as much to Blacks as to Whites, creating bright-eyed assimilationist soul.
As well as celebrating this music, this film also digs beneath the shimmering pop surface to investigate the machinations at work in the Motown camp. Motown's relationship with Chicago's music scene is also investigated. This program unveils an intriguing musical dynamic that existed between these two industrial northern cities in the mid 1960s.
Interviewees include: Mary Wilson, Etta James, Martha Reeves, Jerry Butler and Barney Ales.
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