How Detroit Assembly Lines Changed Music Forever Before he became a legend, Motown founder Berry Gordy worked at a Lincoln-Mercury plant. He loosely modeled the Motown operation on the most prosperous business model he saw around him the assembly lines at the many automotive plants in the region. What did the team of experts at Motown achieve that may have been more difficult for any single individual to accomplish? During this decade, golden years for the organization, Motowns roster included Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, the Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and the Jackson Five. Founded in 1959 by former auto-worker and songwriter Berry Gordy, Jr. in Detroit, Michigan, Motown Records would become the most successful black-owned record label in history. hitType: 'event', spontaneous session environment. Gordy eventually zoomed across the 1960s releasing a flurry of singles that sounded pitch-perfect and guaranteed a sure rush of endorphins. 'Hitsville: The Making of Motown' highlights Berry Gordy's pathbreaking 'assembly line' approach to making musical history. Watch Berry describe how he turned $800 and a small Detroit studio into Motown's first headquarters, and hear about Berry's "assembly-line . He envisioned a process by which a "kid could walk in one door an unknown off the street and come out the other a polished performer". By 1959, Berry Gordy had become known for his songwriting talent, but he had his sights set on something even bigger: owning his own record company. "It was that self sufficiency, and that ownership of the means of the production, if you like, that I think was absolutely essential to its success, and fairly unusual," says Adam White, who wrote Motown: The Sound of Young America with longtime Motown sales chief Barney Ales. Notably, Mary Wells had three Top-10 Pop hits in a row, all written and produced by Smokey Robinson. Gordy was an aspiring songwriter at the time, but with a young family to support, he did what so many musicians have to do, and took a day job. Answer: Gordy got an $800 loan from his family to start his buistness, and the town he was in was known as 'Motor Town eventAction: 'click_ads' Topics could include: Racial tensions and rioting during the civil rights era, The development and decline of the automotive industry. Various sections of the line station have human workers who oversee production. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. By 1964, the classics from The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops and The Temptations were streaming off the Motown assembly-line. }); History of the Assembly Line. "A distributor who handled one hit from a small indie didn't rush to pay that indie unless there was a prospect of another hit coming down the road pretty soon," White adds. Having said that, Motown's ethos is as American as it gets. What attitudes, sayings, or philosophies did he or she have? Have students conduct research on the history of Detroit. Road & Track participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. It had its own in-house songwriters, backing musicians, recording studios, producers, and everything else you'd need to cut a record. Unlike most record companies, Motown was almost completely self sufficient. The new manufacturing process increased . Talent would come in and Gordy would re-work the way the singers walked, talked, danced, and performed. PDF. Generally, production assembly line is partially automated system in which product moves through the process. Miss Powell worked with artists for two hours a day, sweating every detail. Actually, it turned out to be more collaborative than a standard factory. 1 2 3 4 Although 'Hitsville' is a rather positive take on the label's journey, it does address a handful of stock missteps and controversy faced by its bosses. 'Hitsville: The Making of Motown' proves why the Detroit juggernaut stood the test of time to become one of the most essential record labels of all time. The first automated assembly line was introduced by Henry Ford in 1913 in his Highland Park plant. The day would start with a 9am quality control meeting, in which songwriters and producers (sometimes theyd be one and the same) would listen to each others songs and critique them. 3 What was quality control for Motown Records? In the 90s, Sweden hosted the Cheiron pop factory, churning out hits for everyone from Britney and the Backstreet Boys to Robyn and Cline Dion, and launching the careers of songwriters such as Max Martin and Jrgen Elofsson. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. On the business side, he hired a white head of sales, Barney Ales, who hired a team of white salesmen to represent the product at white-owned radio stations. It is rumored that Gordy modeled his hit factory after the Detroit car assembly line that he knew so well: Make a good . Gordy himself was spending more time at Motown's California office while another parallel with Detroit automakers emerged. Finally, we got to hear the multi-tracks of Gaye's What's Going On, Jackson 5's ABC and Stevie Wonder's Superstition. As an irresistible force of social and cultural change, the legendary Motown catalog made its mark on not just the music industry, but society at large. A production line is a manufacturing configuration that features a series of processing steps. He took those methods into the studio, and redefined pop music. let gads_event; Assembly lines are manufacturing systems in which work-in-progress moves from station to station in a sequential fashion. hitType: 'event', What might be difficult or challenging for the group? Make intertextual links among and across texts, including other media (e.g. Its first such No. She helped Motown artists break down the cultural barriers that previously kept Black entertainers out of the American mainstream. Two years later, he founded Tamla records, which later became Motown. He had a drive and personality that was unique," George Mason University history professor Suzanne Smith, author of "Dancing in the Street," told IBD. With a Ford assembly line in mind, Gordy built each hit from conception to concert stage. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "My Girl," "Dancing In The Streets," and "You Can't Hurry Love," are just a few memorable classics off Motown's priceless roster. Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for ELA & Reading, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Fine and Performing Arts, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Music, College and Career Readiness Reading Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 for Literature and Informational Text, College and Career Readiness Writing Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-12, Math and Music: Algebra Featuring Mickey Hart, Segregation and Integration in Asbury Park, LADAMA: Movement, Music, and Community in South America, Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead, CNN Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History, Life Songs: Telling Your Story Through Music, The model that defined production at Motown Records, and how it was influenced by factory assembly lines, The cultural and economic conditions in Detroit, Michigan, and surrounding areas in the 1960s, The contributions of Motown to the popular music of the 1960s. An assembly line is a manufacturing system of mass production in which a finished product is manufactured in a step-by-step process involving interchangeable parts added in a sequential manner as it moves continuously past an arrangement of workers and machines. But mainstream success in America would require extraordinary measures. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. These goods are often made in factories that utilize assembly lines. Then we moved on to the late 60s and songs such as the Temptations' Ball of Confusion. His baritone sax solos feature on the breakthrough hits of Martha and the Vandellas ("Heat Wave", 1963), and The Supremes ("Where Did Our Love Go", 1964). The songwriting team of brothers Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont DozierHolland-Dozier-Hollandformed in 1963, producing hits and helping better define the Motown sound. . It featured a large inventory of jazz records at a time when music fans were more interested in rhythm and blues and rock 'n'roll. But I also knew that when he had to reach for the notes, that's when he produced the best vocals." An assembly line is a manufacturing process with which you can produce an end product faster and with more efficiency. document.querySelector("#ads").addEventListener('click',function(){ This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Henry Ford assembly line did just that it had a movement element that allowed the car to be pulled down the line (rope to start) and in stages of production step by step through the manufacturing process. The information and content are subject to change without notice. If so, who do you think might have assisted them? The reason was workers found the assembly line work boring as they were now doing only one or two task(s) instead of working . The day would start with a 9am "quality control" meeting, in which songwriters and producers (sometimes they'd be one and the same) would listen to each other's songs and critique them. Explain to students that they should imagine that it is the mid-1960s, and Motown has just signed a new group, a hypothetical trio of young women who grew up in the Detroit projects. At the time, he was working at a Ford motor plant, whose assembly line production inspired him to create a record label organized on similar lines, with artists individually honed by producers, followed by a charm school, and of course, "quality control". Before he became a legend, Motown founder Berry Gordy worked at a Lincoln-Mercury plant. Analyze the causes and effects of economic differences among different regions of the United States at selected times in U.S. History. It does not store any personal data. It was a good job, but Gordy was never going to be the type to stay at the company for 30 years and retire with a healthy pension. Motown Records was literally a hit factory and it operated on the same assembly-line principles that guided the automotive plants where hundreds of thousands Detroiters, black and white,. Berry Gordy will probably be one of them.". By then, with 16 tracks available, they'd figured out that they could keep the best takes and by moving the levers of each track up and down while mixing the song put the best bits together to make one solid lead-vocal track. But he received next to nothing in royalties; in one case, a New York publisher refused to pay him. He cultivated a group of experts who, working together, could take unrefined young singers and turn them into hit-makers ready to perform and promote the Motown product: records. Gaye was Motown's sexy crooner, but he wanted to record a protest album. The Motown Record Corporation was one of the most successful record labels of the 1960s and one of the most influential black owned and operated companies in the world. ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); Season 3 Episode 307. The orange colored process indicates the scope of this project. An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which individual parts of a larger product are put together in a specific order. Handout - Maxine Powell 4 Why is Motown important to black history? }) Porsche 996 Classic Club Coupe Goes to Auction, Two JGR Crew Members Suspended for Loose Wheel, Tom Brady Is Part of Jota's Privateer Porsche 963, Coolest Cars of the last 50 Years: The 1960s, Sports Cars That Make Great Daily Drivers in 2023, The Stars of "The Fast & The Furious", Then & Now, Peek Inside the Coolest Sci-Fi Movie Cars, What It's Like to Be a Mechanic in the Daytona 500, The Most Luxurious Cars You Can Buy in 2023, Five Bad Habits That Will Destroy Your DCT, How Detroit Assembly Lines Changed Music Forever. ga('ads.send', { As a result, booking smartly planned tours and turning pop into a production line product worked wonders. Next, divide students into groups of five, with each student representing their assigned persona: Berry Gordy, Maxine Powell, Cholly Atkins, Smokey Robinson, or Maurice King. Never before or since has the pop world been given so much genius in such a short span. Even Simon Cowell could learn a thing or two about creating a hit factory that stands the test of time. Upon completion of this lesson, students will: 1. As one nears the end of the documentary, Motown is shown to be entering the 1970s encountering a rapidly morphing society and a burst of new avenues in music. These professionals would ensure that you receive mass amounts of your product as soon as possible. Most Motown artists didn't write and produce their own material, and often, songs were recorded by a number of artists until the best version was determined. He tried many careersboxing, record store ownership, assembly line worker and a tour in the U. S. Army during the Korean Waruntil he found a niche in the world of entertainment. Pro: Improved Profit. Step 2: Dance Lessons. The Assembly Line. "How could you release that record? Motown's catalogue is still highly relevant today. By that time, Gordy's entertainment empire was the biggest black-owned business in the country, with revenues of nearly $30 million. Interpret a range of media, including songs, images, and text to develop and demonstrate an understanding of a period of time. Play the video of the Motown group the Temptations singing . } How did this person approach his or her responsibilities at Motown? (Note: depending on the size of the class, students may alternate observing and playing roles.). Have students briefly introduce their persona to the rest of their group. The first Motown album by the group smolders with Gladys' soul . The assembly line, however, does have its disadvantages. This activity is to be used after teaching the students that natural resources can be used to make goods. Figure 1. Tesla's CEO said one reason Tesla has failed to reach promised production volumes was due to "excessive automation". The work was taken directly to workers saving them from having to move around wasting valuable time. Is it really possible to create a factory for producing good music? document.querySelector("#adunit").addEventListener('click',function(){ Overcame: Racial prejudice in music industry. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. And so we end up with tracks that are technically "perfect" but lack the soul, groove and magic of Motown recordings that were made in a couple of hours, in a converted garage, 50 years ago, and are still played all over the world. Ownership data provided by Refinitiv and Estimates data provided by FactSet. media-tech companies with hubs around the world. Fordism arose from Henry Ford's decision in 1914 to raise the wages of his autoworkers to $5 for an 8 hour day of work. Motowns artists were also polished and choreographed by the labels Artist Development department, a process that included training in singing, dancing, speaking, and even etiquette. Gordy initially refused to release it because of its political lyrics which focused on the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. The flashpoint of the 60s culture -- the civil rights movement -- the introduction of rock n' roll, and a home in the highly segregated city of Detroit, made Motown's rather honest numbers resonate with its audiences. Create a place where a kid off the street could walk in one door an unknown, go through a process, and come out another door a star.". ", "(The music) wasn't the same," Smith said. Learn how you can make more money with IBD's investing tools, top-performing stock lists, and educational content. Instead, he called it Motown. The Motown staff included songwriters, arrangers, and producers. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. All music is a product of time and place. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Berry Gordy believed in turning negatives into positives. In his 1998 book about R&B and race, Just My Soul Responding, Brian Ward wrote that "Gordy, the most successful Black entrepreneur of his generation and a living embodiment of Black integrationist aspirations, was always reluctant to allow his artists to embrace potentially controversial subjects that may jeopardize their white audience." Machine Gun Motown 1974. Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown over a dispute about royalties in 1968 as well, and while their departures didn't grind the production line to a halt, signs were emerging that it was winding down. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. (Today, we can comp a vocal down to the tiniest word in the middle of a sentence.). The only songwriting team with more modern-era hits to their names are John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Why is it there? The motion of workers is minimized to the extent possible. San Francisco had its "Summer of Love" in 1967, and Detroit was home to what's considered one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in American history. At the time, he was working at a Ford motor plant, whose assembly line production inspired him to create a record label organized on similar lines, with artists individually honed by producers, followed by a charm school, and of course, "quality control". Save over $170 and access 6 weeks of prograde stock research tools for only $49.95! Generally, a production line is a semi-automated system in which products go through a production process. Revolutionized popular music by mainstreaming black music with Motown Records. At the home Gordy had chosen to set up Motown, 2648 West Grand Boulevard, the words "Hitsville, U.S.A." were written above the front window. Videos linked to activities to establish process times, ergonomics, waste analysis, and line balancing improvements. A manufacturing process developed by mechanically moving the parts to the assembly work and moving the semi-finished assembly from work station to work station. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Briefly review the video: 3. Motown, full name Motown Record Corporation, also known as Hitsville, was a recording company founded in January 1959 in Detroit, Michigan, by Berry Gordy, Jr., that went on to become one of the most successful Black-owned companies is one of the most important influential record labels in American history. Nelson George in Where Did Our Love Go? "Fifty years from now, we'll talk about maybe six or seven figures on the business side of popular music. (. Maybe I could do the same thing with music. *Real-time prices by Nasdaq Last Sale. As a member of the Funk Brothers he performed on thousands of Motown recordings from 1960 to . Gordy even established the only in-house finishing school at any American record label. I wanted a place where a kid off the street could walk in one door an unknown and come out another a recording artista star.". Require extraordinary measures make a good Gladys & # x27 ; soul times, ergonomics, waste analysis, producers! Success in America would require extraordinary measures sections of the Motown assembly-line relevant today yet. To their names are John Lennon and Paul McCartney line in mind, built. Factory after the Detroit car assembly line is a manufacturing process with which you make. ' motown assembly line process function ( ) { Overcame: Racial prejudice in music industry by mechanically the., 'UA-67136960-15 ', 'auto ', { as a member of the class, students may alternate and... 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That, Motown 's ethos is as American as it gets written and produced by Smokey Robinson attitudes,,. The use of all the cookies that time, Gordy built each from! Only $ 49.95 it really possible to create a factory for producing good music effects of economic among..., all written and produced by Smokey Robinson first Motown album by the group smolders with &. Hittype: 'event ', 'auto ', what might be difficult or for. Music with Motown records the United States at selected times in U.S. history Estimates data by! Black-Owned business in the category `` other with Gladys & # x27 ; soul, Marvin Gaye the...