Motown Sells Out, Too

Company that became a legend by relying on talent has turned to pushing crime

A bittersweet note sounded just before Super Bowl XL, when the old Motown building in downtown Detroit was demolished last month to create a parking lot for sports fans.
The building had sat vacant for more than 30 years, ever since Berry Gordy, founder of the legendary music label, moved his operation to Los Angeles. But that made no difference to music fans, who combed through the rubble to salvage treasures like handwritten notes scribbled during recording sessions by giants like Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye.

Those die-hard fans, along with countless numbers of music lovers, will be saddened to learn that the beloved label, now part of the Universal entertainment empire, traffics in the false notion that criminality somehow confers "realness," credibility and listenability on otherwise marginally talented artists.

Which brings us to the marketing of Penelope Jones, a rapper from St. Louis who is being peddled as Motown's hot new thing.

Longtime music industry veterans started to grumble last week, when press releases began circulating to promote Jones' first CD - and the focus was not on her music, but on her criminal past.

"Born into a family who [sic] has always had one foot firmly planted in the streets, Penelope Jones grew up seeing it all, up close and personal," says the Motown bio. "'I was raised by my mom and my aunts and uncles,' she explains. 'It was chaotic because they were all hustlin' at one time or another.'"

We learn that Jones, a single mother, spent 33 months in federal prison on drug charges. "While hip hop was just a hobby, the drug game had morphed into her career," the bio says.

The two online samples of Jones' music are a letdown, consisting of predictable, unoriginal boasting about drugs, sex, violence and street life. "Penelope relies on her wisdom in and out of the studio," says the bio, but she probably should have relied on some musical training and rehearsal instead.

The Jones phenomenon is all the more troubling in light of Motown's fabled history as a juggernaut of young musical talent. A very short list of the artists who started with the label includes Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Four Tops, the Temptations, the Jackson Five and Diana Ross & the Supremes.

The secret of Motown wasn't just raw singing and dancing ability, although the kids had tons of it. The key was a disciplined pursuit of showbiz excellence.

Gordy hired Maxine Powell, an older woman who owned a finishing school, to teach the young artists how to present themselves in public. A hoofer named Cholly Atkins taught the kids how to move on stage, and a crew of seasoned jazz and blues musicians, the Funk Brothers, filled the pop songs with sly, complex riffs.

The current Motown roster still includes giants like Stevie Wonder, but the label has gone down a different path with Jones. "It's not about promoting negativity. That's not what we do," says Eric Nicks, the A&R man at Motown who handles Jones. "We signed her based on her talent."

I wish I could believe that.

The industry execs who use lawlessness to market hip hop have shown a contempt for actual music talent - the foundation of their business - that is nothing short of breathtaking. And it is they, not a wrecking ball, that will finally reduce the Motown dream to dust.

Originally published on February 17, 2006

Please tell me that it was not the Hitsville USA building that was razed, but some other office building.

I don't think it's Hitsville, and I hope not. About 2-3 months ago, Tom Joyner and J. Anthony Brown did a skecth their about J. being Motowns first tambourine player.

Well, sounds like a wack record and crappy new artist so far.

The point of an artist's story is to not "boast" about crime, but more to reflect on some of the fucked up things that might inspire their writing so that it makes sense to the public.

The building may finally be gone but the label sold out years ago.

vainandy said:

Amen...and amen again

Company that became a legend by relying on talent has turned to pushing crime

Those die-hard fans, along with countless numbers of music lovers, will be saddened to learn that the beloved label, now part of the Universal entertainment empire, traffics in the false notion that criminality somehow confers "realness," credibility and listenability on otherwise marginally talented artists.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Now if that don't just say it all.

How long will it take before a young listening public will have no clue as to what the original Motown was based on?
Sadly, i'm thinking it may be less than a generation away.

Another genre of music jettisoned overboard from a ship blindly careening toward What Is Hip?


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Seriously a lot of labels have been hollow shells of their former selves since Seagram's shook up the industry in 1999.

CinisterCee said:

Aah, drunkards...



...that 'splains it.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

The Cuervo Gold...

Motown Records pretty much dropped dead around 95-96 i was serviced from Motown from 1995-1999. and most of the boxes of product i had recived were not worth it.the big bomb hit when stevie's "conversation peace" was being dist to Dj's as a 3 vinyl Test Pressing and OMFG was i disappointed. so its not so surprising that a Legendary Label like Motown that once stood on its own 2 feet is now a limping shadow of its former self.
[Edited 2/17/06 15:32pm]

Stax said:

Hitsville is still there, it's a State historic site and is going nowhere.

This building was about 10 floors and had been abandoned since the 70's with grafitti and broken windows. It didn't say Motown anywhere on it but there were people trying to make it into a museum but didn't get the financing together.

The beauty of Motown was the business sense of Berry Gordy and the success that turned his record label into an international brand. From his focus groups, to his image building and etiqutte training, the guy just knew how to market his talent. The rest of the story was just the pure talent that he helped grow, I mean the roster alone but Holland, Dozier, Holland, the Funk brothers and Smokey are never mentioned enough.

Truley an inspiration to anyone who ever thought about music as a profession. Think about this label in competition with Atlantic, Stax and the rest of the major labels in the 60's and it's just

Motown sold out in the mid-seventies

RipHer2Shreds said:

The fine Colombian...


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Motown as we knew it began to die somewhere around the late 1980s and really died once Berry Gordy sold the label to Universal. Even then, it was a mere shell of its former self, and the only major act I can remember being on the label at that time was Boyz II Men, and even then their popularity was beginning to wane due to hip hop.

If anything, this just gooes to show how negligent the major record labels have become in creating new artists. They can't actually find any really talented people who can sing, play instruments or write meaningful raps over decent beats, so they have to resort to marketing a persona instead of music. That's why they keep talking about how 50 Cent was shot nine times whenever someone asks about his rap skills or his beats.

et tu, motown...?

PAPAROBBIE said:

And another amen! The think the only things that Motown has going for them are Stevie Wonder (and I couldn't get into the new album) and their back catalog, which they (well, Universal) gut they hell out of!

I can't believe the company that gave the world artists like Marvin Gaye to Stevie Wonder to the Jackson 5 have resulted to this.

RipHer2Shreds said:

It's not that serious....

Stax said:

NO! The world famous HITSVILLE studios are still standing proudly. What was demolished was a 10 storey building that served as headquarters to Motown Records in downtown Detroit in the late sixties, early seventies. There was no recording done in the building.

murph said:

Oh but it is! For the sake of the young people who'll be buying into that garbage, it really is that serious.

Well I think it's time we pointed the finger at the "rock n roll image" of sex, drugs, rock n roll. That shits been glorified since the fucken 1950s.

erykah is on the label...so fuck anything else to do with it, they got the gem of the music world right thurr

badujunkie said:

whuurrrrrd