daingermouz2020 said:

MotownSubdivision said:

MotownSubdivision said:

In a mainstream music industry dominated by solo acts, could a group like The Temptations (as in a simple singing group) work? I'm not talking about manufactured label products like Fifth Harmony and One Direction who stand as the only groups in the mainstream anyway but a legitimate ensemble of singers; a baritone, bass, soprano, tenor or just a group of good singers.

But the Temptations were a manufactured label product! Granted its original members were
not put together via a contest, but you better believe that Berry Gordy was going to be per-
sonally involved with how the Temptations looked and sounded.

MotownSubdivision said:

^Touche but it wasn't so obvious and Berry had a fair amount of musical knowledge to make the group sound good. They sounded good before actually signing with Motown but they were unpolished which is what Berry provided. Unlike FH and 1D, all the Tempts had raw singing experience before forming together so it's not exactly like Berry found 5 handsome brothers off the street, dressed them in suits, and shoved them into a recording booth; they had a backstory.

I don't know enough about One Direction or the other group to talk cogently about them. I do
know a lot about the Tempts and I still think that when you boil it down to the essentials, they
were a manufactured band strategically put together by a music executive to do one thing: sell
records.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the premise of this thread is related to the one in the Sheila E. thread
where we laud what came prior while criticizing what exists today. But we do so without realizing
that the music industry is historically cyclical - so, where you have one version of a manufactured
boy/male band in the 60s, you've another version in the 10s all founded on one thing: make money.

Berry Gordy wasn't exactly a benefactor of the arts who only wanted to release music that was
exploratory, inventive, seminal, etc. He was a business man too. And compositionally, one could
argue that "Beauty's Only Skin Deep" is just as good/bad as "What Makes You Beautiful."

MotownSubdivision said:

i would say yes, but that's only if they sang about sex on trap hip-hop beats in almost every song, took of thier shirts, cursed a lot, and featured drake and other useless rappers in every other song.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

The Midnighters, 5 Royals, Cadillac ect were all out years before the Tepmts.

The Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Larks, & Sensational Nightingales were before them

Somewhat. My Girl would be titled My Bitch Ass Baby Mama. The groups would go on stage holding their dicks. There would be thong dancers on stage and butt slapping.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

duccichucka said:

MotownSubdivision said:

In a mainstream music industry dominated by solo acts, could a group like The Temptations (as in a simple singing group) work? I'm not talking about manufactured label products like Fifth Harmony and One Direction who stand as the only groups in the mainstream anyway but a legitimate ensemble of singers; a baritone, bass, soprano, tenor or just a group of good singers.

But the Temptations were a manufactured label product! Granted its original members were
not put together via a contest, but you better believe that Berry Gordy was going to be per-
sonally involved with how the Temptations looked and sounded.

Hell, you can say that about Prince and his artists.... and others as well

Simply no.

They would be compared to the past, and lack to fit todays standards.

mrjun18 said:

2freaky4church1 said:

2freaky4church1 said:

daingermouz2020 said:

I don't think so. Back in the day it seemed you had your groups with your one or two lead singers and everyone else was background singers. These days it seems everyone wants to be the front man or focal point of the group. I could be wrong but I just can't see it today.

Yep. Ultimately, that's what teared the classic five members apart, David Ruffin's wanting to be the STAR. Beside Ruffin's ego, other members egos were bumping against each other also. The era in which theTemps were formed is so different... basically those men had to dance to Barry's / Motowns tune. Most artist of that (manufactured are not) era and before, had to dance to the tune(s) of the record companies. What the Temp were, is word that wasn't used back in the day.... they were a "brand". Which is why those singers could be replaced or interchaneable and the band kept trucking on.

To answer the question posed, nope.

MotownSubdivision said:

I know that the point of record executives making music is to make money and wasn't trying to sat otherwise but just because you're seeking to line your pockets doesn't mean that you can't put out a quality product. The Temptations were eseentially one of the first boy bands as were The Beatles and set the standard for groups like New Edition, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and today's One Direction; that much is true but the dudes could sing; they had the potential to perform and became good at that as well. Berry looked to make money off of them but he took his time in developing them and making sure they were a product worth spending money on; he didn't just grab some attractive non-singing boys off the Detroit streets, put suits on them and throw them out on stage. And yes, Berry was opposed to social messages being in his artists' music (which is why so few of them possessed creative control and those that did had to fight for it) but he wasn't opposed to making songs sound as good as they possibly could. Motown even had a quality control department, something most if any labels today don't have or will likely bother investing into. This thread was inspired from noticing how we have very few groups of any genre within the mainstream and how solo acts seem to be all that's being produced.

So you're saying that a manufactured product that has been carefully put together as opposed
to a manufactured product that has been thrown together ought to be superior to the latter? I
wouldn't necessarily disagree with this.

However, OneDirection, it seems to me, aren't just a bunch of non-singing hacks. I mean, they
have to be able to carry a tune or else they couldn't be taken seriously, right? I just think that
you are being unnecessarily negative towards them (1D) while praising another manufactured
"male group" who was put together similarly but in a different era with standards that you find
more attractive and appealing than today's standards.

duccichucka said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Yep. Using the term pretty loosely, huh?

2freaky4church1 said:

2freaky4church1 said:

Somewhat. My Girl would be titled My Bitch Ass Baby Mama. The groups would go on stage holding their dicks. There would be thong dancers on stage and butt slapping.