We (Still) Need Motown

The magic of Motown reigns as a timeless soundtrack of change heard around the world. Because of Motown, we know that music breaks down barriers, kicks open doors, changes attitudes, creates opportunities, changes lives—and can influence the direction of the nation and the world. Berry Gordy and Company created the soundtrack to hundreds of millions of lives, many of whom have come and gone. But the “spell” of Motown marches on in our souls, our being, our longing for a better life and a better world.

As our nation again finds itself at a crossroads—social upheaval, rancid political discourse, distrust, economic uncertainty, a planet under assault—we need the soothing, graceful, soul-stirring, foot-stomping and mesmerizing beat of Motown.

Arguably, Motown was a cultural bridge in a turbulent era. The 1960s were marked by civil rights marches, racial segregation, and political upheaval. While schools and lunch counters fought over integration, Motown records spun freely in Black and white households alike. The label became an early example of cultural integration: a Black-owned company creating art that mainstream America—regardless of race—could not resist.

Motown didn’t simply provide a soundtrack to the civil rights movement; it normalized Black excellence in the living rooms of white America, softening resistance to social change in a way speeches or protests alone could not.

Magnificent edifices are often born in the ashes of bitter heartbreak and disappointment. After writing the legendary Jackie Wilson’s hit song, Lonely Teardrops--which topped the charts, Berry Gordy, in the company of his life-long best friend, Crooner Smokey Robinson, looked on with dismay at his paycheck of roughly three dollars. Robinson remarked, “for three dollars, you should invest in your own company.” Gordy replied, “that’s not a bad idea.”

Born into an enterprising family, the 29 year-old Gordy approached loved ones and was granted an $800 loan from the family’s trust fund. Like scores of other Black families in the early 20th century, the Gordys had joined the Great Migration north in search of the “promised land.” Detroit’s automobile industry created a robust Black middle class, providing both the wages and the confidence to imagine big dreams.

With the small loan, Gordy launched Motown and drew on the industrial DNA of Detroit. Borrowing from the assembly-line techniques he learned at Ford’s Lincoln Mercury, he designed a model to crank out hits that would fill the airwaves.

Between 1959 and 1972, every Motown hit was recorded in Studio A at the company’s headquarters at. 2648 West Grand Boulevard. Still in existence, it is a rather modest basement room roughly 25×40 feet. It stands as proof that a small space can touch the entire world.

The humble beginnings of this musical production-line artistry wasn’t just efficient; it was reflective of the country’s ongoing evolution. In the same decade that factories were both a source of economic power and racial tension, Motown turned a manufacturing method into cultural empowerment, staking industrial capitalism for Black creative ownership.

From this black creative leadership, Motown touched the world in ways that defy measurement. Today, the Motown Museum features a wall map filled with pins marking visitors from every hamlet around the globe. From nightclubs and basements to schoolyards, cars, town squares and even war zones, Motown’s rhythms crossed oceans and cultures. In the 1960s—an era of worldwide decolonization—young listeners in Lagos, Kingston, or London heard Marvin Gaye or The Supremes and recognized a confident Black modernity that mirrored their own political hopes.

Motown was more than American pop; it was a subtle manifesto of self-determination for newly independent nations and diasporic communities seeking cultural pride. It was pride in beauty was had long been relegated to second-class status.

Its infectious beats also transformed segregated auditoriums into integrated dance halls. As the civil rights movement gained momentum, Motown’s toe-tapping songs rallied spirits, turning house parties into spaces where family, friends and neighbors could dance away the pressures of a still-segregated country. Without saying so directly, The Temptations, Four Tops, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas and many others, through their flawless artistic delivery, signaled that change for the better was afoot.

Motown’s economic impact and empowerment is staggering. Under its more than 40 labels, Motown’s global sales have easily exceeded one billion units. The economic ripple is incalculable: promoters, chauffeurs, seamstresses, tailors, record shops, disc jockeys, ad salesmen, distributors, financiers, insurers, producers, musicians, singers, sound engineers, songwriters, and agents all found work.

In an age when Black entrepreneurs faced systemic barriers to credit and capital, Motown proved that a Black-owned business could dominate a mainstream market and generate generational wealth—from humble family and community capitalization. It is an economic model worthy of graduate-school study—a testament to Black ownership and a challenge to the foe of economic segregation. Contemporary America would do well to emulate this model, not only in the music industry but across multiple disciplines.

Some might see Motown as a cherished relic, but its story remains a living guide. Academic freedom, freedom of speech, civil rights, feminism, armed conflict, the vote, environmental challenges—many of the same conundrums faced by the nation in the 1960s remain today.

Motown still holds a vault of unreleased music by its greatest stars--thousands of songs set to emerge as copyrights expire in the coming decades. Imagine the creativity and dialogue this “new” music will inspire when the world hears it for the first time. Imagine the catalyst it will incite among young people inspired by not only its music but by its messages of excellence, commitment, and dedication.

Like sixty years ago, today is a time of great change and possibility. Detroit, like much of the nation is rebuilding, but much remains to be done. We need Motown’s energy, vision, spirit, and delivery of good times. We need entrepreneurs like Berry Gordy who can turn a few hundred dollars into an empire that inspires the world. We need artists whose choreography and polish uplift rather than divide. We need its magic to inspire a new generation.

We are under no illusions, however. Recreating the series of small miracles and gargantuan leaps that made Motown possible are highly unlikely to reemerge in this day and age. Technology, one friend and foe, has diametrically changed the music business—virtually doing away with studio musicians, copying the “likeness” of vocal talent, and the infusion of social media as a marketing batter-ram.

All said, we still need Motown—not just for nostalgia, but as a living example that cultural production can spark social transformation, empower communities, resonate across borders, and yield enormous economic benefits—for the good of everyone. Motown is not only a cultural treasure, it is a timeless and profound statement of what is possible when the human spirit is unleashed.

--Keenan Sherrard Conigland