The Story of Motown by Contributor Peter Benjaminson
Re-release of the first book ever published in America about the legendary Motown Record Company, with a new foreword by legendary music journalist Greil Marcus In January 1959 Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and founded the Detroit-based record company that in less than a decade was to become the largest black-owned business in the United States. It also became one of the most productive and influential producers of popular music anywhere in the world, mainly by combining the best features of black and white American popular music. Even a short list of the recording and performing talent that Gordy recruited, trained and produced for his company is awesome: Diana Ross, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells. The Story of Motown is the story of Berry Gordy's triumph over powerful, established financial interests, entrenched popular taste, bigotry and racism. By inventing a sound that appealed to whites as well as blacks, and that was immediately identifiable to an entire generation of listeners, Gordy demonstrated his genius as a producer; by breaking the exploitive practice of cover records, he helped black artists control their own music and share in the proceeds of hits; and by the sheer force of his will, courage, and intelligence, he demonstrated that a black man from the urban ghetto could aspire to and conquer the heights of traditional American business, including the movie business. Unfortunately, while doing all of this, he also found new ways to exploit his talented artists and eventually lost many of them to companies that paid them more. The Story of Motown is the story of the rise and fall of one of the most important cultural touchstones in American history
Peter Benjaminson is the author of Death in the Afternoon: America's Newspaper Giants Struggle for Survival, Secret Police: Inside the New York City Department of Investigation, and The Story of Motown, and is the coathor of Investigative Reporting. He is a former reporter for TheAtlanta Journal-Constitution and the Detroit Free Press. The Lost Supreme's website can be found atwww.thelostsupreme.com>www.thelostsupreme.com
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780394175546 |
| ISBN 10 | 0394175549 |
| Title | The Story of Motown |
| Author | Contributor Peter Benjaminson |
| Series | Evergreen Book; E-736 |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House (NY) |
| Year published | 1979-01-01 |
| Number of pages | 180 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |