In 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up
on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars
from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow
sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor
Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building's
entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted
"Hitsville U.S.A." The kitchen served as the control room, the
garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved
for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon
word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit
the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company's
name was Motown.
Motown cuts through decades of unsubstantiated rumors and
speculation to tell the true behind-the-scenes narrative of
America's most exciting musical dynasty. It follows the company and
its amazing roster of stars from the tumultuous growth years in
Detroit, to the drama and intrigue of Hollywood in the 1970s, to
resurgence in 2002.
Set against the civil rights movement, the decay of America's
northern industrial cities, and the social upheaval of the 1960s,
Motown is a tale of the incredible entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy.
But it also features the moving stories of kids from Detroit's
inner-city projects who achieved remarkable success and then, in
many cases, found themselves fighting the demons that so often come
with stardom--drugs, jealousy, sexual indulgence, greed, and
uncontrollable ambition.
Motown features an extraordinary cast of characters, including
Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and
Stevie Wonder. They are presented as they lived and worked: a clan
of friends, lovers, competitors, and sometimes vicious foes. Motown
reveals how the hopes and dreams of each affected the lives of the
others and illustrates why this singular story is a made-in-America
Greek tragedy, the rise and fall of a supremely talented yet
completely dysfunctional extended family.
Based on numerous original interviews and extensive documentation,
Motown benefits particularly from the thousands of pages of files
crammed into the basement of downtown Detroit's Wayne County
Courthouse. Those court records provide the unofficial--and
hitherto largely untold--history of Motown and its stars, since
almost every relationship between departing singers, songwriters,
producers, and the label ended up in litigation.
From its peaks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Motown
controlled the pop charts and its stars were sought after even by
the Beatles, through the inexorable slide caused by their failure
to handle their stardom, Motown is a riveting and troubling look
inside a music label that provided the unofficial soundtrack to an
entire generation.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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