Now That's What I Call Motown (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The songs that were written by Motown songwriters during the 60’s & 70’s had so much meaning. They were songs that spoke about true love, current events and the heartache and pains of life experiences. Oh yes, Motown had it going on! Their music became universal music. Many of the soulful tunes crossed over into other markets such as pop, jazz, blues, etc… But just like George Benson said in one of his recordings “Everything Must Change”, and sure enough, he was right about the music.
After giving so many years service and great music to the City of Detroit, Motown moved out and Rap/Hip-Hop moved in. Instead of hearing someone singing My Baby Loves Me or My Girl, you began to hear new sounding lyrics of street experience expressed in rhythms with the mouth, chest, hands, and feet as such had never been heard before.
This new sound called Rap evolved in the early 80’s and took off as a skyrocket in the late 90’s and New Millennium as Hip Hop/Rap. Even today Rap/Hip-Hop music is still a multi-billion dollar genre. Millions of CDs, videos and DVD's are sold each year in the Hip Hop genre of music. And there is no sign that Hip Hop will be slowing down or taking a back seat to anyone anytime soon.
So what happened to the Motown sound…. did it die out? No! The Motown sound will never die out. It will always play a significant part in the hearts of millions who embraced it’s sound back in the early 60’s and continued to pass that sound on to their children throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
Sometimes you just have to move over and let the new kids on the block have a turn in expressing their musical talents, songs and ideas. That’s what Motown did…moved over-not out. And now the Hip Hop artists are not the new kids on the block anymore, for they have taken their position to express themselves musically, just like the rhythm and blues artists took their position to express themselves in the Motown era.
That’s how we’ve gone from Motown to Hip Hop!
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