Motown

Motown's founder

Motown was and is a record label started by Berry Gordy Jr. sometime in the swinging fifties. Originally based out of Detroit, Michigan, after proto-rappers began mobilizing in the 1970s, the company moved to Los Angeles, California. It was a black record label, in fact, there is a sign on the headquarters of Motown's reading "Fuck yourself, white man. Only black people allowed here." For some reason, this sign was ignored for a while, as Motown allowed whites in sometime in 1967. The label was very successful and had a large roster of black artists such as Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Mary Wells, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Jacksons, and many, many more.

History

Early era

Berry Gordy Jr. was a used car salesmen living in the 1950s. Already, his odds of being rich were stacked against him. Despite being black as well, due to a series of musical epiphanies, including an enlightening moment when he realized that making music was less demeaning than than selling cars. Despite that, when he met Smokey Robinson in the 1950s and became his songwriter, Gordy knew he could try his luck in music. When Smokey became popular, Gordy realized that if he kept writing music, he would be as rich as fuck. As a result, he founded Tamla in the 1959, renaming it Motown the next year as it sounded too white. As you already know, in the 1960s, the label was very successful and had a large roster of black artists such as The Marvelettes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Martha and The Vandellas, The Contours, The Temptations, Mary Wells, The Four Tops, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jr. Walker and the Allstars, the Jacksons, and trillions of others.

Rockwell era

After Michael Jackson left the Jackson 5 in the 1970s to have his extraordinarily influential solo career, Motown lost the main vocals of one of their most lucrative bands, causing a considerable decline in quality. Luckily in the early 1980s, just after the release of Thriller, one man would rope Michael back...for a while, anyways. Rockwell. Rockwell's songwriting skills were shit, being a complete 180 from his father's. As a result, Berry Gordy was not inclined to like his son's music, that was until he heard Michael's vocals. The conversation allegedly went like this:

Berry Gordy: I told you, Rockwell, your...music...is...shitty.

Rockwell: But dad! Just hear this one!

Berry Gordy: Fine. But this is the last time!

Just like much of Rockwell's demo tracks, it was mainly shit. That was until he heard the vocals...

Michael Jackson: ...Somebody's watching me!

Berry Gordy: How in the fucking world did you get Michael Jackson to sing in your shitty song!

Rockwell: He liked it.

Berry Gordy: Fine, I'll invest money in this song. Just one small question, why is the song about paranoia?

Rockwell: He liked that.

Berry Gordy: Ah.

As a result, Rockwell was redeemed, albeit only once, as the vocals by Michael Jackson, and to a lesser extent, Michael's older brother, quickly destroyed any glory that Rockwell could relish in, and after being a one-hit wonder, no one cared about the poor black dude. Well, he wasn't poor, being the son of one of the richest blacks at the time, but let's not talk about that. As a result, from the 1980s onwards, despite having new acts like Lionel Richie, Boyz II Men, and Rick James, Motown just wasn't that influential anymore and by the late 1990s, was absorbed into UMG.

Modern era

For a while, Motown was a subdivision of UMG, purely being used to create clout and spam YouTuber's videos with copyright strikes. However, in 2011, it split from Universal, being headed by Ethiopia Habtemariam, who is indeed Ethiopian. In late 2018, Motown began celebrating its 60th anniversary by spamming over 500 million videos with copyright strikes, a 50% cut from the last year. To modernize, their roster now includes autotuned rappers like Lil Yachty, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, and Migos, all of which are affiliated with DJ Khaled for some reason.