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May. 21st, 2005
The Sound of Young America
May. 21st, 2005 08:50 pmWith all due respect to the institution that is the Eurovision Song Contest, watchers of BBC1 have just missed an absolute treat across on BBC2, about the rise, fall and rise again of Motown.
The songs of Motown in the 1960's are the best body of pop music ever recorded, in my opinion. There are better bodies of popular music as a wider church (eg the Beatles), and there are other essential purveyors of pop music (eg the Beach Boys), but as pure pop music to uplift and be enjoyed, there is nothing to touch Motown.
The programme I just watched played the cream of it - Reach Out I'll Be There, You Can't Hurry Love, and perhaps best of all Dancing In The Street. If you want to understand the hopes and aspirations of young America in the Kennedy years, the belief that maybe everything would work out fine and the world would learn to love and to enjoy itself, listen to Martha and the Vandellas singing Dancing In The Street - that's it, right there.
To understand soul music, you need to listen to Stax, Atlantic, Chess, and a host of other smaller labels now mainly remembered on Northern Soul compilations. You need to listen to Aretha Franklin, for a start (hell, to be a fulfilled human being, you need to listen to Aretha Franklin). But to understand the pure essence of pop music, a couple of CD's of Motown will get you most of the way there.
The songs of Motown in the 1960's are the best body of pop music ever recorded, in my opinion. There are better bodies of popular music as a wider church (eg the Beatles), and there are other essential purveyors of pop music (eg the Beach Boys), but as pure pop music to uplift and be enjoyed, there is nothing to touch Motown.
The programme I just watched played the cream of it - Reach Out I'll Be There, You Can't Hurry Love, and perhaps best of all Dancing In The Street. If you want to understand the hopes and aspirations of young America in the Kennedy years, the belief that maybe everything would work out fine and the world would learn to love and to enjoy itself, listen to Martha and the Vandellas singing Dancing In The Street - that's it, right there.
To understand soul music, you need to listen to Stax, Atlantic, Chess, and a host of other smaller labels now mainly remembered on Northern Soul compilations. You need to listen to Aretha Franklin, for a start (hell, to be a fulfilled human being, you need to listen to Aretha Franklin). But to understand the pure essence of pop music, a couple of CD's of Motown will get you most of the way there.