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The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
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NotChoinski
08/05/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
At least this is watchable. In August, PBS usually stops trying. Just hours of 'Yoga n' You' or Suze Orman. And the purpose is to attract people to donate?
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stoprobbers
08/05/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
Did you guys see the part where Hall from Hall & Oates did "My Girl" with the remaining Temptations at an award show, fulfilling a lifelong dream? It was adorable, and I really don't ever think Hall & Oates is in any way adorable.
I watched this while I was unpacking from my move to my new apartment (it's been running late at night since Sunday, actually). I'm still unpacking. I thought the infomercial format was annoying, but the performances were great. HOWEVER: VH1Soul (one of the 140's for most comcast cable, I think) has been running a series of soul documentaries nonstop since about mid-July, and they're FANTASTIC. I keep catching the Sam Cooke documentary, immeidately followed by the Barry Gordy doc. The Barry Gordy one is EXCELLENT, almost as good as a straight Motown doc would be.
God, I love Motown.
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♥AntiSocialSocialite♥
08/05/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
Tammi Terrell is AMAZING! She died at 24, which is sad, because she surely would have gone on to accomplish so much more.
And everytime I think of David Ruffin THIS scene from The Temptations movie comes to mind... HILARIOUS.
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LaFitzy
08/04/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
We talked extensively about Motown in my History of Rock class last semester (which, contrary to popular belief, was actually very challenging) and I have a completely different view of it as of late...
Berry Gordy was most interested in money and accomplished monetary success by establishing the "polished sound" of Motown. He actually sent many of his artists to a finishing school so they might better appeal to white audiences. (In my opinion, this came at the expense of certain creativity from people like Marvin Gaye, who Gordy didn't allow much production because he sounded too black)
Anyway... Interesting stuff, just thought I'd share.
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voteforme
08/04/09

@LaFitzy: Pop isn't ART, but it's an art form in its own right. For some reason, people have this idea that it's wrong for musicians to want to make money. It's admirable to want to be creative, but the flip side is that, if you're in the music business, you can't act like you're put out by having to act like it's your job, you know?
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bluebears
08/04/09

@LaFitzy: I think you have to cut Berry Gordy a little bit of a break here. I mean this was the 60s we're talking about and he wanted crossover, to get crossover you had to appeal to white audiences. I think you could make a strong argument that this early sort of "white-washing" of the music led to greater popularity which ushered in the 70s funk era and from which followed hip-hop etc...

Berry Gordy was a major asshole though. He treated his artists like shit and he treated his women artists even worse.
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Edited by bluebears at 08/04/09 9:44 PM bluebears was starred bluebears was unstarred

LaFitzy
08/04/09

@voteforme: You make a good point. I was simply trying to express that although Gordy is often given credit for bridging black musicians to white audiences, his main goal was to make money and the social influences that took place as a result were incidental. He also was known not to share much more than the bare minimum with the artists that had made him rich.
In general, artists are held to a high standard and are often expected to simply create art for art's sake with little to no financial incentive.
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stoprobbers
08/05/09

@LaFitzy: Both Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder re-negotiated their contracts with Gordy to allow them to write. The real issue with the Motown recording contracts was that you signed away all rights to your NAME -- so if, for instance, Wonder had left he'd never been able to call himself "Stevie Wonder" ever again. That's the real tyrrany of the Gordy's contracts. Not allowing his artists to write or produce had little to do with them "sounding black" too... that was greed. The more the Motown label did, the more money went in Gordy's pocket.
The finishing school, I think, was actually a good idea. White people in the 1960's were actually afraid of black people still; it's not right, or correct, or fair, but it's the truth. Motown itself did a lot to counteract the popular racist image of black people -- men especially -- as aggressive, violent rapists, something that racists were still actively promoting to counteract the legal rammifications of the Civil Rights Act.
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Notes from the underwhelmed
08/04/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
In other 60's music/heavy eyeliner news, I heard that Mary Weiss (from the Shangri-la's) is planning on releasing a solo album in 2010. Usually such efforts are disappointing, but I have my hopes up.
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Notes from the underwhelmed
08/04/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
I wish I could find some older footage of this song- but I think this is actually from the same special. It's pretty much made of awesome.
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bluebears
08/04/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
I have this weird thing about Marvin Gaye. His voice is so beautiful to me.
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SunburnedCounsel
08/05/09

@bluebears: it's not a weird thing at all. He is one of the most beautiful men ever. Plus that voice? Almost too much.
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greydragonfly
08/04/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
If they had taxed the use of the word "baby" back then we'd have enough to pay for social security now.
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Cunning_Linguist
08/04/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
Tracie, I feel the same way about the wig situation! I want nothing more than to purchase a few really great quality wigs because I would totally wear them out to bars and OWN that shit.
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Penny
08/04/09

In reply to The Sound & Style Of Early Motown
Fuck! Are they running this again? I LOVE Motown.
My favorite....
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Notes from the underwhelmed
08/04/09

@Penny: No way! Mine too! My mom and I used to sing it (with all the choreography) in the kitchen while she made dinner.
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Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith
07/07/09

In reply to Michael's Burial Place Unknown; Justin Timberlake Writing A Book
I feel awkward thinking it, let alone mentioning it, but MJ's children are stunning!
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LaComtesse
07/07/09

In reply to Michael's Burial Place Unknown; Justin Timberlake Writing A Book
The only thing that could make the Obamas' statement to Fallon better would be the addition of the word "douchebag," for example, ""Didn't you get the memo, douchebag?" or "Douchebag, this is a Bar-B-Q." or perhaps "Maybe loosen your tie. You look like you're a douchebag."
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BlondeGoddess
07/07/09

In reply to Michael's Burial Place Unknown; Justin Timberlake Writing A Book
In other news: Justin Timberlake wants to write a memoir about golf?! Sounds like the lamest thing ever.
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Crackers In Bed
07/07/09

In reply to Michael's Burial Place Unknown; Justin Timberlake Writing A Book
why did both Diana Ross and Elizabeth Taylor feel the need to repeatedly say "the Staples Center" when they could have easily said "his memorial"? don't know why this irks me so much, but it just feels like cheap product placement.
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emily.jayne
07/07/09

In reply to Michael's Burial Place Unknown; Justin Timberlake Writing A Book
The cost of MJ's memorial kind of angers me. A lot. I teach in LA, and there have been literally THOUSANDS of teachers laid off for the upcoming schoolyear because we're sooo broke. I read today that this memorial costs Los Angeles the equivalent of 80 LAUSD annual teachers' salaries. That is fucked on every level.
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PrarieMuffin
07/07/09

@emily.jayne: I was trying to withhold some judgment on the situation until I heard whether or not those costs had been covered or would be reimbursed by the family or the organizers,but the fact that the mayor is soliciting donations is not good. Not good at all.

I just hope the fans who came into town for this spent a LOT of money. Like, astronomical sums.
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willwriteforfood
07/07/09

@emily.jayne: I think the city of LA is getting much more back in tax revenue from the fans who bought souvenirs, ate in local restaurants and stayed in local hotels. I live in a small college town with a popular football program and it's estimated that one football weekend alone brings in $12 million in revenue to the city. By comparison, I'm sure LA got millions more than that this week.

Not to denigrate what's going on in California, but I don't think the memorial is making the state's financial situation worse than it already is.
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