Quote:
Originally posted by pan6467
I mean CR stations around here play G-N-R, AC/DC, the Ramones and such, but play very little if any Motown. Yet Motown (as a label and sound under Barry Gordy) outsold every other label (except Capitol, I think) in the 60's and was very much considered R&R.
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pan, I've got to disagree with you there. While there was some small amount of music put out by Motown that could be considered rock and roll, most of it was firmly soul, gospel and R&B (rhythm and blues) genres. Of course, in the very early days of R&R, the genre had yet to become fully defined in any real sense, which means that just about anything that was (generally) upbeat and was popular with the kids was considered rocknroll. Case in point, the girl groups of the late 50s and early 60s (ie The Supremes, The Shirelles, etc).
And that is why I included in my initial post the characteristic that rock music (and in particular the genre called "classic" rock) tends to be driven primarily by the guitar (especially the electric version), which is not a characteristic of Motowns at all. Motown was all about the voice(s), and to a lesser extent, the groove. Motown's artists were always great singers, first and foremost. And the music that they recorded (generally written by in house writers as opposed to the artists themeselves) were often little more than vehicles to show off that singing talent. Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. There's a lot of Motown stuff that I thoroughly enjoy. I just dont think it quite qualifies as classic rock.