
The Story of Motown
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Narrated by:
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Sean Crisden
About this listen
In January 1959, Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and founded the Detroit-based record company that in less than a decade was to become the largest Black-owned business in the United States. It also became one of the most productive and influential producers of popular music anywhere in the world.
The Story of Motown is the story of Berry Gordy's triumph over powerful, established financial interests, entrenched popular taste, bigotry, and racism. By inventing a sound that appealed to Whites as well as Blacks, and that was immediately identifiable to an entire generation of listeners, Gordy demonstrated his genius as a producer; by the sheer force of his will, he demonstrated that a Black man from the urban ghetto could aspire to and conquer the heights of traditional American business, including the movie business. Unfortunately, while doing all of this, he also found new ways to exploit his talented artists and eventually lost many of them to companies that paid them more. The Story of Motown is the story of the rise and fall of one of the most important cultural touchstones in American history.
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- My Life with Marvin Gaye
- By: Jan Gaye
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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On her 17th birthday in 1973, Janice Hunter met Marvin Gaye - the soulful prince of Motown with the seductive liquid voice whose chart-topping, socially conscious album What's Going On made him a superstar two years earlier. Despite a 16-year-age difference and Marvin's marriage to the sister of Berry Gordy, Motown's founder, the star-struck teenager and the emotionally volatile singer began a scorching relationship.
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Answered A Lot of questions and raised even more
- By T. Brunson on 07-22-15
By: Jan Gaye
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Luther
- The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross
- By: Craig Seymour
- Narrated by: David Sadzin
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Take a journey inside the private world of Luther Vandross, one of the world greatest R&B vocalists of all time and a notoriously secretive star, and listen to this audiobook as it chronicles his journey from the projects of New York City's Lower East Side to the top of the charts.
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Perfect title..Life and Longing
- By Tiasdolls on 08-02-18
By: Craig Seymour
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Come and Get These Memories
- The Genius of Holland-Dozier-Holland, Motown’s Incomparable Songwriters
- By: Edward Holland, Brian Holland, Dave Thompson
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly, Rodney Gardiner
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Brian Holland, Edward Holland, and Lamont Dozier, known as Holland-Dozier-Holland or H-D-H, were the greatest songwriting team in American pop music history. Seventy of the songs they wrote reached the Billboard Top 40, with 15 of these reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. No other songwriting team or individual has come close to equaling, let alone surpassing, this record. They’ve been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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Great Listen.
- By A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. on 08-20-22
By: Edward Holland, and others
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My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire
- By: Maurice White, Herb Powell
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The late Grammy-winning founder of the legendary pop/R&B/soul/funk/disco group tells his story and charts the rise of his legendary band in this sincere memoir that captures the heart and soul of an artist whose groundbreaking sound continues to influence music today. With a foreword by David Foster.
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Maurice--Earth, Wind and Fire
- By Linda Ealey on 02-28-17
By: Maurice White, and others
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12 Notes
- On Life and Creativity
- By: Quincy Jones
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Quincy Jones
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Wisdom and musings on creativity and life from one of the world’s most beloved musicians, producers, and mentors, Quincy Jones. 12 Notes is a self-development guide that will affirm that creativity is a calling that can and should be answered, no matter your age or experience.
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I lived these notes with Quincy
- By Thomas Bähler on 04-29-22
By: Quincy Jones
What listeners say about The Story of Motown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-01-23
Worth the listen…
I have to admit the Motown sound was probably the soundtrack of my musical upbringing.
Sure there were other major stars that had hits but “Hitsville” never disappointed no matter who was performing.
Glad that I took this tome on…a great background piece on the man behind the label and the stars that made it special.
Highly recommended !
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- Paul Frandano
- 02-04-23
The Remarkable Rise of Motown Records..
... and the particular genius of high-school dropout and sometime songwriter Berry Gordy, who harvested the little-known talent of Detroit's African-American singers, musicians, and songwriters and, in relatively short order, created Motown, a musical empire, with a distinctive sound, artist stage presence, and a huge crossover audience onto white radio, a key element in Gordy's commercial intent. This is a tale well told, warts and all, that filled a considerable hole in my historical understanding just how Gordy created the background make-out music of my teen years. Fwiw, I bought The Contours, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Four Tops (the last three of which I saw in concert) without knowing a thing about Berry Gordy, whose name was little more than a record label to me. My crowd just loved the music,.and we listened to it as eagerly and we listened to, and watched on TV, the Beatles and Stones. I was a little disappointed the book didn't tell the story of Gordy's sale of Motown Records in 1988, but the "rise, conquer, and fall" story, up to the almost total departure for greener pastures of most of Motown's talent in the late 1960s through the1970s, was for me sufficient.
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- Chijazz
- 04-11-22
Basic highlights
I truly feel that no one will be able to tell Barry Gordy’s story other than Barry Gordy no one can tell you Motown’s story other than Barry Gordy and possibly Smokey Robinson and this book I feel like It gave you some highlights but I feel that a lot of what made Motown what Motown is was is left out
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-09-23
A Brief Music History
Overall informative without a lot of detail. The time lines move very quick and are brief on explanations.
The book just makes me want a comprehensive look at Motown records.
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- Marie
- 11-24-18
Check Your Facts
I know the Motown story incredibly well. The narration was very good, but it is the same old story. What turned me completely off to this book was in two areas, the facts are wrong.
#1 - Sam Cooke did not die in 1953. He died in 1964.
#2 - Mary Wells was referred to as May wells.
Seriously...
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8 people found this helpful
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- rodney kelsey
- 02-14-21
Very in lighting on Motown music
A must listen to on history of Motown business and music well put together good
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-12-24
Informative
I enjoyed the story of Motown , a lot of interesting information. All very special moments in Black History and
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