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Motown
Motown logo.svg
Parent company Universal Music Group
Founded January 12, 1959; 57 years ago
Founder Berry Gordy, Jr.
Distributor(s) Capitol Music Group
(in the US)
Virgin EMI Records
(in the UK)
Universal Music Group
(worldwide)
Genre Various
Country of origin
United States
Location
New York City
Detroit
Los Angeles
Official website
Official website
Motown is an American record company. It was founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. as Taml
a Records on January 12, 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on
April 14, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan. The name, a combination of motor and town,
has also become a nickname for Detroit. Motown played an important role in the
racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned record label wh
ich achieved significant crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its subsidi
ary labels (including Tamla Motown, the brand used outside the US) were the most
successful proponents of what came to be known as the Motown Sound, a style of
soul music with a distinct pop influence. During the 1960s, Motown achieved spec
tacular success for a small record company: 79 records in the Top Ten of the Bil
lboard Hot 100 record chart between 1960 and 1969.[1]
Gordy relocated Motown to Los Angeles in 1972, and there it remained an independ
ent company until June 28, 1988, when Gordy sold the company to MCA and Boston V
entures (which took over full ownership of Motown in 1991). Motown was then sold
to PolyGram in 1994, before being sold again to MCA Records' successor, Univers
al Music Group, when it acquired PolyGram in 1999.
Motown spent much of the 2000s as a part of the Universal Music subsidiaries Uni
versal Motown and Universal Motown Republic Group, and headquartered in New York
City. From 2011 to 2014, Motown was a part of The Island Def Jam Music Group di
vision of Universal Music.[2][3][4] On April 1, 2014, Universal Music Group anno
unced the dissolution of Island Def Jam; subsequently Motown relocated back to L
os Angeles to operate under the Capitol Music Group. It now operates out of the
landmark Capitol Tower.[5]
Contents [hide]
1
History
1.1
West Grand Boulevard
1.2
Detroit: 1959 1972
1.3
Los Angeles: 1972 1998
1.4
Final years of the Motown label: 1999
1.5
Universal Motown: 2005 2011
1.6
Relaunch: 2011 present
2
Motown Sound
2.1
The Funk Brothers
3
Artist development
4
Motown subsidiary labels
4.1
Major divisions

2005

4.2
4.3
4.3.1
4.3.2
4.3.3
4.3.4
4.3.5
4.4
4.5
5
6
7
8

Secondary R&B labels

Alternative genre labels
Country
Hip hop/rap
Jazz
Rock
Other
Independent labels distributed by Motown
Miscellaneous labels associated with Motown
British (pre-Tamla Motown) labels
See also
References
External links