Preface

Motown pop and southern soul are the two main sources of 1960s Black popular music; James Brown is the benchmark between them.

In this chapter we cover Motown, Stax, and James Brown in a 1960s frame—essentially, mid-1960s Black popular music. Before we enter the music itself, a few points need clarifying so the important issues stay visible. First is race, and the role it plays in what follows. Race may be the most sensitive topic in American culture, so we choose words carefully—no false impressions or wrong signals—especially for someone like me, a white person lecturing on Black music. Some will say a person like me cannot truly understand Black experience, and therefore cannot truly understand what Black music tries to express. That is a matter of judgment; people may hold their own views. But we are fortunate not to have to worry overmuch about that here, because we are watching Black popular-music history from a rock-history standpoint. And it is fair enough to say that rock—at least at first—was aimed mainly at white teenagers. If rock has moments of defeat, one may come as we enter the 1970s—covered in Part Two of the course—when rock and Black popular music grow more separate, as if living in two very different worlds.

In short, this chapter treats 1960s Black popular music. I admit—or declare in advance—that we teach it as part of rock history. I have long argued, and hope some academic friend will take up the suggestion, that what we really need is a textbook of Black popular music from its own center, not Motown, Stax, and figures like James Brown shoehorned into rock history. In our course, from a rock-centered view, they are a side of rock history—or a very interesting part of it. We do not put Black popular music at the center and treat rock, jazz, or country and western as secondary. Putting Black popular music at the center would be a fine thing; such a book would handle this chapter’s material differently from me.

On race in the music industry we already know the 1950s and earlier story: so-called chart segregation, separate and unequal resources. Rhythm and blues was treated as music mainly for Black listeners and never truly given resources and attention equal to mainstream pop aimed mainly at white middle-class listeners. We can see segregation and several sensitive issues in that pattern. On the pop charts some records are covers, some cross over from the R&B charts; among them, some were first sung by Black artists and then covered by white artists. That caused deep resentment among Black singers. It ties closely to the racial problems this country has faced—and to some degree still faces. For students outside the U.S., by “this country” I mean the United States.

Now the chapter focus already mentioned. New Black popular music appears roughly alongside the British Invasion and the mid-1960s American reply, and it has two main sources. One is Motown, the Detroit company founded and owned by Berry Gordy Jr. The label concentrates on Black popular music that can cross over to white listeners; all its marketing aims to secure that crossover. Gordy wants the largest possible audience, so his strategy is to go where the money is—and the money is in white communities. He wants his artists to use that. Many critics treat the push toward white audiences as deeply problematic: it means Gordy and Motown sold out Black authenticity (blackness) to please white listeners. When people make that claim, they often set Motown’s crossover impulse against southern soul—often shorthand for Memphis’s Stax. Relative to Motown, that music is said to keep more Black authenticity.

We will tell the full Stax–Memphis story, and how Atlantic helps distribute the product. But the real question is: is Stax’s music really “Blacker” than Motown’s? You may now see why this section opens with race—it is a crucial consideration. It is also something like a critical reflex: in common understanding, Stax simply sounds Blacker and more loyal to Black cultural roots than Motown. That is an interesting issue and widely discussed in scholarship.

We will also cover James Brown. Whatever you think of him, nobody says he sold out his Black authenticity. In many ways he is a marker of 1960s Black pride and Black identity. At chapter’s end we ask: why does James Brown seem not to compromise for white listeners yet still cross over with extraordinary success, while Motown artists chasing success are said to have compromised for white taste? That is the overview. Next: Motown’s music.