ELTHAM Music Department Shines Spotlight on the Soulful Sounds of Motown

“All we need is music, sweet music
There'll be music everywhere
There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playing
And dancing in the street.”

The ELTHAM Music department has been awash with the sweet sounds of Soul music this September as we prepared for Artist Spotlight: The Motown Sound, on Thursday 12 September.

Artist Spotlight is an annual concert where we usually highlight the work of a singular artist. In previous years we have shined the spotlight on Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Paul Kelly and Leonard Cohen. This year we are taking a slightly different approach. Rather than focusing on just one artist, we are featuring the work of the stable of performers and songwriters who released music for Motown Records.

Motown was founded in Detroit, Michigan at the end of the 1950s. As the centre of the USA’s automobile manufacturing industry, Detroit was often referred to as Motor City, or Motor Town. Berry Gordy, the record label’s founder, abbreviated this nickname and Motown was born.

Through the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s Motown grew to be the largest and most influential independent record label. It fostered the careers of an impressive cast of performers including Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Lionel Ritchie and The Commodores, The Temptations and The Four Tops.

Motown’s songwriters - including Smokey Robinson, Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, Holland-Dozier-Holland, and Ashford and Simpson -  created the soundtrack to a generation. You probably know more Motown songs than you think: “My Girl”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Superstition”, “Stop! In The Name of Love” – the list goes on and on.    

Our concert showcased the huge talent pool we have at ELTHAM, with singers, and a live band including brass, strings and a rocking rhythm section. Our visual art students have also gotten into the act, creating canvasses and a multimedia display inspired by Motown songs.

To demonstrate how universal Motown’s influence has been, I’ll leave you with a quote from Billy Bragg. Growing up on the outskirts of London in the ‘80s, Bragg’s life couldn’t have been more removed from Detroit’s 1960s African American culture, but when namechecking Motown’s key songwriters, Bragg shows that even he has been touched by the soul of Motown.

“Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make right everything that's wrong.
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you.”

Billy Bragg, “Levi Stubbs’ Tears”