Posts by George Garcia24

To all the Motown lovers out there, plus everyone else who appreciates good music—and even those who aren't exactly fans of Motown—I guess I'll just send over some New Year's wishes. Maybe let's hope 2010 turns out to be a decent year for everyone. Wishing you all health, and maybe a bit more money, too.
I guess I'm just sitting here, holding onto those beautiful lyrics from "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."

George Garcia24 said:😲 I guess it’s just wild how you managed to pinpoint Self instead of the rigid producer convictions that were constantly being pushed to define the Motown Sound. Maybe it was just luck, or maybe you actually have an ear for it.
Just to avoid any more misunderstandness, I’m dropping the link here.
So, I was digging through some stuff about Motown—you know, that whole legendary era of music history. It’s pretty wild when you actually stop to think about it. I guess most people just associate it with certain hits, but there’s a lot more going on under the hood. It all started back in Detroit, which makes sense because they really captured that specific energy. Berry Gordy basically built this entire empire from the ground up. It wasn't just a label; it was like a hit factory. They had this very specific way of doing things, that "Sound of Young America" vibe that just seemed to take over everything. You can't talk about this without mentioning The Funk Brothers, too. They were the backbone of almost everything. Without them, I suppose half those classic tracks wouldn't even exist. Then you have the heavy hitters. The Temptations, The Miracles... I mean, how many legends can one label hold? And obviously, Barrett Strong and The Marvelettes were part of that massive wave. It’s kind of crazy to look at the sheer volume of artists who went on to define soul and pop. Even someone like Aretha Franklin or Otis Redding has that overlapping cultural impact, though they weren't strictly Motown products, they occupied the same headspace for listeners back then. I was reading about how much influence they had on the Billboard charts and the Hot 100. It’s hard to imagine a world where Motown wasn't constantly fighting for space and winning. They really changed the game for Black artists in the US, making sure their music reached every corner of the country. Maybe it's a bit of an exaggeration to call it a revolution, but it certainly felt like one. Anyway, just some random thoughts while I was falling down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. It’s interesting stuff, I guess. If you're into music history, it's worth a look. Or maybe not. Depends on your thing.
So, I guess you should just scroll down until you hit The Motown Sound.

I guess you've probably realized by now that the way you go about things tends to freak people out.😢
I mean, most instrumentalists have to put in some serious blood, sweat, and tears to actually reach that level of virtuosity. It’s a grind. But writing about music? Or just sitting back and listening to it? I guess that doesn't really require nearly as much... well, everything else. Maybe it's just easier that way.😍

I guess there isn't much to add here. Maybe. It seems like everything was already covered by Austin Myers96, though I suppose I could ramble on about it if I really wanted to. Not that it changes much. Everything stays pretty much the same regardless.

So, about that whole thing regarding self-recognition and all those negative comments about me and the Motown Sound... frozenranger wrote that, I guess. It was kind of an accident, really. It ended up looking like I was actually talking against myself, which isn't exactly what happened. Maybe just a misunderstanding.
I guess I'll just leave this here... maybe the moderator could take a look and fix this?

George Garcia24 said:😲 I guess it’s just a bit of a mystery how you managed to spot the Self instead of following the stubborn producers who were so dead-set on forcing that specific principle into the Motown Sound. Maybe it was just intuition, or maybe they were just being too loud about their vision. Who knows?
Just to avoid any more misunderstandness, I guess I'll just post the link here.
So, I was looking through some stuff about Motown—you know, that whole legendary label scene—and it’s actually pretty wild when you sit down and think about it. It wasn't just a record company; it was basically an entire ecosystem. They had this very specific way of doing things, almost like a hit factory, which I guess is why they called it "The Sound of Young America." It’s kind of crazy how much influence Berry Gordy had over the whole operation. He really knew how to curate that specific vibe. You look at the roster they had... I mean, you've got The Temptations, The Marvelettes, The Miracles, and Barrett Strong. And then there's the Funk Brothers, who were essentially the engine under the hood for everything. Without them, I don't think half those classics would have even happened. I was thinking about "Really Got a Hold on Me" and how much that defined an era. Or even "Get Ready"—it feels like those tracks are baked into the DNA of American music at this point. It's funny, because people talk about the Beatles or The Rolling Stones all the time, and obviously, they're huge, but the sheer consistency of the Motown hits on the Billboard Hot 100 is something else entirely. Maybe it's just me, but there's something about that polished, soulful production that stays with you. It’s different from the raw grit you might hear from someone like Otis Redding or the soul coming out of Atlantic / Stax, though both are incredible in their own way. Motown had this... I don't know, this meticulousness to it. Everything felt intentional. Like, even the way they transitioned artists from local favorites to global superstars. It was a system. A very successful, very polished system. Anyway, just some random thoughts while I was falling down this Wikipedia rabbit hole.
So, I guess you should just scroll down until you hit The Motown Sound.

I guess you’ve probably realized by now that the way you go about things tends to spook people.😢
I mean, reaching that level of virtuosity most instrumentalists hit... for vocalists, it honestly takes blood, sweat, and tears. It’s a whole different beast. But then again, just writing about music or sitting back and listening to it? That doesn't really require any of that. Not nearly as much, I guess.😍

I guess you were trying to make a point there, but you completely misread the situation—to put it mildly. Look, the Motown producers and artists were definitely stubborn, sure, but it was because they were obsessed with perfection. They’d take a single track and give it to three or four different performers just to see who could nail it, and only the absolute best version would ever see the light of day as a single. I could probably list hundreds of examples if I really wanted to. Take "War," for instance. You know, the one Bruce Springsteen covered later? The Temptations actually recorded it first, but Berry Gordy didn't think they quite hit the mark, so he released it through Edwin Starr instead. The Temptations' version just ended up tucked away as a track on one of their albums. And honestly? They sing it perfectly. Maybe.
The Motown producers and musicians were basically known under that collective nickname, "The Funk Brothers." They eventually got inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a group, though I think a couple of them were actually recognized individually too, I guess.
They actually landed more number one hits than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, and The Beach Boys combined. I mean, if you want to have a fair conversation with me about this, you really ought to sit down and read Alan Slaughter's book, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown." Otherwise, I feel like I’m constantly stuck trying to prove that one plus one equals two, while everyone else is dead set on insisting it equals three.
So, based on that book, Paul Justman actually directed this documentary back in 2003. It’s also called "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," and I think it picked up quite a few awards, if I recall correctly.
A few years back, the musicians who were still around at the time actually got invited to the White House. They were hosted by George W. Bush, along with Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. I guess for any American president to grant an audience to someone who isn't a politician, you basically have to be more than just "great" in your field. You have to be absolutely legendary, I suppose.

frozenranger said:I’m not quite sure what you mean by that. I guess you think the music is stupid, and that the artists and the fans are all just as mindless.
So, I suppose that makes everyone who ever covered a Motown song just as dumb—people like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Ike & Tina Turner, Petula Clark, Bruce Springsteen, The Carpenters, Phil Collins, Cyndi Lauper, Sheena Easton, Soft Cell, Rod Stewart, The Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald, Mariah Carey, Mick Jagger & David Bowie, The Mamas & the Papas, Beyoncé, The Hollies, Kim Wilde, Lauryn Hill, Joan Osborne, Joe Cocker, and so on and so forth.
I think you might have gone a bit overboard there. It makes me wonder, though... will you be getting a warning too, or does that rule only apply to me?
There are even tracks recorded in tribute to the label, like Rod Stewart's version of a "Motown song" or how ABC performed "When Smokey Sings."
By the way, the company's actual official slogan was "The Sound of Young America."

😲 I wonder how you managed to identify Self rather than the stubborn producers who insisted on maintaining that specific principle within The Motown Sound.
Just to avoid any more misunderstandings, I'll leave this link here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motown
just scroll down to The Motown Sound.

You probably realized by now that your approach tends to rattle people.😢
... even if achieving virtuosity for most instrumentalists and vocalists takes "blood, sweat, and tears," writing about music or listening to it doesn't necessarily require the same.😍

frozenranger said:I don't know if you've ever actually heard their slogan, that shortened version of The Motown Sound... maybe?
KISS... you know, keep it simple, stupid. I guess that's the whole idea, isn't it? Maybe we overcomplicate everything. Just an observation, I suppose. 🤣

I don't know what that's supposed to mean to you. Maybe it just means the music is stupid, and the people making it—and the ones listening to it—are pretty stupid too, I guess.
I mean, it’s kind of ridiculous if you think about it. They were all just so clueless. Everyone seemed to be busy churning out covers of Motown songs—it was like a trend or something. You had The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding doing it. Even Ike & Tina Turner, Petula Clark, and Bruce Springsteen. Then there was The Carpenters, Phil Collins, Cyndi Lauper, Sheena Easton, Soft Cell, and Rod Stewart. I guess even The Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald, Mariah Carey, Mick Jagger & David Bowie, The Mamas & the Papas, Beyoncé, The Hollies, Kim Wilde, Lauryn Hill, Joan Osborne, and Joe Cocker were part of that whole thing. It's just... yeah. Maybe they just didn't have any original ideas. Who knows?
I feel like things have gone way beyond the line here. I’m just wondering, will you be getting a warning too, or is this just my lucky day?
They actually recorded a few tribute tracks for the company, like a Rod Stewart version of a Motown song or that one where ABC covered When Smokey Sings. I guess.
The official slogan they used for the company was "The Sound of Young America," I guess.

Austin Myers96 said:Look, George Garcia24, if you just take a second to scroll back through this thread, you'll see that in post #10, the moderator already gave you a heads-up to watch your tone.
That happened before I even stepped into this conversation.
So, whatever reasons led to your ban, you might want to look elsewhere rather than blaming my, as you put it, "sneaky" accusations of chauvinism.
I guess it can be a bit tricky to catch the irony when people communicate like this, but my comment about how certain Jukeboxes tend to favor Stax over Motown was meant to be ironic—plain and simple.
Most people hang out on forums like this just to unwind and swap some quick info.
Not everyone feels the need to lecture the entire world because they don't view an entire Detroit label's discography as the absolute pinnacle of musical history.
Music, much like any other art form, is subject to whatever way a listener perceives it. All the possible top charts, radio stations, and every "Jukebox" out there in the world can't force me to like something if it doesn't click with me.
Personally, I enjoy listening to both Motown and Stax about the same amount.
Is that actually possible?
Am I losing it?

By the way, I never actually read Jukebox; my older brother used to flip through it back in the eighties. During those years, I was still busy exclusively consuming Alan Slaughter.

I ended up getting "trolled" because of three of my posts, and the moderator actually cited your entire text in their response (feel free to check for yourself, if you don't believe me).
Nowhere did I claim that everyone is required to love Motown—if anything, I said it isn't elite music, just standard American taste—but it's a fact that you tried to sneakily pin "chauvinism" on me.
With that, I think I'm done with this back-and-forth for good.

I guess there aren't many takers left for this thread; maybe everyone is just deep in thought, weighing their options for tomorrow's vote.
Since nobody seems interested in tackling the quiz questions, I might as well just drop the answers here.
The Beatles actually recorded these three Motown tracks:😢the song title, the original artists, their peak position on the Hot Hundred, and the year.
1) Please Mr. Postman – performed by the girl group The Marvelettes, hit #1 (1961)
2) Money (That's What I Want) – originally by Barrett Strong, hit #23 (1960)
3) You've Really Got a Hold on Me – by The Miracles, hit #8 (1962)

As for our local singers who covered Motown hits:
1) Gabi Novak, who did a version of that massive 1966 Four Tops hit "Reach Out I'll Be There," which was a #1 smash in both the US and Great Britain.
2) Zdenka Kovačiček, who recorded an excellent version of The Temptations' 1966 track "Get Ready." That one actually fared better in Great Britain, peaking at #10, whereas it only hit #29 here in America.
It’s kind of funny, actually—"Get Ready" was also recorded in 1970 by the white rock group Rare Earth, who also happened to record for Motown, which is a bit of a curiosity, and they actually managed to climb all the way to #4 on Billboard.

Anonymous said:I mean, I know the first one, but only because I looked it up on Google, so that's hardly fair.😁 Should I say?

You're just wonderful. Honestly, my whole intention was just to point people toward that incredible, beautiful music. I'm actually glad you're Googling stuff—don't be shy about it, just write down what you found.
Try a little harder and see if you can find two of our older female singers who each recorded one Motown track.

Grace Fox83 said:Off.

Since we're talking about frustrations...

Today I’m flipping through this massive music encyclopedia at the library (covering everything from the '40s to now), but it's a pretty huge volume.
I skipped ahead to the eighties first.😍

I’m scanning through '80, '81, '82... '85... and nowhere—literally nowhere—do I see any European artists mentioned (and I'm not counting U2 or Madonna)

Like Nena, Scorpions, Falco😍, Laibach🤣 and so on!

See, that’s what gets to me.
If we're trying to build an anthology here, it seems only fair to mention everyone. I honestly don't get why Diana Ross is credited with having more impact on music than someone like Falco or the others I just listed.

There are thousands of music encyclopedias out there, and every single one looks at music through the lens of its own author and whatever market they're being sold in. Besides, encyclopedia writers are just people, after all—they have their own flaws, virtues, and biases. In one particular book, for instance, you won't find Barbra Streisand at all; she was probably just too "pop" or too "evergreen" for that specific writer's taste.
I guess I feel like music should be listened to more, rather than read about or watched via music videos. Maybe it's just me, but I think music was better back when musicians had long hair, instead of nowadays, when they spend endless hours in the gym just to bulk up their bodies. It might have been better if they'd spent that time actually practicing their instruments or honing their craft.
With money being so tight these days, I can just head over to YouTube and find plenty of stuff I missed out on during my younger years. Back then, there was no Internet or those TV appearances by international stars, and records were incredibly expensive—you basically had to buy them through bootleggers. So, you had to be selective in your head about what to buy. Now, on YouTube, I find genuine musical gems, and you even run into some really intelligent comments from regular pop/rock fans that wouldn't embarrass even the toughest rock critics.

Anonymous said:that music is special to me because it has this "something"... I can't quite put my finger on it 😁
I'm not sure if Otis Redding falls under Motown (I'm definitely no expert 🙈) but he's absolutely incredible too 🙏

Grace Fox83 said:I have to disagree with you.

Vienna Calling, Der Kommissar, America, Jeanny, Jung Roemer🙏 then later Titanic, Out of the Dark

He definitely wasn't as famous as his American colleagues, some of whom made much worse music... Why? Language, I guess.😁

Do you Love Motown?
Well, I feel the same way about the stuff I mentioned before, especially Falco
Hopefully that makes sense now.

And most importantly, I don't see Diana having any higher status in our generally shallow American culture than Falco does.
Those who actually do are rare, unfortunately.

I think it's kind of silly to compare two giants like Stax and Motown
Let's just take the best from both. Music is art, after all, and exposing it like this feels almost sacrilegious.😉

Well, I love Falco too, but his life and career were pretty short. I adore him, except for that first hit and Jeanny. But it's just a fact that Diana Ross had an incredibly long career with amazing songs. I know that until a year or two ago, she was third on the all-time charts for number one hits in the USA. Only The Beatles and Elvis Presley had more. I don't know, maybe Madonna, Whitney Houston, or Mariah Carey caught up to her, but quality-wise, their songs aren't as good as what Diana produced.
I know Diana Ross isn't really embraced here in America. Around here, people seem to think a Black singer has to either belt it out like Aretha Franklin or scream like Tina Turner to be considered good.
Diana Ross proves you don't need six octaves to convey emotion through your voice. Her voice is warm, convincing, clear, and flexible; I actually learned English by listening to her, The Supremes, and Frank Sinatra.
As for Stax and Motown, the numbers and the legacy point toward Motown.
It's like saying Goran Ivanišević is a better tennis player than Roger Federer, when Federer won Grand Slams 15 times and Ivanišević only won one (Wimbledon).
The biggest names at Stax were Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, who are very, very weak compared to the heavy hitters at Motown.

Anonymous said:That music is special to me because it has this... "something"... I can't quite define it 😁
I'm not sure if Otis Redding falls under Motown (not that I'm an expert 🙈) but he's absolutely incredible too 🙏

Look, I'm no musician and I don't know a thing about music theory, but I'll try to explain this to myself or maybe to you—though I'd love for someone actually musically educated to jump in and set me straight.
First off, for about 90% of them, Motown records have this specific vibe where they’re both danceable and melodic at the same time. They don't really have those boring filler parts; a Motown track just kind of "grabs" you from the very start right through to the end. There aren't any dull passages, I guess.
Another thing is how they often use tambourines to punch up the rhythm, that amazing bass guitar sound, and a much more frequent use of string instruments than what was usually typical for African-American artists back then. Motown records aren't pure R&B, but they aren't pure pop either; they're more like this wonderful blend of the best parts of both genres.
I was actually just watching "Sister Act" a little bit ago, where W. Goldberg and the nuns do this phenomenal cover of Smokey Robinson's "My Guy." In the original version, the late Mary Wells sang it, and that song hit number one on the American charts back in the spring of 1964.
Then there's that second movie, with that cover of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," which they even do in two different versions. That song, as performed by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, was a moderate hit (hitting number 19 in 1967), but it eventually made its way into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Three years later, Diana Ross took it to number one on Billboard with a completely different arrangement. She was nominated for a Grammy, though she didn't end up winning it.
I've noticed that a lot of new bands and singers have covered that song—which has such beautiful lyrics, by the way—over the last few years, and I'd say they've done it pretty successfully.
So, I suppose the problem with music today isn't necessarily a lack of good vocalists or talented musicians, but rather a crisis in songwriting. The songs themselves are just... bad.
Otis Redding was a Stax performer, but it's interesting that his biggest hit in Europe was actually with Smokey Robinson's "My Girl," which you probably know from The Temptations' repertoire—it was featured in some American movie about ten years ago.

Grace Fox83 said:Why would average American taste be considered good?🤷

Yeah, we’ve all heard about Motown! Diana Ross and The Supremes, Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5, Lionel Richie...

I don't really have a strong opinion on it; quality music is just quality music, whether it comes from Motown or whoever else, I guess.😉

Happy now?😁

Well, I already mentioned that America gave us jazz, swing, musicals, R&B, soul, country, Frank Sinatra, those timeless evergreen tracks—who could even list them all? So, how could their taste be anything but good? I was actually a bit surprised there weren't any comments about Motown, because Motown basically represents the quintessential American sound in the best possible sense. Between 1960 and 1972, that label churned out 110 top-ten hits on the American Hot Hundred, which is pretty massive, and in the States, a song is considered a hit once it breaks into the top forty. That means there were tons of songs sitting somewhere between numbers 11 and 40, too. I mean, surely none of those beautiful tracks touched anyone's heart? Or did nobody bother buying a single CD? This isn't some niche, elite music played by five people in some obscure dive bar; Berry Gordy's whole intention was to get white audiences to embrace African-American music, and honestly, he pulled it off completely.

Kyle Miller4 said:No, Otis is Stax😁

As for this part, it's the first time I'm hearing about it here, I guess.

I wonder if you wrote that with good intentions, or if you were just "awkwardly surprised" and disagreeing? As you guys know, this year marked the 50th anniversary of the label, so there have been tons of new compilations released, along with plenty of stuff coming out from the endless vaults at Motown for the first time. I don't think any critics, ever, have claimed Stax is better than Motown or vice versa. But, I suppose there's a lot to read between the lines. There’s this massive, positive revaluation happening for Motown right now, and unfortunately, Michael Jackson's passing actually contributed to that—given how he and his brothers recorded for Motown (it's pronounced Motown, people, nobody seems to get that 'o' sound right) between 1969 and 1975.
So, here's a little quiz. Does anyone know which three tracks from the Motown hit factory were recorded by perhaps the greatest group of all time, The Beatles?
And also, which two American singers covered two Motown songs.
Whoever guesses correctly—or rather, knows the answer—will get a Motown CD from me. Though, that doesn't apply to Austin Myers96, who subtly accused me of being some kind of nationalistic show-off, while the moderator was being "politically correct" and slapped me with a three-day ban from the Forum.

Grace Fox83 said:I didn't say that🤷
It was just the tone you took once everyone else stayed silent about Motown that bothered me.
And yeah, who knows what today's pop music would look like if it weren't for America; we'll never know.
We owe them thanks for the diversity we have now.

I’m someone who loves European art and culture, so I felt like I had to jump in when it seemed like there was, well, some ungrounded bashing of the European musical legacy.😁

But then again, would Motown even exist if Europe hadn't paved the way for modern music earlier on?

My tone was a bit sharper, I guess, mostly because nobody was saying anything. It was only after I sharpened things up that people actually started chiming in.
You even admitted you're a fan of everything European, so, I don't know, maybe you aren't being totally objective right from the jump. Personally, I'm neither an Americanophile nor a Europhile; I don't really care where the music comes from, just whether it's good or bad. It could come from Cambodia or Japan and be sung in any language for all I care. Same goes for movies or books, I suppose. That makes me more objective than you, arguably. And if I say I prefer Motown over music produced here in the States, am I supposed to get labeled as hating my own country or my fellow Americans, or do I need to justify myself to you? I mean, I'm a local through and through, born and raised.
I've noticed that over the last decade or so, it's become pretty trendy—or "in," as they say these days—to talk down about America. Just like how back in the fifties and sixties people used to blindly worship everything coming out of the US, now it's fashionable to "trash" everything American. Meanwhile, those same people are perfectly happy watching incredibly mediocre movies and reading questionable bestsellers.

Grace Fox83 said:Off.

Since we're talking about frustrations...

I'm sitting here flipping through this massive music encyclopedia at the library today—it covers everything from the '40s to now, so it's a pretty heavy volume.
I flipped straight to the eighties.😍

I’m scanning through '80, '81, '82... '85... and nowhere, absolutely nowhere, am I finding European artists (not counting U2 or Madonna).

Nena, Scorpions, Falco😍, Laibach🤣 and the rest!

See, that's what gets to me.
If we're supposedly building an anthology, it feels wrong not to include everyone. I mean, I really don't get why Diana Ross is considered more influential than someone like Falco or the others mentioned above.

After being banned for three days, I've been dying to finally get back in here and reply. Comparing someone like Falco or Nena to Diana Ross? Honestly, it's like saying some local actress is better than Meryl Streep.
Nena had "99 Luftballons," Falco had "Rock Me Amadeus." Meanwhile, Diana Ross has had this incredibly long career—she’s still filling 20,000-seat arenas at 66—and specifically between 1964 and 1984, she recorded such gems, such absolute classics, that I have to wonder what planet you're living on. Just hop on Wikipedia, or go to YouTube and search for Diana Ross, and you won't just find hundreds, but thousands of her performances and songs. If I tried to list all her hits, I'd lose at least an hour, and I really don't have that kind of time.
First off, the women in her industry bow down to Diana Ross. Her peers. Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, followed by Madonna and Whitney Houston, and even Beyoncé today—they all speak incredibly highly of her, using the kindest words possible.
She’s such a charismatic performer that Billboard actually named her the greatest entertainer of the 20th century back in the early seventies. Just type "Diana Ross I'm Coming Out" or "Boss" from her concert at the Forum in LA into YouTube, and you'll see what true charisma looks like. She didn't need pyrotechnics or twenty backup dancers to put on a show. Or, look up Diana Ross singing "We Shall Overcome"; if that doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you might have a heart of stone.
Diana Ross has opened World Cups, her songs have introduced the Olympic Games, she's performed for kings and queens, collected every award imaginable, and raised five beautiful children.
And yet, you try to put her in the same category as Falco or Nena. That’s just sacrilege.

Austin Myers96 said:I wasn't actually aware of how dirty that Jukebox editorial staff's business was.
My god, look what they did to us...

Because of you, I ended up getting a three-day ban from the Forum, mostly because you went out of your way to label me some kind of chauvinist who hates our neighbors to the east.
But honestly? I’ve never hated Mexicans, nor did I hate what happened back in '91 when newspapers were publishing lists of addresses for people to target.
It’s just a historical fact that during the late sixties in Yugoslavia, there was this one single music magazine dedicated to pop and rock called Jukebox, and it was published in Belgrade. Now I feel bad for even mentioning that city; I didn't have any underlying bias or anything, though apparently, both you and the moderator thought I did. Jukebox didn't come out of Ljubljana, Skopje, or Podgorica—it came out of Belgrade. And I was actually pretty happy we had it, because I guess having one decent magazine is better than having none at all.
Look, Mr. Austin Myers96, you’re an incredibly sharp guy, but I suppose like anyone who's a bit too smart for their own good, you've got a slightly wicked streak in your character. Your musical knowledge is top-tier, I'll give you that, but your memory seems to be... let's say, highly selective.
You know perfectly well that every single issue of Jukebox had deep dives into Atlantic / Stax, yet they almost never featured a Motown artist. And on those rare occasions they did review a Motown record, someone was always complaining that they all sounded exactly the same.
Maybe that someone was you, who knows.

Anonymous said:I think Motown music is great... I don't really listen to any one specific artist, but those big hits everyone knows are definitely 😍 (Marvin Gaye - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You), Let's Get It On, The Temptations - My Girl, Supremes - You Keep Me Hangin' On, Jackson 5 - ABC, I Want You Back...)

Thanks for the positive note. Honestly, I bet plenty of people love Smokey Robinson's "The Tracks of My Tears"—you know, the ones the soldiers sing in that unforgettable scene from Sylvester Stone's *Platoon*. Or "Nowhere to Run," which seems to pop up in movies all the time. Then there's Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," which Cyndi Lauper covered, or the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go," later done by Soft Cell. Or "Heatwave" by Martha and the Vandellas, which Linda Ronstadt covered. And songs like "Baby Love" and "Dancing in the Street" have been covered hundreds of times, not to mention the countless versions of the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love," or Mariah Carey's cover of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There." I could probably list a thousand examples. I mean, no independent label ever had that many hits, or such a massive success rate compared to their singles.
Thanks for the support—just the two of us against the primitive, backward, Hades-style mentality here in America.

Austin Myers96 said:not really.
Americans just seem to have more of a thing for Stax over Motown....

I guess you're partially right, but honestly, the reason is probably because back in the old days in Yugoslavia, there was this one specific music magazine called Jukebox out of Belgrade that basically worshipped Stax while constantly tearing down Motown. And our people tend to be pretty passive listeners—they mostly just stick to whatever is served up to them or what the critics decide to put on a pedestal, without much interest in actually digging deeper themselves..
History has kind of shown that Motown wasn't just more popular than Stax, it was actually more highly regarded by the critics too, I suppose.

Benjamin Thompson66 said:I mean, what hits the top charts in the US is basically the same crap you see on European charts. Motown released a ton of stuff and artists, but honestly, it all fits onto one double compilation. So, not much there. Most of what I actually like from the States isn't even that common over there anyway. And good old Europe totally outdid them when it comes to innovation and how they approach rock music—somewhere around the late 60s, maybe even earlier.
I guess the real legacy of American music is jazz.

I figured my emails would draw some negative criticism. Look, you guys are free to hate on America because of Barack Obama or George W. Bush, but please, leave the music out of it. Debating taste is a lost cause, but Mr. Thompson66, your claim that everything worth hearing from Motown fits on two compilations... well, that just makes you look completely clueless, which is pretty embarrassing.
Just The Supremes alone had about a hundred massive hits, and then you have everyone else like Four Tops, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and many, many others who had even longer careers.
Those Motown records had something nobody else could touch. From the first few bars, you just knew it was that signature Motown sound. Their session musicians (mostly jazz musicians, I think) unfortunately didn't get their due until late in life or even posthumously, which is why they finally made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their bassist, James Jamerson, is hands down the best bassist of all time.
The sound they built? People will probably still be listening to it ten centuries from now.

Grace Fox83 said:I wouldn't agree with that.☕
Why would their taste be anything special if they didn't have access to classical music (though, I guess, Aaron Copland could probably pass for one)🤣?

I don't really get it🤷

It seems like you might be a bit too young for this. For a long time, pop and rock were basically looked down upon in Europe; people treated them like some low-brow genre, and sometimes they were even ignored or outright banned (and that wasn't just happening in socialist countries).
If it weren't for those "average" American consumers, we wouldn't have had guys like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, or Elvis Presley, for instance.
Are you actually suggesting that the average pop-rock listener in Germany or Romania has better taste than someone in the US or maybe here in America?