Originally founded in Detroit, Michigan by Berry Gordy, Jr. as an African American-owned label, Motown and its subsidiaries achieved unprecedented commercial and crossover success in the 1960s and beyond. Its musical style became known as the Motown sound, a genre of soul music that garnered a mainstream pop appeal and whose influence is still widely heard today. Motown produced 79 top-ten records on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1960 and 1969.
Motown remained an independent company until MCA Records bought it in 1988. Between 1993-1999, Motown was purchased by PolyGram, followed by Universal Music Group, which purchased PolyGram.
From 2011 to 2014, Motown became a division of Universal Music’s Island Def Jam Music Group until UMG dissolved Island Def Jam and relocated Motown back to Los Angeles under Capitol Music Group, based in the Capitol Tower. Motown separated from the Capitol Music Group in 2021, becoming a standalone label again.
“I don’t ever balk at being considered a Motown person, because Motown is the greatest musical event that ever happened in the history of music.”
Smokey Robinson