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The story of Motown is also a story of female empowerment. Its finest female talents took opportunities – and risks – to help give women a spotlight.
From singing in Motown’s biggest girl group to earning Oscar nods and becoming a fashion icon, Diana Ross set the template for future stars to follow.
Absorbing and life-affirming, Smokey Robinson’s ‘A Quiet Storm’ is one of the landmark soul albums of its era, and its innovations continue to resonate.
The life of the founder member of the Supremes was filled all too briefly with adulation before it was cut short so sadly.
In the way its music was presented and the universal themes its artists sang of, Motown broke racial barriers to move everyone, no matter their skin colour.
One of the great careers in soul music was launched on Smokey's 18th birthday with an answer record.
The young singer who recorded 'Money (That's What I Want)' went on, with Norman Whitfield, to co-write many of the most indelible songs in Motown history.
Alongside his fellow Funk Brothers, he helped weave the very fabric of Tamla Motown’s imposing and infectious sound.
Co-penned by Berry Gordy and Marv Johnson, ‘Come To Me’ became Motown’s first single, paving the way for the label’s world domination.
Charles Edwin Hatcher on 21 January 1942 in Nashville. He's affectionately remembered by everyone who ever heard or met him as Edwin Starr.
The founder of Motown Records was born in the city he helped make synonymous with soulfulness, Detroit, on 28 November 1929.
On the final Hot 100 of the 1960s, the trio scored the last of their 12 pop No. 1s in less than five and a half years with 'Someday We'll Be Together.'
Late in 1960, the first female star produced by the still-emerging company was making her R&B chart debut with 'Bye Bye Baby.'
Never shy of a little chutzpah, Motown announced that the soon-to-be-solo Diana had discovered the label's new quintet herself.
Only a year after Gladys Knight and the Pips took it to the top of the R&B chart, Marvin made 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' his for keeps.
