In 1959, two black-owned record labels, one of which would become hugely successful, made their debut: Sam Cooke's Sar, and Berry Gordy's Motown Records.

** Motown Records founded by Berry Gordy, Jr.

* January 29 – James Jamerson, American bass guitarist for Motown Records ( d. 1983 )

Stax Records created a classic 60's soul music, much grittier and horn-based than Motown.

* Anna Records, early Motown label

Formed in imitative style of the Motown girl group The Supremes, the group members had gradually honed their talents with White for two years previously until they signed contracts with Uni Records.

The search committee considered several cities, including Memphis ( home of Sun Studios and Stax Records ), Detroit ( home of Motown Records ), Cincinnati ( home of King Records ), New York City, and Cleveland.

The Detroit-based Motown Records also contributed to the soul canon in the 1960s, although at the time, the label described itself as a manufacturer of pop music.

Motown Records artists such as Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson contributed to the evolution of soul music, although their recordings were considered more in a pop music vein than those of Redding, Franklin and Carr.

Dominated by Berry Gordy's Motown Records empire, Detroit soul is strongly rhythmic and influenced by gospel music.

Motown Records ' house band was The Funk Brothers.

Originally the term was associated with mid-1960s white artists who performed soul and R & B that was similar to the music released by Motown Records and Stax Records.

The playlists originally consisted of obscure 1960s and early 1970s American soul recordings with an uptempo beat, such as those on Motown Records and more obscure labels such as Okeh Records.

* Apollo ( quintet ), a quintet that recorded for Motown Records in the late 1970s

After transcribing other people's music for a small music publisher, Webb was signed to a songwriting contract with Jobete Music, the publishing arm of Motown Records.

The group would later record for Bell / Arista Records, ABC Records, and Motown Records.

Although the group's demo tape was rejected by Motown, Gordon agreed to manage them and brought them to the attention of Johnny Rivers, who had just started his own label, Soul City Records.

This album, which drew inspiration from both soul and Motown, was produced by Mike Hedges, who had replaced Roger Bechirian as the Undertones ' producer following the 1981 release of Positive Touch.

The remaining trio carried on with new members, and nearly had a hit in 1976 with the LaRue-sung " Love Hangover "; however, Motown issued Diana Ross ' original version shortly after the 5th Dimension's hit the charts, and hers soared to the top of the charts.

Pavitt and Poneman studied earlier independent labels ranging from Motown to SST Records and decided that virtually every successful movement in rock music had a regional basis.

Though social issues had been discussed by R & B artists ranging from groups such as The Impressions and The Temptations, talk of political and social commentary on an album was uncommon in Motown, which advised its artists not to delve fully into discussing serious topics.

What's Going On also provided another first in Motown and R & B music: Gaye and his engineers had composed the album in a song cycle, segueing previous songs into other songs giving the album a more cohesive feel as opposed to R & B albums that traditionally included filler tracks to complete the album.

By 1969, Robinson had voiced his opinion on wanting to retire from the road to focus on raising a family with wife Claudette and their two children, and also focus his duties as Motown's vice president, a job he earned by the mid-1960s after Esther Gordy Edwards had left the position and began mentoring Motown acts on the label's Motortown Revues.

Though they had more chart action with Motown than with previous labels, the group struggled with follow-ups and when their contract was up in 1968, the brothers opted not to renew it.

Following the end of their Motown tenure, the Isley Brothers revived their T-Neck label and began recording and producing their own compositions, something Motown had told them to avoid, due to the label's policy on artists producing their own material.

Despite critical rave reviews of her work, neither of Reeves ' post-Vandellas / Motown recordings produced the same success as they had the decade before.

From 1961 to 1971, Motown had 110 top 10 hits.

A fifth label, Soul, featured Jr. Walker & the All Stars, Jimmy Ruffin, Shorty Long, The Originals, and Gladys Knight & the Pips ( who had found success before joining Motown, as ' The Pips ' on Vee-Jay ).

Motown had established branch offices in both New York City and Los Angeles during the mid-1960s, and by 1969 had begun gradually moving more of its operations to Los Angeles.

Ewart Abner, who had been associated with Motown since the 1960s, became its president in 1973.

Despite losing Holland – Dozier – Holland, Norman Whitfield, and a number of its other hitmakers by 1975, Motown still had a number of successful artists during the 1970s and 1980s, including Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Rick James, Teena Marie, the Dazz Band and DeBarge.

By 1998, Motown had added stars such as 702, Brian McKnight, and Erykah Badu to its roster.

Ironically, Seagram had purchased Motown ’ s former parent MCA in 1995, as such Motown was in effect reunited with many of its MCA corporate siblings ( Seagram had, in fact, hoped to build a media empire around Universal, and started by purchasing PolyGram ).

* 1961 – Motown releases what would be its first # 1 hit, " Please Mr. Postman " by The Marvelettes.

* March 25 – Motown celebrates its 25th anniversary and has the television special Motown 25 during which Michael Jackson performed " Billie Jean " and introduces to the world the moonwalk.

Today, Decca is a leading label for both classical music and Broadway scores although it is branching out into pop music from established recording stars: its most recent hit was Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA ( 2007 ) by Boyz II Men, which reached No. 27 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.

Following the death of Tammi Terrell in 1970, Gaye went into seclusion, emerging the following year with " What's Going On " and its subsequent album, which helped to make him one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of Motown's production company to be his own artist.

Though the album's subject matter again led to Gordy advising to Gaye of its potential of damaging his core fan base, Motown issued the album that May.

" Other singles from the album included " Come Get to This ", which recalled Gaye's early Motown soul sound of the previous decade, while the suggestive " You Sure Love to Ball " reached modest success but was kept from being promoted by Motown due to its sexually explicit nature.

When he learned of its release, Gaye accused Motown of editing and remixing the album without his consent, allowing the issue of an unfinished production (" Far Cry "), altering the album art of his request and removing the album title's question mark, muting its irony.

" Levitation " ranks among the band's most iconic songs, with its Tommy Hall penned lyrics and its twisted blues sensibilities, while " Postures " displays a distinct Motown influence.

At the same time, Motown Records moved its operations to Los Angeles ; when Reeves did not want to move, she negotiated out of her deal with Motown, signing with MCA in 1974, and releasing the critically acclaimed self-titled debut, Martha Reeves.

Their smash 1963 hit, "( Love Is Like a ) Heat Wave ", has been said to have been the first song to signify the Motown sound or " Sound of Young America " with its doo-wop call and response vocals, gospel backbeat and jazz overtones.

In the 1960s, Motown and its soul-based subsidiaries were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as The Motown Sound, a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence.

Motown has owned or distributed releases from more than 45 subsidiaries in varying genres, although it is most famous for its releases in the music genres of rhythm and blues, soul and pop.

The main objective of Motown's relocation was to branch out into the motion picture industry, and Motown Productions got its start in film by turning out two hit vehicles for Diana Ross: the Billie Holiday biographical film Lady Sings the Blues ( 1972 ), and Mahogany ( 1975 ).