I wonder if the business and music executives of the time would be able to earn their corporate positions today, or if they would be seen as old fat white men too unhip to know music.
I wonder if the business and music executives of the time would be able to earn their corporate positions today, or if they would be seen as old fat white men too unhip to know music.
Frank Zappa said that we were better off with the cigar-chomping old men who were willing to take a chance, than with the “young, hip guys”, who thought they knew what the kids wanted to hear.
Well, Berry Gordy wasn’t white, and I don’t think he was fat yet. But think about this. Motown was started by a 30-year old black man in 1959, with $800 ($8600 in 2025 dollars) from family savings, and the label had more no. 1 hits in the 1960s than any label in the world. And they had no stars that were established before they were with Motown.