I can't quite blame it on the change in the music business because Gamble & Huff at Philadelphia International used the same assembly line model, and Solar Records did after that, and Clarence Avant did with Tabu Records. Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers did the same with their empire. And no, it wasn't because Diana Ross, The Jackson 5, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Spinners, or Gladys Knight & The Pips all left the label, it was because the people at Motown in the 70s had no musical vision. They stopped listening to the street. They kept looking for the three-minute love song while their competition in Philadelphia were getting political. Gamble & Huff had their thumb on the pulse of disco while Motown tried to play copy-cat. Stax Records enjoyed their wildest successes in the 70s.

Motown did OK with Commodores, Rick James, and Teena Marie, but most funk bands of the 70s and early 80s did their own thing. Motown suits liked control. When Stax fell apart, their orphaned artists weren't looking at Motown. They went to Columbia or Mercury. The Jackson clan wanted artistic control but Motown wouldn't give it to them. So they fled. The only reason Stevie Wonder got his control is because he was wise enough to get some management and good lawyers, and put in his contract. Marvin Gaye exerted his control because he was Berry Gordy's son-in-law, was stubborn as a mule, and it was in his contract. The minute Gladys Knight, The Four Tops, and the Spinners left, they instantly got major hits. And, the kicker is that ABC Records may have had The Impressions, B.B. King, and Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, and some Impulse jazz artists, ABC/Dunhill wasn't exactly known for R&B music. The Four Tops changed some of that.

Perhaps Motown should have kept the original Hitsville in Detroit open. That's where George Clinton recorded all his classics. They would have been much closer to the state of Ohio, and Chicago, where lots of 70s funk bands came from. But, they were isolated out there in L.A. and Gordy bent on making Diana Ross a movie star. Maybe if they had expanded to the California soft-rock genre instead of wasting time with country. Maybe they should have kept The Four Seasons and let them do what they needed to do. Maybe if they had let the Jackson brothers do their own thing...