Originally Posted by
sup_fan
one of the foundational stories of the rise of Motown is that Berry was looking for a FEMALE singer to be the figurehead. someone that would be the perfect crossover artist and make that jump to places like The Copa and Vegas and all. in searching for that singer, he was never really interested in considering a MALE singer as he felt white audiences would respond better to and be less threatened by a woman. so regardless of the talent of any of the men, they were never going to be his primary focus. end of discussion
it should also be noted that he was looking for 1 female, not multiple. i'm not referring to a solo singer versus a group but rather the idea of cultivating several female artists with different styles and sounds to appeal to more people. perhaps that was because he knew his operation would be homegrown and could probably only have the resources for 1. now Martha Reeves had a whole slew of issues of her own - her strong-headedness, drug issues, etc. she never had the single-mindedness that diana had for her career. Gladys Knight certainly was a potential to develop. all 3 of these women - Diana, martha and Gladys - were so different that, had there been the resources, each could have been molded and developed into mega stars. but alas, not to be. at least through motown. Gladys certainly was able to move on to higher stardom later