Did berry even care???

[arrr&bee]

Gang,i've often wondered that after motown moved to l.a.and berry was trying to get into movies how aware was he as to the music that was going out then as he had alot of folks running the music aspects how much was his hand still in the records?

[topdiva1]

LA was the downfall and change of Motown as it was in Detroit - it became a new and larger animal - not totally owned or no longer completely controlled by The Gordy's.

[Motown_M_1056]

Gang,i've often wondered that after motown moved to l.a.and berry was trying to get into movies how aware was he as to the music that was going out then as he had alot of folks running the music aspects how much was his hand still in the records?

Motown history books will tell you that Berry Gordy Jr. was looking for different challenges in Los Angeles. He did bring in other people [[Ewart Abner, Jay Lasker among them) to run the music side of Motown while he tried to establish Motown in Hollywood as an entertainment force. Gordy was still involved in some of the major decision making at Motown, but he lost focus and the music end of his business suffered. But according to SOUL, Billboard and other entertainment publications, Gordy was always interested in music and would return to the company periodically to direct or oversee certain music projects. usually those by Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Rick James etc.

[jobeterob]

Motown's most commercially successful year was 1970.

[soulster]

Gang,i've often wondered that after motown moved to l.a.and berry was trying to get into movies how aware was he as to the music that was going out then as he had alot of folks running the music aspects how much was his hand still in the records?

I'm not 1900% of all the facts, but the way I remember it is that Berry still had his hands all over the musical direction, especially where The Jackson 5 and Diana Ross was concerned, but I think he left a lot of the decision-making to his staff i.e. Susanne DePasse and certain others.

It's my guess, but he seemed to back off a bit after "Lady Sings The Blues".

TD, Gordy owned Motown up until the late 80s. Around 1988, he sold the company to MCA, after successful five-year distribution agreement. And, I believe that Jheryl Busby became the new label head at that point. I remember this well because Busby's first order of business was to change the classic Motown map label, and dissolve the subsidiary labels like Gordy and Tamla, and it met with tons of complaints. But, he did sign new blood to the label like Boys II Men, The Boys, and Johnny Gill.

[captainjames]

Yep, Berry still cared but Motown got too big !!!

[jillfoster]

Motown history books will tell you that Berry Gordy Jr. was looking for different challenges in Los Angeles. He did bring in other people [[Ewart Abner, Jay Lasker among them) to run the music side of Motown while he tried to establish Motown in Hollywood as an entertainment force. Gordy was still involved in some of the major decision making at Motown, but he lost focus and the music end of his business suffered. But according to SOUL, Billboard and other entertainment publications, Gordy was always interested in music and would return to the company periodically to direct or oversee certain music projects. usually those by Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Rick James etc.

Or in the case of Marvin, stick his nose in where it didn't belong. Good think Marvin threw a hissy fit, or "What's Going On" would have never come out.

[nomis]

..the man couldnt be everywhere at once..He liked smart people who could figure out solutions to problems without hassling him personally on every decision..thats why De passe and Roshkind did so well..they could deal with a pissed off Diana or a disgruntled Joe Jackson - thats why BG favourite saying was "Dont be ridiculous..you figure that out.."..thats what he wanted from his executives - Initative...

[smark21]

He may have cared, but he began to lose touch and couldn't keep up with changes in what consumers wanted.

[jobeterob]

In the Ribowsky book on Stevie Wonder, he says he was told that Barney Ales ran Motown from 1967 forward; that Berry was on the road with Diana and the Supremes and out West. Ales may have been in constant contact but he was the day to day guy dealing with the issues.

I believe Ribowsky questions whether or not it was accurate. Some of his info came from disgruntled former Stevie Wonder employees, Otis Williams, Janie Bradford etc.

[sup_fan]

yes - i believe Berry cared but there's a bit of an obvious "been there, done that" syndrome here. and not to fault him. from 59 - 71 or so, he was really pushing the music. starting in 68 he really started expanding from simply being a music mogul to an entertainment mogul with the establishment of Motown Productions and the Sup/Temps tv specials. then came Lady. that and move from Detroit absorbed so much energy that it was just physically impossible to be everywhere all the time. he had hoped to explode on the movie and tv business like he had in music but hollywood is not warm to outsiders. they started with a bang with Lady but then by the mid 70s, after Mahogany, Bingo Long, Endless Summer, Scott Joplin, etc the magic was definitely waring off the idea of movies. By this time disco was all over the scene and motown made some efforts to dive into that market, relatively successfully. but you always got the feeling that they were more of a luck of the draw when it came to disco. unlike Casablance which ruled that scene. still you had the Commodores, Rick James and some others during the late 70s that were successful

in Berry's book he mentions the financial trouble the were in by 1980. nearly bankrupt. After 20 years of hard work, i can only imagine how hard the strain on him must have been. 20 years of work and nearly underwater! then came a couple of hot lps by Stevie, Diana and Smokey to revive things. But then Di left. had she stayed, things might have been different for a while. but he leaving ended all of it for berry. it was no longer fun

i've always believed that 64 - 67 were the absolutely most important years for motown. true 70 might have been the most commercially successful year but i contend that much of that was due to the ground-breaking work they did in those "sound of young america" years. that's what established motown as something new, exciting, cutting edge. it was the foundation that allowed everything else that followed.

[topdiva1]

I think the only real answer is reflected in the history of Motown after it moved to LA. Simply - NO!!!!!!