Quote Originally Posted by jack020 View Post
It probably also has to do with the popularity of Northern soul [[a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England in the late 1960s from the British mod scene, based on a particular style of black American soul music, especially from the mid-1960s, with a heavy beat and fast tempo [[100 bpm and above).
Thank you jack020, that's something I hadn't considered. Being a "southerner", Northern Soul swept past me without me even noticing! According to Wikipedia, this began in the mid-60s, by that time, Motown had had about 15 chart entries up to the end of 1965.

During the latter part of the 60s, my ears were more tuned to US pyschedelia and other than liking the music coming from Motown, I didn't pay that much attention to why it was so consistently good and continually entering the charts. I suppose that I had imagined that it just continued to grow based on more people becoming exposed to it, but perhaps, as you point out, the Northern Soul scene could have either provided a boost or perpetuated its popularity into the late-60s, and the decades that followed.

Yesterday I was pondering what it was that I particularly liked about the music, and came to a conclusion that maybe it had something to do with me being tuned into a certain vibration or frequency - or as you helpfully put it, bpm!