Who bought what? Demographics on Motown's record buyers?

[Boogiedown]

Was there any attempt at tracking done as to which Motown artists sold to who??
Who [age, sex, etc.] was buying Supremes records as opposed to who was buying Four Tops? Was there a big difference?
How about Marvin Gaye of the 60's vs. Marvin Gaye of the 70's? The same question concerning Stevie Wonder.....

What crowd bought INDIANA WANTS ME by R Dean Taylor? ... HERE COMES THE JUDGE by Shorty Long?

[Boogiedown]

Of course there are all types of buyers. I'm sure there was a contingency that bought a record just because it said Motown on the label. But that would be an expensive approach as Motown put out a lot of product.

And then there were those that specifically bought into a specific group ....fans of say The Temptations or Martha Reeves.

And then all the sales that took place because the listener liked that one particular record ...regardless of who the artist was.

I'm sure there were, but I'm wondering to what degree say a Miracles fan would buy a Stevie record? Was there a tendency to align to ones favorite such that a Temptations fan would not be interested in a Supremes record??
There was a fundamental underlying sound to Motown that would allow for a fan to like a variety of Motown acts.
I guess there's really no way of knowing ...my guess is that a preponderance of sales was based on individual releases, the buyer liking that exact song.

Surely just seeing the Motown label often helped seal the deal.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

Boogie, if a saw a new Motown release on ANY of the Motown labels, I bought it. As a completist, how could I not? It wasn't always easy, but it sure was fun!

[daviddesper]

In my early [[formative) days of Motown-buying, I concentrated on the three better known female groups. I had to have everything they put out. I was willing to occasionally buy a record by a solo lady, such as Brenda, but not as often. Once I branched out into the male artists, the Temps, Tops and Marvin became my favorites.

That meant of course that I loved Marvin and Tammi and Gladys and her boys immediately grabbed me with Grapevine, so they became "must have" artists. When the Velvelettes came into the picture, they of course ranked right up there with the Big Three.

If there was one aspect of Motown that I did not care for, it was the instrumental and/or rock side, so Jr. Walker and Rare Earth were not especially high on my list, with the exception of Road Runner, which is classic Motown.

As for the idea of buying something just because it was Motown, by far the best experience I ever had along those lines was when I bought the Elgins' Heaven Must Have Sent You 45 in a cut out bin. I had never heard of the group or seen a photo, but I knew that VIP was a Motown subsidiary, so I took the gamble. To this day, that remains one of my top five all-time songs by anyone, Motown or otherwise.

[bob_olhsson]

When I started at Motown in 1965, I was told we were creating dance music for teen-aged girls.

[blkfrost]

I also bought whatever came out on a Motown label [[Motown, Tamla, Gordy, Soul, VIP, Mowest, Rare Earth, MC, Hitsville, Melodyland, Prodigal, etc.), even labels distributed by Motown [[Gull, Manticore, CTI, Kudu, etc.) that I could find, no matter the genre. My LP collection was large [[its in storage now). I have tried to replicate my LP collection on CD and continue to purchase CDs if I can find them.

[robb_k]

Attachment 21375
As an R&B fan in 1958, when Motown's early producers and writers, and singers were producing their "pre-Motown" recordings, I would try out most R&B labels' issues, and get a chance to listen to them at record shops, my friends' houses, or on a friendly fellow collector's hand-held compact 45-player, in the non-record shops who sold used records, before choosing to buy a record. When I was in a thrift shop or junk store, or furniture store where the used 45s and LPs were so very cheap that I was paying 5, 10, 20, or 25¢ for 45s, and 33 or 50¢ for LPs, I would buy any record that looked like R&B, Blues, Gospel, or Jazz I might like. So, by 1958, I already was aware that I liked songs written by Berry and Gwen Gordy, Bill [[Smokey)Robinson, Tyran[[Ty) Carlo, Billy Davis, Harvey Fuqua, and
I liked songs published by Bengal, Jobete, Jobette, and Ro-Gor music, and that Anna Records and some of George Goldner's and Robert West's labels were related to them. So, I was trying to listen to all such 45s, and 78s when I couldn't find a record on 45, before buying. I usually ended up buying such records upon seeing them in thrift stores, record shop bargain bins, or used record shelves at non-record stores. So, when Tamla Records started, and I liked "Come To Me" and Eddie Holland's first records, as well as saw that Barrett Strong's "Money" appeared on that label, I started trying to hear every Tamla, and soon after, every Motown record, and buying most of those. After Miracle Records started in 1961, and I had liked most of all 3 of those labels plus just about every Anna and Check-Mate record I heard, and I had so much access to low-cost records, I decided to buy EVERY Motown-related issue. That stopped in about late 1964 or early 1965, when Motown had branched out into other music genres I didn't like.

As far as my non-record collecting peers [[in South Chicago and The South Side school friends and kids I knew from working in my fathers store[[those neighbourhoods)), they bought just about all the charted Motown releases [[mainly their biggest stars and well-known secondary acts); but they didn't by the rare big Motown acts' singles that failed to sell or chart well. kids that really loved the music and could scrape the money together bought all the biggest Motown stars' LPs.Other kids just bought their favourite LPs because of cost. Others just bought 45s to bring to parties. Starting in 1966 I was working part-time at my father's store in South central LA, and also part-time at Dolphin's of Hollywood record shop, and can say that what the neighbourhood kids were buying Motown records there was pretty much what I described for Chicago from '61-'65. After 1970, I lost track of that, as I was already in my early 20s, and by 1972 was working all over Western USA and Canada, as well as part year in Europe and Africa and Asia in 3rd World countries. I CAN say that in The Netherlands, there was a significant group of fans that were dancing in clubs to Motown music, and sales of their records were going well. The particular records that did really well were sometimes different from those that hit biggest in USA/Canada.