Originally Posted by
soulster
When Aretha came out, my sister left the Supremes, and most Motown music, behind. Once Aretha Arrived, she even stopped buying most 45s. She only owned one Supremes album, but had all of the Aretha albums, and a few Temptations albums too. She got into Sly and Isley Brothers. My point is that after a certain point, as with pop/rock music, Motown was seen as innocent fluffy music in a world bogged down with Viet Nam, civil rights, assassinations, drugs, police brutality,protests, hippies, and free love. Motown no longer fit. That's why Norman Whitfield was allowed to take over the Temptations, and Gordy attempted to get socially relevant hits with the Supremes. Go back to what it was like when "Reflections" came out in 1967 sounding like The Beatles, sang about being a born of a single mother, or The Tempations sing about being on "Cloud Nine", being a drug reference. By contrast, Aretha was already there. She didn't sing about youthful issues, but she sang about the things we all deal with, mature relationship issues, and sex [[Dr. Feeeeeeelgood in the morning, indeed)!
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