Posted on 04/23/2021 6:42:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
After all the mid and late 60s race riots and destruction of cities, I was in no mood for Motown music (I was in my mid to late teens at the time). I just never enjoyed “soul” music.
No Stax?
booker t and the mgs dude! booker t!
Ernie Isley is one of the most criminally underrated guitarists, the solo on Who’s That Lady is smokin’.
Innervisions was much better (and much less PC) than Songs In The Key of Life, every song is a classic.
There were awesome black singers back in the 60’s and 70’s. What happened other than rap and hip hop?
Earth Wind & Fire - That’s the Way of the World
I adored earlier R&B and soul music. I looked at this list hoping to find something, but I just have to admit I hate everything on it.
Motown had nothing to do with that. Berry Gordy enforced strict rules on Motown musicians. They were supposed to dress appropriately, and behave respectably. Motown didn’t allow anything political or countercultural. They didn’t give an inch on that until the 1970s.
No Ohio Players? Just for the album covers alone.
I agree.
<< 4. Sly and the Family Stone, ‘There’s a Riot Goin’ On’ (1971) >>
That’s my pick. Dark, acid funk.
Main Ingredient- Everybody Plays the Fool
O’jays, Live from Daryl’s House: Backstabbers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvt7ufNfq1g
and: Love Train
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSlO_g6-ZXM
Eddie Levert is one of the greatest singers ever, period.
Ahh. Great, great music.
Different times.
>>Still, not all genres made the move. R&B and soul music, for one, was still pretty much a singles game as the ‘60s turned into the ‘70s.
Eh.
In the 30s and 40s (and into the 50s) you could be ALBUMS of 78s.
Then in the late 40s were competing formats (LPs and 45s). 45s were even issued in boxed sets or sleeved ALBUMS.
Eventually 45s becames the format of jukeboxes and a way to sell singles to young people.
Artists like Frank Sinatra may have sold sinlges (and he was the heartthrob of bobbysoxers in the 40s) but he increasing aimed for the adult market (especially as Elvis and Little Richard took the charts and Frank couldn’t rely on singing the hit parade or trying to sing in the current stytle).
Albums for the youth market might have the hit singles collected and some cover songs or throwaway filler. The first few Beatles albums had a lot of cover songs. Good for gigs in Germany or the Cavern Club but it meant much of the money from album sales went to songwriters and publishers. They took to writing on the road to keep up with management demand for more product. But it was at a time that they were “hot” (on the charts and in their drive to write songs).
Anyway it was awhile (as the author admits) into the 1960s before albums (in certain genres) were “strong” (original and all killer no filler).
The charts don’t mean much today. A single artist can “own” the “top 10” now because their album is streaming end to end millions of times. But the public still seems into singles as much or more than ever.
Just providing some background and commentary...
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