Motown

=MOTOWN =

SOME FACTS:

 Motown Records was opened in the late 1950's by Berry Gordy in Detroit (Michigan, USA). The record company signed artists such as Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5, Diana Ross, The Supremes and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas. Motown Records produced so many hits that it became popular for producing The Motown Sound, a term which referred to that style of Pop music that was so heavily influenced by Soul & Blues.

An interesting link:

This is Motown Records official site. On the homepage scroll down the list of artists that were signed to Motown Records - so many famous names came out of the one record company in the one city, AMAZING!! []


 * OUR TASK:**

To discover some of the characteristics of 'The Motown Sound' we're going to analyse and perform some pieces of Motown music. Here we will compare Smokey Robinson's 'You've Really Got a Hold on Me' with the Beatles' cover version of the song. Read through your task before scrolling down to listen to both versions.

Below there are **three discussions** to which you should respond, here is what you need to do in each one:

**DISCUSSION ONE** 'You've Really Got a Hold on Me'. (You can try to copy the table into the discussion thread but I couldn't get mine to look right - any ideas?!)
 * 1) **Using the concept of TEXTURE, respond in full sentences to the questions below to analyse each version of**

How many are there? ||  ||   ||
 * TEXTURE || Smokey Robinson || The Beatles ||
 * How many different instruments can you hear? List them by name. ||  ||   ||
 * Which instrument is playing the **melodic** line? ||  ||   ||
 * Is there more than one melodic line?
 * Which instrument is playing the **harmonic** role? ||  ||   ||
 * Is the texture **dense** or **sparse?** ||  ||   ||

**DISCUSSION TWO** 2. Now that you've analysed both, describe three differences in Texture and three similarities in Texture between the two versions. Ensure that you use full sentences to write your response.

**DISCUSSION THREE** 3. Why do you think that The Beatles performed a cover of a Motown song? Whose version do you prefer?

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THE MUSIC!!

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