(b Detroit, 28 Nov 1929). American songwriter and founder of Motown Records. Born into a middle-class family, he initially wanted to be a boxer and later opened a record shop specializing in jazz. When both these career options failed, he began to write songs, quickly achieving success between 1957 and 1959 by co-writing such hits as Reete Petite, To be Loved and I'll be satisfied for Jackie Wilson, You've got what it takes for Marv Johnson and Money for Barrett Strong.
At Smokey Robinson's suggestion, Gordy ventured into the record business with Tamla Records in 1959. He began Motown in 1961, followed by Gordy in 1962, Soul and VIP in 1964 and several lesser labels over the ensuing ten years. Collectively these labels are commonly referred to as Motown. Gordy promoted the label as the ‘Sound of Young America’, since from the beginning he was interested in marketing his African-American artists to both a black and white audience. To achieve this he identified what the common elements were in black recordings that crossed over to the pop charts. He personally trained all of Motown's early writers and producers and, using essentially the same musicians for every recording, he developed the Motown sound.
Gordy developed a long-range business plan at Motown, drawing from his experience at the Lincoln-Mercury car factory in Detroit where he had worked during the mid-1950s. The operation was run like a factory with a top-down model. Its success was based on a cheap labour pool, a rigidly compartmentalized work force, vertical integration and control of the market-place. Motown's spectacular results were unprecedented among black record labels and by the late 1960s Gordy's Jobete Music was the most successful publishing company in the world.
In 1971 Gordy moved Motown's headquarters to Los Angeles with a view to expanding into motion pictures. He continued to achieve a significant degree of success but his company could no longer boast a characteristic sound, and in 1988 he sold Motown to MCA records.He published his autobiography as To be Loved: the Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown (New York, 1994).
For bibliography see Motown.
ROB BOWMAN