Black History Month
Black History Month
The contribution of African Americans in the music business
“Motown Music is music for everyone, it’s music for everyone.” –Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy and Motown
Berry Gordy III (known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., born November 28, 1929) is an American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
-Artists responsible for discovering and developing: The Jackson 5 (Michael Jackson), Smoky Robinson, The Miracles, Lionel Richie, Etta James, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, The Four Tops, etc.
-Gordy sold his interests in Motown Records to MCA and Boston Ventures on June 28, 1988, for $61 million.
-He later sold most of his interests in Jobete publishing to EMI Publishing. Gordy wrote or co-wrote 240 of the approximately 15,000 songs in Motown’s Jobete music catalogue.
-However, the true test of the label’s worth would come a few years later, when Polygram paid over $330 million (Diana Ross was given shares in this version of the label) for the Motown catalog.
Motown is an American record company. The record company was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, and was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960, in Detroit, Michigan. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has also become a nickname for Detroit. Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned record label that achieved significant crossover success.
-In the 1960s, Motown and its subsidiary labels (including Tamla Motown, the brand used outside the US) were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as the Motown Sound, a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence. During the 1960s, Motown achieved spectacular success for a small record company: 79 records in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 record chart between 1960 and 1969.
-Following the events of the Detroit Riots of 1967, and the loss of key songwriting/production team Holland-Dozier-Holland the same year over pay disputes, Gordy began relocating Motown to Los Angeles. The move was completed in 1972 and Motown expanded into television and film production, remaining an independent company until June 28, 1994.
-The company was then sold to MCA Inc. Motown was later sold to PolyGram in 1994, before being sold again to MCA Records’ successor, Universal Music Group, when it acquired PolyGram in 1999.
-Motown spent much of the 2000s as a part of the Universal Music subsidiaries Universal Motown, Universal Motown Republic Group, and headquartered in New York City.
-From 2011 to 2014, Motown was a part of The Island Def Jam Music Group division of Universal Music.
-On April 1, 2014, Universal Music Group announced the dissolution of Island Def Jam; subsequently Motown relocated back to Los Angeles to operate under the Capitol Music Group. It now operates out of the landmark Capitol Tower.
Sylvia Rhone
–Sylvia Rhone is an American music industry executive who served as president of Universal Motown Records until 2011. She has overseen a roster of artists in the Universal Motown lineup including Lil Wayne and the Cash Money artists Nicki Minaj, Drake, Kid Cudi, Nelly, Melanie Fiona, Akon, Erykah Badu, and Stevie Wonder.
-Rhone’s appointment in 1994 as chairwoman and CEO of EEG established her as the only African American and the first woman in the history of the recording industry to attain such a title.
-In October 2004, Rhone was appointed president of Motown Records and executive vice president of Universal Records.
-Prior to her Universal Motown role, Rhone served as chairwoman and CEO of the Elektra Entertainment Group, transforming the boutique label into one of the most eclectic rosters in the music business.
-As of 2012, Rhone is CEO of her self-founded label Vested in Culture, which has a distribution deal with Epic Records, a label under Sony Music Entertainment.
Early life, education, and early career
-Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 11, 1952, and raised in Harlem, Rhone has cited her early exposure to seminal R&B shows at the Apollo Theatre as pivotal to her belief in music as an inspirational force. Accepted at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Rhone graduated with a B.S. in Economics.
-She got a job at Bankers Trust in New York City soon after graduating college, but she pursued her passion for music by landing a job as a secretary for Buddha Records in 1974. In a succession of promotions over the next six years, she also held positions at ABC Records and Ariola Records.
-Rhone was previously part of the Elektra family in 1980 as northeast regional promotion manager for special markets, and she was eventually promoted to director of national black music marketing for Atlantic Records.
Atlantic Records
-Credited with helping to realign Atlantic’s black music business, Rhone took on broader responsibilities in A&R and marketing in 1986 with her promotion to senior vice president and general manager of Atlantic Records. At Atlantic, Rhone managed such artists as En Vogue, The System, Levert, Brandy, Yo Yo, The D.O.C., MC Lyte, Chuckii Booker, Miki Howard and Gerald Albright and The Rude Boys.
-It was under her watch that Billboard magazine named Atlantic the #1 Black Music Division in 1988.
-Rhone’s career has been highlighted by multiple firsts: In 1990 she became the first African American woman to head a major record company when she was named CEO and president of Atlantic’s EastWest Records America division.
-A year later when the EastWest artist roster and operations were combined with those of Atco Records, Rhone was named chairwoman and CEO of Atco/EastWest and subsequently of EastWest Records America.
-At EastWest, she was directly involved in introducing several newcomers as well as helping established stars gain new success, including En Vogue, Gerald Levert, Pantera and Das EFX.
-She also played a role in furthering the careers of AC/DC and Simply Red, who eventually became EEG artists.
-Atlantic Records’ founder Ahmet Ertegun commented on Rhone’s success during the period, calling her administration one of “innovation, imagination, and freshness.”
-In 1993, she was cited by Ebony magazine as one of the top up-and-coming black executives in the entertainment industry.
Elektra Entertainment Group
-In July 1994, Rhone was hired by Warner Music Group chairman Doug Morris to become chairman and CEO of the Elektra Entertainment Group.
-The Los Angeles Times called Rhone “the most powerful woman in the music business”, citing her as the only African American and the first woman in the history of the recording industry to attain the dual title.
-Rhone guided the merger of Elektra, EastWest (of which she was formerly CEO) and Sire Records into one of the Warner Music Group’s most diverse and competitive labels.
-Rhone was directly involved in the launch and guidance of multiple best-selling artists, including Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Tracy Chapman, Yolanda Adams, Metallica, Natalie Merchant, Gerald Levert, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Fabolous, Jason Mraz, and Third Eye Blind, among others.
-Long recognized as a developer of musical talent, she was also instrumental in transforming the staff at Elektra, with Time Warner chairman and CEO Dick Parsons noting: “The Elektra Entertainment Group was one of the most actualized examples of diversity in action at a company that I’ve ever seen.”
-In 1998, Fortune magazine included her on their inaugural list of the Fifty Most Powerful Women, with Rhone joining corporate executives such as Carly Fiorina and Geraldine Laybourne, among others.
-In 2001, Ebony magazine recognized her as one of the Ten Most Powerful Black Women In America, alongside Oprah Winfrey and Condoleezza Rice.
Motown and Universal Motown Records
-In 2004, Rhone was appointed president of Motown Records, executive vice president of Universal Records, with chairman of Universal Music Group, Doug Morris, calling her “a rainmaker,” and Universal Motown Record Group chairman Mel Lewinter citing Rhone as a “natural to lead Motown’s evolution into the future.”
-Under Rhone’s stewardship, Motown reinvigorated both roster and staff, re-tooling the label into one of the more savvy digital music business platforms. Rhone added Akon, India.Arie, Erykah Badu, Lil Wayne, Chamillionaire and others to the label.
-In February 2006, the Universal Music label split into two labels, Universal Republic Records and Universal Motown Records, with Rhone serving as president of the latter.
-Rhone’s approach helped to raise the global identity of Cash Money Records, while also placing an increased emphasis on Universal Motown artists’ connecting with fans via micro-blogging and social network platforms.
-Profiled and quoted in many magazines and entertainment media outlets through the years, Rhone has become a repeated choice on business and entertainment power lists. She has been named to the Entertainment Weekly Most Influential People list six times and to The Hollywood Reporter’s Women In Entertainment Power list seven times.
-Rhone has been praised by Crain’s New York Business magazine for “breaking ground for years” and recognized by NBC, MTV, BET, Rolling Stone, VH1, Billboard, Vibe, and Ebony.
-Black Enterprise Magazine included her in their 2011 “Most Powerful Women In Business” issue.
***Rhone passed up on signing Drake; later he would sign a distribution deal with Universal for one of the largest advances to an unsigned artist in history.***
Rhone stepped down from being president of the company in 2011.
Epic Records
-Rhone’s label Vested in Culture, an Epic imprint, launched in 2013. In 2014, she was named president of Epic Records.
Steps up: https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7824778/epic-records-sylvia-rhone-la-reid-exit
Power Player: https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8096185/no-27-sylvia-rhone-power-100
Quincy Jones
http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/quincy-jones-in-conversation.html
Julian Petty
Drake
