Did White radio stations play Motown in 1962, pre-Beatles?

October 13, 2024 7:10 AM

To what extent were the Beatles, like Elvis, bringing Black Music to White people in 1963? Was Motown already popular outside of Black radio stations, or not yet?
posted by musofire to Society & Culture (10 answers total)

The BBC refused to playMoTown, so Brits could only hear those songs via pirate radio. “ Shop Around” was the first million-selling single for the label in 1960. Source.
Gordy hired white salespeople, who sometimes didn’t mention the race of the artists. Barney Ales played a big part in getting the records played on radio stations with white audiences.
(power level—I worked on Hitsville doc and have been to Gordy’s archive in SFV.)
posted by Ideefixe at 7:46 AM on October 13 [6 favorites]

Motown crossed over to white audiences around the same time that The Beatles became popular, but I don’t think that was much more than a coincidence of timing. Like very many others, The Beatles certainly appropriated Black musical styles early in their career (particularly during Hamburg days) but Motown’s growing popularity in the early 60s was more about musical quality & successful marketing.

To some extent The Beatles opened up the pathway for the Stones & other white bands that more explicitly repackaged Black music for white people - but I don’t believe that the Fabs themselves were a huge part of that story, post-Hamburg.
posted by Puppy McSock at 8:03 AM on October 13

From Mark Kurlansky's Ready for a Brand New Beat: How "Dancing in the Street" Became the Anthem for a Changing America:

[I]n 1963 Motown sold $4.5 million worth of records. Three songs by Martha and the Vandellas were on the Top 100, along with Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Jackie Wilson, and even the Supremes, with “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes,” a Holland-Dozier-Holland song. It was the Supremes’ first hit, barely making the chart at 99. Elvis Presley’s “Devil in Disguise” was 100.

Some small measure of racial integration had come—at least to the music world, because at the end of 1963 Billboard decided that there was no longer enough difference between the sale of records to whites and blacks to continue maintaining a black R&B chart.

You might like to pick up the book for the pre-Motown history of R&B "crossover."
posted by jocelmeow at 8:46 AM on October 13

Those were my high school years and I remember plenty of Black artists songs bring played on my little transistor radio. Even in the late 50s for that matter.
posted by Czjewel at 8:50 AM on October 13 [2 favorites]

They were my high school years as well, and our "white" radio stations (Top 40-type) played plenty of wonderful Motown music. The Supremes, the Shirelles, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Platters, to name just a small sampling. This was pre-Beatles.
posted by Dolley at 9:12 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

In the mid 60's we had two radio stations that played RR and Motown. And I believe they had been doing so for a few years.
posted by james33 at 10:30 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

Prior to the Beatles, Top 40 radio stations in much of the US were surprisingly diverse. It was not unusual to hear white and black groups played in sequence, The Coasters next to The Four Coins, next to Link Wray next to Frank Sinatra, etc. Border blasters maintain a reputation for broadcasting youth oriented music, which was pretty integrated, and had quite a reach across North America.

Yes, the UK was different with pirate radio. It appears a lot of music distribution was via "sneakernet", trading records among private hands in places like Liverpool, where sailors coming of from foreign ports would bring personal goods into the country.
posted by 2N2222 at 10:46 AM on October 13 [3 favorites]

Motown acts were played widely on American radio stations from the beginning, but "the beginning" was coming together right about that time. The Temptations did not release records until about 1964, and the Supremes were signed by Motown in mid-1961. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles did release its first record in 1960; "Shop Around" was a major crossover hit.
posted by yclipse at 11:00 AM on October 13 [1 favorite]

Motown was already popular among white people before the Beatles were putting out records- Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" made it to #23 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1960. Mary Wells's "Bye Bye Baby" was also a crossover hit in 1960. "Shop Around" by the Miracles made it to number 2 on the Billboard top 100 in 1960 (and number 2 on the R&B chart).
posted by oneirodynia at 9:05 PM on October 13

Little Richard had pop hits in the 1950s. It was Elvis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, James Brown, etc that started rock n roll radio in the mid 50s.Supposedly that first radio station show that played their music was called Red Hot and Blue in 1952, and first played Elvis in 1954.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:15 AM on October 14