A company a sound, a polished set of star acts and a city—Detroit, MI. Founded by songwriter and Ford assembly-line worker Barry Gordy, Jr. in 1959, when he decided to promote his own songs and local talent on a variety of labels, including Tamla and Motown. From the “Hitsville, USA” office in Detroit, Gordy built one of the largest black entertainment companies in the country; by 1965 it earned $12 million. Gordy worked with talented songwriters like the Holland-Dozier-Holland team, who later left embittered. With 170 acts—some from local high schools—including superstars like Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, (Little) Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and family Martha and the Vandellas and others who offered catchy music and lyrics, smooth harmonies, powerful voices and elegantly choreographed performances, Gordy changed American (and global) listening and dancing.

Gordy moved Motown to California in 1970 and sold it in 1988 to MCA and Boston Ventures; it was sold to Polygram in 1993 for $301 million. The Motown Historical Museum preserves the original office and studio, but Detroit is no longer the capital of African American—and American—music that it was when people were “Dancing in the Streets.”