Motown folded??
El Prez
NE Ohio 1,141 Posts
Anyone know about this Erykah Badu just tweeted that Motown is no more.
El Prez
NE Ohio 1,141 Posts
Comments
Questlove tweeted it, too. Who knows. Can't believe I just wrote "tweeted".
Seems to me that since Gordy sold the label it has kicked around between and inside various majors, laying dormant for brief periods of time. To me it is really just an imprint and a back catalog.
I doubt the back catalog will ever be gone for long. The imprint will continue to come and go. Majors reshuffle from time to time.
Went to a high school graduation last night. The school band closed the night with a Motown medley, starting with Papa Was A Rolling Stone. I thought it was a poor choice.
While you were caught in rush hour, Motown died and came back to life again.
Or so it seems. Although today's Motown has little to no ties with the original label started by Berry Gordy on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, the namesake has always remained under numerous ownership and management changes.
Erykah Badu, who has been signed to the Motown imprint since the mid-90s, sent out a simple yet curious tweet that sent teh Interwebs into overdrive: "Motown folded."
Twitter instantly filled with RIPs, memorials, obituaries -- but Billboard instantly shut down the rumor with some clarification behind Badu's ominous tweet:
Billboard.biz: Top executives at Universal told Billboard that although the label is undergoing restructuring the the wake of Sylvia Rhone's departure last month, it is not folding. At the time of Rhone's departure, UMG planned to begin interviewing candidates to replace her, although what title that person will get depends on the qualifications he or she brings to the job. With Barry Weiss serving as the chairman/CEO of Island Def Jam and Universal Motown Republic Group, it is not clear that the replacement will hold the title of president, insiders said.
Motown's vines in the Motor City began to wither in 1972 when the company was relocated to Los Angeles. In 1988, Gordy sold Motown to MCA Records; it was sold again in 1994 to PolyGram. Seagram acquired MCA in 1995, and renamed the company Universal Music Group.
What was left of Motown was merged into Universal in 2005, and the company is now known as Universal Motown. The label is now home to luminaries such as Lil Wayne, Kelly Rowland, Kid Cudi and Akon. Stevie Wonder is the only artist from Motown's golden days signed with the label; Detroiter Kem is also a part of the fold.
As far as Badu's history with the company, she joined in 1997 while neo-soul pioneer Kedar Massenburg was head of the label.