What are the characteristics of the Motown Sound?
Motown, also known as The Motown Sound and Northern Soul, is a style of soul music popularized in the late 1960s in the United States by a roster of artists signed to Motown Records. Distinctive characteristics are the use of tambourine along with a drum kit, Rhythm and blues instrumentation, and a ‘call and response’ singing style originating in gospel music. The Motown Sound was also defined by the use of orchestration, string sections, charted horn sections, carefully arranged harmonies and other more refined pop music production techniques that borrowed from British Invasion styles. It was also one of the first styles of pop music of that era wherein girl groups were showcased as as an act, as opposed to individual female artists.
