City of Detroit Has Got Music, Part 2

The city of Detroit is renowned for its musical heritage. With a long and rich history that includes Motown Records, Detroit has produced such homegrown stars as Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations and the Four Tops.

The Detroit Theatre District is the nation's second largest, after New York City, with eighteen professional theaters. It is also home to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Opera House. Major theaters include the Fox Theatre, Masonic Temple Theatre, Fisher Theatre, The Fillmore Detroit, Music Hall, Saint Andrews Hall and the Detroit Repertory Theatre.

Detroit R&B label Fortune Records enjoyed success with The Diablos fronted by Nelson Strong. In 1956, Zeffrey "Andre" Williams recorded a string of singles, including the song "Bacon Fat." Knowing he couldn't compete with the voice labelmate Strong, Andre chose to talk-sing the song. The song took off, and experts say that Rap’s godfather is Detroit's Andre Williams.

Rockabilly guitarist Jack Scott laid down the first note of Detroit's badboy rock tradition with the release of "Leroy" in 1957, a song about the joys of incarceration. Scott is the one of the first country/rock pioneers, marrying country's melodies to the dangerous, raw power of rock 'n roll.

Hank Ballard scored a huge hit on the pop charts with "The Twist," which was brought to the attention of Chubby Checker by Dick Clark. The Falcons released "You're So Fine" in 1959, considered the first true soul record. The close of the decade also saw record store-owner Berry Gordy, Jr. founding his Motown label with just $800 in borrowed money.

One of the highlights of Detroit's musical history was the success of Motown Records during the 1960s and early 1970s. The label, founded Gordy, was home to some of the most popular recording acts in the world, including Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Four Tops, and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas. One major Detroit R&B artist from this era that was not in Motown's stable was Aretha Franklin.

During the 1970s, there was an extraordinary change in the Detroit Sound, and was far removed from Motown as imaginable. This sound owed more to the work of Hooker and Scott. This sound was raw, rough, and messy. This sound was rock, and was equal parts anger, determination and attitude.

This music began emerging in the late 1960s, in garage bands that reflected the lives and lifestyles of two of its sister cities, collegiate Ann Arbor and industrial Flint. Standouts included Question Mark & the Mysterians, The Amboy Dukes, with Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, MC5, The Stooges, known later as Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The Bob Seger System, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Frijid Pink, The Rationals, SRC Scott Richard Case, along with others.

Area artists MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges laid the groundwork for the punk rock movement. Rock acts from southeast Michigan that first enjoyed success in the area included 1970s icons Bob Seger, Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes, Brownsville Station and Grand Funk Railroad. They were followed in the 1980s and 90s with The Romantics and Sponge.

In the late 1990s, Detroit became known for its garage rock sound with the popularity of the White Stripes, and the Von Bondies. The excitement of these acts, along with the renovation and creation of many new live music venues such as The Magic Stick, helped to form a gritty, high-energy scene. Bands such as The Hard Lessons, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Saturday Looks Good To Me, the Muggs, the Gore Gore Girls, Adult., and Childbite are all basic Detroit acts heavily influenced by the city's musical history. Detroit is also home to The Black Dahlia Murder, a popular death metal band.