where was motown started
Motown Records founded. Motown Record Company, the first large Black owned music company in America, was founded on this date in 1959. It was also the source of a variant of Black popular music that earned world wide acclaim in the 1960s. Motown was founded in Detroit by Berry Gordy, Jr., a successful rhythm-and-blues songwriter. The company enjoyed local success and scored its first nationwide hits with singles by two of its earliest musical groups, the Miraclesâ Shop Around (1960) and the Marveletteâs Please Mr. Postman (1961).