MUMBAI: Motown Records, also called Tamla Motown outside North America, is a record label which had been firstly based in Detroit, Michigan. Berry Gordy, its founder, released Tamla Records as a label on January 12, 1959. One year later, the company was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation. It completed a half century of existence on Monday.

Motown is a nickname for Detroit, which comes from the words motor... and town.... This label had an important role in the racial integration of popular music, because it had been founded by an African American and had the goal to feature African-Americans artists who got crossover success.

The label also released the Motown Sound,... a style of soul music which had some pop influences in the 1960s. Motown Records released more than 45 subsidiaries in varying genres and the most important music genres which appeared at that time were rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop and also pop.

Yet, back in 1972, Motown Records left Detroit for Los Angeles and reached to be an independent corporation until June 28, 1988. At that time, Gordy sold it to MCA and Boston Ventures, which later took over full ownership, and then to PolyGram in 1994.

Now, the company is placed in New York City and is a subsidiary of The Universal Motown/Universal Republic Group, of Universal Music Group. Its history began when Berry Gordy started out as a songwriter for Detroit acts, like Jackie Wilson or The Matadors. Lonely Teardrops,... composed by Gordy and sang by Wilson, became one of the hugest successes at the time.

Still, Gordy wasn't satisfied with the way he had been rewarded for his job, so in 1959 he decided to start Anna Records, together with Billy Davis and Gordy's sisters Gwen and Anna. Even if Gwen and Davis wanted Gordy to be the president, he wasn't satisfied with this either. So he founded Tamla Records with $800 loaned from his family.

At first, there appeared the Motown Sound,... which quickly became the label's specialized type of soul music and its trademark. The use of tambourines as to emphasize the black beat together with bass guitar lines and chord structures made Motown Records a specialized label.

One of the label's most important operations was the artists' development. The acts for the Motown label were groomed and choreographed for live performances and the artists were advised that their entrance into the white popular music market might make them ambassadors for other African American artists who were seeking for broad market acceptance.

Kedar Massenburg, who was a producer for Erykah Badu, became the leader of the company and went on with introducing big stars, such as Badu, McKnight or Michael McDonald. He was replaced by Sylvia Rhone in 2005 and then merged with Universal Records as to create the Universal Motown Records Group, a division of Universal Music.

Singers like India.Arie, Erykah Badu, M??a, Kem, and Yummy Bingham, pop singer Lindsay Lohan, reggae singers Damian and Stephen Marley, and rappers Q-Tip Trick Trick and Nick Cannon are among the big stars which record with Motown Records.

Gordy was the first black man to own a record label in the United States. With his unmistakable feeling for the public taste, he made black music socially acceptable even for whites in the United States, and revolutionized the country's pop culture forever.

In the 1960s, the pleasant Motown Sound, a mix of soul and pop, charged into the US charts - which had until then been reserved for white artists - in what was a milestone in the fight against racial segregation.

However, Gordy was moved less by missionary enthusiasm than by business calculations. As a songwriter for singers like Jackie Wilson ('Lonely Teardrops') he found out that there was more money to be made in the production side of things. In 1960, Barrett Strong's Money ('That's What I Want') became the first hit from the new label - initially known as Tamla Records and later renamed Motown with reference to the car-making city of Detroit (Motor Town).

The same year, the superhit 'Shop Around' by The Miracles, became Motown's first million-selling record. Success was there to stay. Over the next 10 years alone, the label marketed more than 100 top-10 songs, including 'Dancing in the Street' by Martha & The Vandellas - David Bowie and Mick Jagger later recorded a version of the song - 'What's Going On' by Marvin Gaye, 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone' by The Temptations and 'Stop! In the Name of Love' by The Supremes.

Under the name The Funk Brothers, Gordy brought together pianist Earl van Dyke, bass genius James Jamerson, drummer Uriel Jones and other great live performers, the best blues and jazz musicians in the city.

For little money, but with great enthusiasm, they produced the typical Motown Sound in the legendary Studio A - which they called the 'snake pit' - in accordance with Gordy's KISS principle: 'Keep it simple, stupid'.

Motown now belongs to the international music giant Universal Music Group, which continues to use the label as a trade mark. For its 50th anniversary, numerous new releases of old classics are planned.

These include the compilation Motown: The Complete Number 1s, with more than 190 songs by the label that once reached the top of the hit lists.