The Black Struggle : Motown And Stax, A Black Owned Label

Record labels played a big role in bringing the black struggle to the mainstream through their artists music. In particular, two labels were the frontrunners for producing records that would continue to promote addressing the black struggle: Motown and Stax. Motown, a black-owned label, was seen as a more assimilationist and industrial record label that was successful in making hits that appealed to both black and white audiences, earning it the nickname of “Hitsville, U.S.A.” Stax, a white-owned label, was seen as being more representative of black self-reliance and an overall more authentic, black record label that appealed much more to the black audience, earning it the nickname of “Soulsville, U.S.A.” Despite their differences, both labels used their own style of music production and distribution to help surface the black struggle in very similar ways, and in turn they helped pave the way for black consciousness to emerge through soul music.
Before beginning to analyze both Motown and Stax Record’s influence on black consciousness it must first be understood why black consciousness itself can be seen as a step in the right direction in the fight against black struggle. Brian Ward does a great job of capturing the true success of soul music’s influence on black consciousness. Ward says, “[Black radio’s] real strength… was its ability to dramatize and celebrate shared aspects of the black experience… to promote a revived sense of black identity, pride, solidarity and common consciousness” (Ward 449). In his book, Ward also points out that despite this successful development of black consciousness, there was limited success both economically and structurally on behalf of the black music industry. This shows that even though ther...

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...romotion of black consciousness it is clear that these two labels were working towards the same goal: to empower their black audience by emitting waves of black consciousness through their music. Both labels also used the same strategy of using lyrics that were laden with innuendos, despite their very different reasons for doing so. Their combined effort helped soul music develop its inherent and inseparable connection to the black struggle of the 1960s and their legitimacy as music powerhouses aided in spreading soul music to every corner of the United States of America. And although there was no immediate economic or political changes, the efforts of these two labels did not go unnoticed. Their impact on black consciousness would serve as the driver for the continued fight against the black struggle in hopes of one day achieving those economic and political changes.