Motown

Definition: Motown

Motown

Noun

1. The largest city in Michigan and a major Great Lakes port; center of the United States automobile industry; located in southeastern Michigan on the Detroit river.

Synonyms: Motown

Synonyms: Detroit (n), Motor City (n). (additional references)

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Specialty Definition: Motown

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Motown is was the first style of African-American music to have major commercial success in the white mass market. 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.

It was popularized by Motown Records of Detroit, Michigan in the 1960s. The many artists of Motown Records collaborated to produce several hit songs.

Examples

"ABC" by The Jackson 5
"You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Diana Ross and the Supremes
"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" by Marvin Gaye

Other artists

The Four Tops
Gladys Knight
Martha & the Vandellas
Smokey Robinson
Stevie Wonder
The Temptations
Mary Wells
Jackie Wilson

From 1959 to 1971, many of these acts were backed by Motown Records' major studio band, The Funk Brothers which was credited for being instrumental in creating the essential sound of Motown. The band's career and work is chronicled in the acclaimed documentary, Standing In The Shadows Of Motown.

External Links

Motown Records -- http://www.motown.com/

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Motown."

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Modern Usage: Motown

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	You never told me about your cat milking days in Motown. (Meet the Parents; writing credit: Greg Glienna; Mary Ruth Clarke) Cowboys just didn't get Motown. (Sliders; writing credit: Javier Azpeitia; Margarita Mareo)
Movie/TV Titles	The Sound of Motown (1965) Motown Live (1998) The Motown Revue Starring Smokey Robinson (1985)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Motown

Domain	Title
Books	Motown : The Golden Years: The Stars and Music That Shaped a Generation (reference) Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva (reference) Heat Wave: The Motown Fact Book (Rock and Roll Reference Series, No 25) (reference) Marvin Gaye: What's Going On and the Last Days of the Motown Sound (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Motown Legends: I'll Be Doggone - Stubborn Kind of Fellow (reference) Motown Legends: Neither One Of Us (reference) Cellarful of Motown: Rarest Motown Grooves (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Motown

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Paul McCartney	Well, I mean we were kids who had looked at America as, you know, they're a great country, like a lot of the world does, you know, and you're British kids. Elvis Presley, you know, was from here or Motown, all the black artists that we loved from here.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Motown

"Motown" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 97.50% of the time. "Motown" is used about 40 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (proper)	97.5%	39	55,036
Noun (singular)	2.5%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	40	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Motown

Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "Motown": motown-fuelled.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Motown

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
motown	661	motown tress wig	11
motown record	123	motown oldies	9
motown music	75	greatest hit motown	9
standing in the shadow of motown	71	best motown	9
motown lyrics	47	motown tab	8
motown song	42	group motown	8
motown artist	41	history motown record	7
motown hit	32	motown photo	7
motown museum	32	brother funk motown	7
motown tress	31	midi motown	7
motown history	28	motown records.com	7
temptation motown	26	motown singer	7
davidson harley motown	26	love motown song	6
mcdonald michael motown	22	girl motown	6
motown 25	21	motown tamla	6
harley motown	20	motown radio	6
cafe motown	19	motown universal	6
motown picture	18	motown legend	6
motown sound	18	list motown song	5
lyrics motown song	12	classics motown	5
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Misspellings: Motown

Misspellings
	"Motown" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Gotown, Moton, Mtow, Mustow, Notown, Poltown, Roxtown. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Anagrams: Motown

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "m-n-o-o-t-w"
	-2 letters: mono, moon, moot, mown, nowt, onto, toom, toon, town, wont.
	-3 letters: mon, moo, mot, mow, nom, noo, not, now, oot, own, tom, ton, too, tow, two, won, woo, wot.
	-4 letters: mo, no, om, on, ow, to, wo.
	Words containing the letters "m-n-o-o-t-w"
	+1 letter: towmond, towmont.
	+2 letters: boomtown, hometown, moonwort, towmonds, towmonts, townhome.
	+3 letters: boomtowns, hometowns, jointworm, moneywort, moonworts, snowstorm, topminnow, townhomes.
	+4 letters: jointworms, moneyworts, snowstorms, topminnows, townswoman, townswomen.
	+5 letters: sportswoman, sportswomen.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.