by Colin Dennis

Created on: September 22, 2009   Last Updated: September 28, 2009

The 50th anniversary of the founding of Motown Records is an apt time for an examination of the state of the African-American music nation with regards to rhythm and blues.In every decade since Motown's founding in 1959, rhythm and blues has been arguably defined by groundbreaking work both lyrically and musically. Not just at Motown, but also at such labels as Stax, Atlantic, Philadelphia International, Curtom and Epic Records.

To guard against being purely judgmental, it is perhaps best to look at the music through the prism of a number of criteria: its impact and its longevity. Has the music been influential? Have other artists from the same or other genres covered it? Has it accurately captured the tenor of the time? Is it still enjoying airplay long after its release?

Owing to its roots in gospel, folk and blues, not to mention the collective history of its adherents, it's not surprising that African-American music has played an epochal role in protest music, especially in the Sixties at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, from 1955-1968.

In response to Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind," Sam Cooke wrote "A Change Is Gonna Come." Curtis Mayfield penned "Keep On Pushing," "Choice of Colors" and "People Get Ready" at the heights of the Civil Rights struggle in the Sixties. Sly & the Family Stone wrote "Stand" and "Everyday People" as self-affirming anthems to the masses. We can also toss into the mix, James Brown's "Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud," and Syl Johnson's "Is it Because I'm Black?"

In the late Sixties Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, hitmakers for Motown wrote "War," which was first recorded by the Temptations, but became a huge and iconic hit for Edwin Starr in 1970:

"WAR! I despise,

'cos it means destruction of innocent lives,

War means tears to thousands of mother's eyes,

When their sons gone to fight and lose their lives."

In the Seventies Marvin Gaye's groundbreaking album, "What's Going On," raised the bar on music production. Told from the perspective of a Vietnam War veteran, Gaye -whose brother Frankie served in that war- broke new ground with a conceptual album with introspective lyrics that spoke to the Vietnam War, poverty, drug abuse and the destruction of the environment in songs such as "What's Going On," "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)," and "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)." In the latter, Gaye asks:

"Where did all the blue skies go?

Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east."

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