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Motown Records
Can this man save the music business?
Lucian Grainge has a vision for the future of the music business that bears scant resemblance to the traditional record company playbook. He is putting songs on smartphones in Africa, reviving moribund American record labels and making Lorde into a Grammy-winning global sensation. Above all, he wants to forge new partnerships with his industry's erstwhile adversaries — the technology firms that have upended the way people get their music. Skeptics question whether anyone can reverse the decline of an industry that has seen global sales plummet from $28 billion in 1999 to $16.5 billion in 2012. But if anyone can save the music business, it might be Grainge. As chairman of...
Related "Motown Records" Articles
Can this man save the music business?
Lucian Grainge has a vision for the future of the music business that bears scant resemblance to the traditional record company playbook.
He is putting songs on smartphones in Africa, reviving moribund American record labels and making Lorde into a...
Oakland: It's Berry Gordy Day, a tribute to Motown Records' music man
They'll be dancing in the streets of Oakland on Monday (today) toasting Berry Gordy, the man who created Motown Records in Detroit. Alameda County invites the public to celebrate Berry Gordy Day in the East Bay with an event that features the legendary...
L.A. theater openings, Aug. 10-17: 'Elvis '68,' 'Bird Lives!' and more
The King lives again in "Elvis '68" at Fullerton's Maverick Theater, and jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker is saluted in “Bird Lives!” at the Chromolume Theatre at the Attic. Plus, “Dreamgirls’ ” Jennifer Holliday and others give their regards...
Elvis Costello looks at the orchestral possibilities in Bowl shows
Don't think that just because Elvis Costello is joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic for two shows at the Hollywood Bowl this week that the former Angry Young Man of the British new wave movement has gone soft now that he's turned 60.
In fact, Costello...
PASSINGS: Deke Richards
Deke Richards, 68, who as part of the songwriting and producing team known as the Corporation was responsible for many of the Jackson 5's early hit songs for Motown Records, died Sunday at a hospice in Bellingham, Wash., of esophageal cancer, according to...
Muse for Jimmy Webb's 'MacArthur Park' treasures those days
TUCSON —Sitting on a swivel bar stool near the kitchen of her home outside Tucson, Suzy Horton Ronstadt listened to the familiar words of songwriter Jimmy Webb's pop-rock classic "MacArthur Park." Ronstadt smiled at first, then had to blink as...
Kenny Edmonds, Toni Braxton: Rhythm and blues, with life's bruises
Toni Braxton and Kenny Edmonds have history together as soul-music hit makers, which in the record industry is usually reason enough to rejoin forces.
In the 1990s he wrote and produced large chunks of her first two albums, both blockbusters with...
Beatles special comes together with a little help from their friends
Dave Grohl was on his way to rehearsals for a TV special marking the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' U.S. live television debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" when the panic set in.
"Suddenly it hit me: Maybe I ought to listen to the record...
Anna Gordy Gaye dies at 92; Motown Records figure
Anna Gordy Gaye, the sister of the founder of Motown Records and ex-wife of musical great Marvin Gaye, with whom she wrote a number of hit songs, died of natural causes Friday at her Los Angeles home, her family said. She was 92.
Gordy Gaye was an...
Johnny Rivers: the 'Secret Agent' of rock 'n' roll
Johnny Rivers sits in a booth at the retro-themed Mel's Diner in Hollywood and marvels at the pace at which not just his career but pop music in general moved when he was getting started half a century ago.
Within a span of a few months in 1964, Rivers...
Don Engel dies at 84; entertainment attorney represented major pop stars
Don Engel had only a small law firm in Los Angeles — just two or three attorneys in addition to him and his wife. But a phone call from Engel could strike fear among the loftiest executives in the music business.
Engel, who represented some of the...
Grammy Museum marks fifth anniversary with gala Motown salute
The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles started fifth-anniversary celebration activities Monday with a gala concert, dinner and auction that added more than $500,000 to the museum’s coffers to continue supporting educational and other programs. The efforts...
Nick Ashford of Ashford & Simpson songwriting team dies at 70
Nick Ashford, half of the Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson that penned elegant, soulful classics for singers Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye and funk hits for Chaka Khan and others, died Monday, his former publicist said. He was 70.
Ashford, who...
Esther Gordy Edwards dies at 91; sister of Motown Records founder
When Berry Gordy Jr. wanted to borrow $800 from his family to found Motown Records in 1959, he knew that the most formidable resistance would come from his oldest sister, Esther.
"You're 29 years old and what have you done with your life?"...
This time, it's Barbara Morrison's turn for a favor
Sitting in the hall that she operates in Leimert Park on a recent afternoon, Barbara Morrison is uncharacteristically sedentary. She recently lost a leg to diabetes. While she speaks with customary grace and cheer, the jazz vocalist is in a period of...
Right around the two-minute mark in John Legend's cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," his voice breaks and cracks a few times, sounding like it might break permanently, a messenger finally worn out from delivering such heightened emotions. Adele's ...
A series in Sunday Calendar about what Times writers & contributors are listening to right now ... Various artists, “Our Lives Are Shaped by What We Love: Motown’s Mowest Story 1971-1973.” The accepted narrative of Motown Records’ early years as a ...
A profile of architect Michael Arad, designer of the controversial Sept. 11 memorial
Last week LMFAO had the No. 1 song in America. Again. This time it was for the L.A. rap/dance/pop duo's ode to self-infatuation, "Sexy and I Know It" — an infectiously simple dance-floor ditty with a relentless rhythm and a video that has been viewed more tha
B.B. King, Mick Jagger and others will perform at the White House tonight, Feb. 21, in a program hosted by President and Mrs. Obama celebrating the blues. High school students from around the country will get to explore the blues during the day at the White Ho
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