The Motown sound has influenced Caribbean music

The entrepreneurial spirit of its founder, Berry Gordy, continues to inspire soca star Machel Montano.

"I relate to the Motown scenario. I think someone like Berry Gordy realised that he had to put these many talented people in a certain area and have them live sort of a lifestyle of producing music of a high quality,” he told BBC Caribbean Magazine.

The Trinidad and Tobago national who runs his own music company, HD Records adds: "I think I see ourselves, meaning my HD family, as running parallel to that in a different time; we are coming from the Caribbean and we represent soca music."

The Jamaica experience

Another Caribbean star whose style is firmly rooted in the Motown tradition is Rita Marley who founded the I-Threes vocal group.

Before finding fame as a backing singer for Bob Marley & The Wailers, she was in a trio called The Soulettes.

	Rita Marley: a soft spot for the Supremes

Rita confessed to a particularly soft spot for The Supremes:

Surprisingly for some, one of the key players in Caribbean music in the so-called ‘early days’ was former Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

He founded the West Indies Limited Recording label(Wirl) back in 1951 - a full eight years before Berry Gordy set up Motown in Detroit in 1959.

Despite Jamaica's confidence in its own evolving musical identity, Mr Seaga says that some concessions were made to the production of Jamaican music in the wake of Motown's global success:

“There is a feeling that the ska was slowed down in rhythm to coincide with the type of rhythm that was coming out of Motown.

“Some feel it was a tribute to Motown because it was a black label where an African American entrepreneur had created a black label with black musicians.”

According to the former record label executive, "Ska ran for four or five years and then it was overtaken by the rock steady."

	Edward Seaga: former prime minister and ex music industry executive

Mr Seaga, who was to go lead Jamaica politically, pointed out that “this phenomenon was something that was highly regarded in Jamaica as a breakthrough and that the music was slowed down for that."

Missing the Motown magic

While Berry Gordy's creative far-sightedness has been acclaimed, Monserrat's Arrow wonders why the Caribbean doesn't have its own 'region-wide Motown’.

"I looked at it and said it's a pity we didn't have an equivalent of that in the Caribbean,” the Hot Hot Hot star lamented to BBC Caribbean Magazine.

According to Arrow, had the Caribbean had a Berry Gordy equivalent, island music collectively, whether reggae, soca, calypso would have had a larger universal influence.

“I always felt that outside of reggae music, the other aspects of Caribbean music have not been fully exploited to international levels.”

Arrow is among a handful of Caribbean soca artistes who have had big international hits.

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