The Motown Story: The First Decade, or A Star Is Born

ABSTRACT Commissioned and approved by Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, The Motown Story: The First Decade (1971) is a five-disc box set condensing the first ten years of the Detroit soul label’s output, focusing on chart hits and major artists. The set constructs an “official story” of Motown’s history to date, emphasizing certain aspects of its corporate philosophy and musical identity. It also revises the label’s history by promoting some artists while mostly or entirely erasing others. The disproportionate space allotted to Diana Ross with and without the Supremes indicates not only that Ross is Motown’s candidate for breakout success in the 1970s, but also that, as a cross-media, cross-racial star, she represents the perfected result of the Motown “process.” Using concepts of curation and popular folklore, this article examines ways in which The Motown Story positions the label and Ross for their leap into the new decade—a leap that didn’t land, in line with the failure or fizzling of many aspirations at the decade’s turn. Heavily retouched but nonetheless poignant, the set captures a confident vision of a future that, subject to real time and real events, never came.