Of course when Ray Charles decided to attempt to sign a deal that allowed him to keep future recording rights he did not go to Motown because no one at Motown would have had any idea if they could make money on such a deal. To understand the marketplace, the expected returns both short term and long term, and have the money to promote a recording artist under such a contract was more than a rag-tag bunch of hustlers could handle. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, but generally if you had the talent and could prove it then Atlantic Records was where you wanted to be. Otherwise you ended up with Motown and the promise that if you worked hard enough then, golly gee, you just may have a chance to make it big. Few did.
Motown's formula was basic, relied on many of the same musicians for different artists, and stuck to a tried and true sound they thought would guarantee hits. A truly innovative artist may find such an atmosphere stifling. Which is why real talent would go to Atlantic. Not that Atlantic put artistic creativity ahead of money, but if you had the talent the choice was simple. Ray Charles was at Atlantic, but so was Led Zeppelin. Not only did Atlantic make money in the blues, but also the rock and roll and heavy metal cultures that Motown could not compete. This diversity gave Atlantic the talent pool and the money to develop new talent and therefore ensure their company could make even more money. Well, it usually is about the money, isn't it?
Motown's glory days came during the 60's, and their reputation is still built on the major artists of that era; The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, among many others. Compared to Atlantic and their longer and storied history this was small potatoes.
Today, the music industry no longer can support so many major labels due to competition and the new distribution medium introduced by the internet. To maximize profits record labels have become good at narrowcasting their product to the consumers most likely to purchase their product. In short, this has allowed artists to make more diverse music than ever before, and also be much better at producing the type of music they are "into". Why should a rap artist such as Jaz-Z write music that would be broadcast on a local FM station that catered to classic rock? Due to similar market forces in radio there really are no more FM stations that cross the cultural divide between these two mediums. But there once were FM stations that would. Jay-Z, for example, now has the opportunity to narrow his music to a specific market as never before therefore capturing a larger market share of that niche. Even the vaulted New Yorker which started by boasting to potential advertisers that they did not edit their magazine for the old lady in Dubuque made the assumption that any such old lady would gladly purchase a well edited magazine. Today's R&B artists make no such assumption about any subculture and are only producing music with narrow casting in mind.
And rappers are hardly alone. Try using the new iTunes Genius with any fairly large collection of music and you will find that the list of songs provided does not cross genres. You won't find Jay-Z with Guns and Roses, the assumption being that no G&R fan would listen to "that" style music.
Comparing this reality to the UK market and you quickly notice that the airwaves are filled with music that crosses genres and age groups. And, of course, they need to cross cultures with such a condensed and smaller population than in much of the States. And this is the culture that produced Amy Winehouse. For her to be successful she needed to be talented, and she needed to appeal to the widest possible audience and what better way to do this than to take the R&B sounds of the youth subculture and combine melody and singing of the Motown sound? And it worked! And it easily exported over to the States, thus contributing to an already expanding array of British artists on the American charts.
Today Atlantic Records has been combined with Electra Records. Although Motown is still around no one argues that its better days are ahead. Atlantic was bought by Warner and eventually all talent was decimated by the dotcom implosion and aftermath in the AOL/Time-Warner fiasco. As a parting gift Atlantic gave us the sounds of Norah Jones. Well, indirectly anyway. The music business talent that had been running Atlantic for years was laid off by AOL and they needed somewhere to go. Many chose Blue Note Records, a reputable small competitor and new home to Norah Jones and these are the people that helped her early career.
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