Michigan Music History
Why is Michigan important in music?
It is important, for instance, Motown… that was huge, so many hits in the 50s came out of that place… very interesting history in itself and where these guys all spread out to (the writers that is, not performers) It was Berry Gordy who made this happen, and quite frankly probably is enough to use for this little essay to prove that Michigan was influential to music…. let’s name a few, Saginaw Michigan…Stevie Wonder and Detroit’s The Four Tops.
ok Besides Motown, lets think about where pop, punk, hip hop, etc. has been influenced since then and the artists of Motown. Let’s start with Bay Shore, Madonna, a Michigan native. Quite an impressive history of success there. How about Iggy Pop, aka godfather of punk. This Ann Arbor native influenced whole generations later inventing some of the practices we have today on stage for punk acts…. it started with his band The Stooges.
How about Alice Cooper? Shock rock originality there, often repeated by so many bands each decade later…
Bog Seger, Detroit blue collar rock, this guy just got admitted into the rock n roll hall of fame in the last few years… wrote a plethora of hits… and one of them even to be redone by a successful metal/hard rock band metallica, who in their own efforts have shapped the music scene.
Recently acts like Eninem and Insane Clown Posse have made their huge marks on the pop hip/hop markets. Again, shock value of wearing evil clown make up. Oh ya Eninem’s group D12…
Red Hot Chili Pepper’s songwriter/singer Anthony Kiedis, Grand Rapids Michigan, has contributed with writing partner Flea to influence music for the last 20 years. Interesting note is that RHCP made their first single debut with a Stevie Wonder song.
Turn back the clock again, Mustang Sally was written in Detroit and by Wilson Picket, Detroit native. Hank Ballard wrote and recorded “The Twist” in Detroit in 1958 – before Chubby Checker played it as a cover tune.
It is said that three Detroit artists are primarily responsible for the introduction of techno: Derrick May, Juan Atkins (Japanese telecom) and Kevin Saunderson, with Juan Atkins coining the term “techno.” Don’t forget about the techno project “Adult” is from Detroit. Plastikman counts too, hard to say, went from England, to Canada (Windsor) to Detroit. his father was a robotics engineer for GM, so there ya have it, Detroit.
Detroit is one of the top five cities contributing music artists to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, with 23 Detroit artists/groups that have been inducted. Detroit’s newest inductee is Benny Benjamin of the Funk Brothers in March 2003.
Also forgot to mention Gardner Cole, from Flint, has contributed to a lot of artists and movies. Mostly he is credited for writing the Madonna song “Open your Heart” but he has a lot more listed on his credits than just that.
Finally, Ludwig Von Beethoven’s grand nephew emigrated to work at the Detroit Railroad… no he wasn’t a musician but he is Beethoven’s blood, which is good enough to me!
Revision here: I just wanted to add a few I had not known that were from Michigan. Jason Newsted from Battle Creek, Smokey Robinson from Detroit are added to this post now.