Motown exhibit steps out to LBJ library
The 60th-anniversary hits keep coming for Motown.
The Grammy Museum is set to announce an expansive, colorful exhibit dedicated to the Detroit-born record company, opening April 13 at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.
“Motown: The Sound of Young America” will feature vintage stage outfits from acts such as The Supremes, The Temptations, Four Tops, The Jackson 5 and The Miracles, along with instruments played by the Hitsville studio band, The Funk Brothers.
The 3,000-square-foot exhibit also will include several interactive displays: Visitors can play drums to The Temptations’ “My Girl,” step onstage to perform The Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love” and put their own songwriting twist on a half-finished composition created for the occasion by Lamont Dozier of the Holland-DozierHolland hit-making team.
Also on display will be video features with Motown artists, staffers and others, many of them filmed backstage at last month’s taping of “Motown 60: A Grammy Celebration” in Los Angeles. Universal Music, meanwhile, has assembled several Motown song playlists for users to stream on their phones while browsing the exhibit.
The Motown exhibit will run at the LBJ library through January and is likely to tour after it wraps up in Austin.
Founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in January 1959, the company that became Motown Records grew into the country’s biggest black-owned enterprise. One big goal of the new exhibit, officials say: demonstrating how Mo-