The Supremes

The Supremes

As we are going to be writing a song one in the style of the 60's and one in the style of the 70's I have started by looking at The Supremes and analysing one of there songs to give me an idea of how their music from the 60's was created. This will allow me to have a deeper understanding of Mowtown and the purpose of the genre, as well as giving me inspiration for a starting point when writing my own song.

Stop! In the Name of Love

This song was written in 1965 by The Supremes who were a popular girl group in the 60's. When listening to the song, Stop! In the Name of Love, I found they fit into the genre of mowtown. I knew because they used intrustuments such as tamborines, cow bells, drums, xylophone and trumpets, all of which are commenly used in mowtown songs. The song had a moderate tempo and had a verse, chorus structure, also used in most mowtown songs.

The lyrical meaning of the song is not wanting a person you love to leave you, the music supports the message by contrasting to the lyrics, the backing music was quite upbeat while the lyrics were sang with saddness, this is because mowtown music is always upbeat.

By doing this analysis I have learnt how to pick a song apart a recognise each part and how to contributes to the final song, this will aid me when it comes to analysing other songs as well as creating my own, as I will be able to reflect on my own work and ensure I have thought about each aspect such as the intrustments, tempo, genre, struture and lyrical meaning.

The Supremes were a big deal in the 60's as civil rights were just coming into place. Having an african-american girl group would have been outrageous before 50's but was now socially acceptable due to more rights happening around the world.