On the other hand, how can Motown/MGM work?
Yeah, that's still been tricking me, especially since I'm not sure how it would kick off with what kind of "purchase" Berry Gordy could or would make, if at all possible. My best guess is either just acquiring a major stake in the company somehow, making a deal with Kerkorian in company control, or somehow getting a "merger" together.
How it goes from there can be tricky too, since, at least at this point in research, I'm not too sure what Gordy's management could be like or who he'd be able to appoint that could help the studio get off the ground again. I could imagine at least some improvements over our timeline automatically with a.) The head at least being interested in actually making movies rather than trying to gut what's there and focusing on hotels, b.) Some possible new and fresh perspectives depending on whom he appoints, c.) A more genuine push into making TV (As Motown was already doing with its TV specials and series, which they originally created Motown Productions to do), and d.) Some possible synergy between MGM Records and Motown Records.
Admittedly though, all of this pretty loose speculation, but it's probably the best way to kill two birds with one stone since I'm not too sure what else I could do for an internally-driven PoD for either Motown or MGM (At least, without basically making two separate PoDs and/or trying to make two timelines which cover the same track of time). Plus, the idea of these two companies coming together and the possible movies they could make is really interesting to me, regardless of realism, lol
I've been looking into several Motown-related things myself and found out that, among other things, Motown had a bunch of labels for various kinds of music. Tamla Records predates the Motown name, and it, Motown Records and Gordy Records (preceeded by Miracle Records - "if it's a hit, it's a Miracle") were three major divisions of Motown (as well as non-US label Tamla Motown).
However, they had tried to go outside of the specific niche the name "Motown" became associated with. They had two attempts at a country label - Mel-o-dy (which actually didn't start out that way, being another R&B subsidiary at first) and Hitsville (formerly Melodyland). They signed a rock band called Rare Earth and had a rock label named after them, later succeeded by Prodigal Records which Motown purchased, and yet another attempt at a rock label was
Morocco Records (MOtown ROCk COmpany). These are more of a curiosity in Motown's history, at least that's how it comes off to me. Maybe there's potential somewhere in here? I can't say for certain.
Moving on from here, there was a TV series called
Sidekicks, and its pilot TV movie was produced by Motown. Don't know how useful is that fact, but it may be something worth a thought. Motown also had a video game subsidiary, apparently, but only two games that Motown Software released were
Bébé's Kids and
Rap Jam: Volume One, and neither was any good if reviews are to go by.
I still want to hang on the idea of Motown as a name in music growing beyond Motown sound, if for no reason other than me listening to "Flashes" (a song from the trio Tiggi Clay released on Morocco Records which I mentioned above) a lot recently. It is a vibe, in my defence.
From what research I've done, I'm admittedly not sure what the difference between Motown's three main labels (Motown, Tamla, and Gordy) were, outside of certain business reasons (Radio wanting different labels, slightly different appeals, not wanting somewhat similar artists to compete, etc.). But yeah, Motown expanding beyond their original sound is real interesting to me too, and probably necessary if they'd want to continue on as their own company. Partnering/joining with MGM Records could help them get their foot in the door with different sounds too, assuming I go with the MGM joining idea.
The only thing I wonder about is whether they can avoid the same decline as happened in our timeline. While I'm still researching a lot of this, much of the decline of Motown, as it looks to me, came from several factors, including the competition from other labels that added black music to their rosters, an inability to go on new sounds or take in new artists, and arguably Berry Gordy himself, tragically and ironically, as his insistence on creative control and avoiding certain social or political topics (Alongside several instances of unfair royalties that sent off HDH and others) possibly contributed to this stagnation (It would push the Jackson 5 to move to a new label in 1975). Maybe the era of "New Hollywood" could influence him to allow more creative control and sounds in Motown?
Also, cool as a Motowns game company is, that was made post-MCA sale, so by that point, it had essentially "lost" by what I'm trying to consider for the timeline.
I think Berry / Ross becoming Motown's Anthony and Cleopatra had a lot to do with the decline.
They looked for a superstar rather than a broad platform of fantastic acts.
They could have gone bigger on Disco. Was Edwin Starr still with them when he had 'Eye to Eye Contact' ?
That focus on superstars is arguably another point as well. And yeah, a move to capitalize on disco could work, although it may bite them in the butt if disco ends up with the same backlash it did in our timeline. It would definitely do them good to have wider or more evolved genres, though. Edwin Starr had left the label by that point, aparently, as "Eye-to-Eye" was apparently distributed by 20th Century Fox Records.
