The company enjoyed local success and scored its first nationwide hits with singles by two of its earliest musical groups, the Miracles’ 'Shop Around' (1960) and the Marvelettes' 'Please Mr. Motown was founded in Detroit by Berry Gordy, Jr., a successful rhythm-and-blues songwriter. It was also the source of a variant of Black popular music that earned worldwide acclaim in the 1960s. Motown Record Company, one of the first large Black-owned music companies in America, was founded on this date in 1959.
