Hypertext Magazine asked Bob Campbell, author of Motown Man, “What is the significance of ‘Motown’ in the name and how did you arrive at that title?”
Motown Man examines the idea or dream of a colorblind society – whether it’s possible or even desirable at this point. It’s not a book about the great American Motown Sound, as the title might suggest, nor is it set in Detroit.
The notion of colorblindness, and the dishonest usage of the word in matters of race, is intriguing to me, as a writer. However, the title came to me very late in the process, during the editing and revision phase. I had a different working title, which I really liked but no longer seemed to fit as well as the story unfolded.
Motown, as in the Motown Sound in music, signifies an enlightened, almost enchanting, moment in American history, particularly in the early to mid-1960s. On some level, it was a period of great possibilities and the Great Society ideas. Motown, with those sweet and buoyant lyrics, provided the soundtrack for that sense of hope and shared humanity that cut across racial lines. Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. even called his label “the sound of young America.” At the same time, it was a period of tremendous social and political upheaval, with more on the way.
Likewise, there was so much more to Motown, a depth and evolution, than that which tends to exist in the popular imagination. (It is characterized for me as the post-David Ruffin years of The Temptations or Marvin Gaye’s What Going On album.) However, that earlier uplifting, “sound of young America” take is voiced by one of the novel’s main characters.
The wordplay of the title also pays homage to Black vernacular and the colorful way in which Black folks talk in relaxed settings and comfortable surroundings. And so the title – Motown Man – sprang from a conversation between two characters. Afterwards, in reflecting on that exchange of dialogue, I thought: That’s it.
Bob Campbell is a writer based in Flint, Mich. His creative nonfiction and essays have appeared in Belt Magazine, Forge Literary Magazine and Gravel Magazine. He is a contributor to Belt Publishing’s Midwest Architecture Journeys, published in October 2019. Bob was a staff writer for the Flint Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader and Detroit Free Press. He was also an electrician at AC Spark Plug, formerly a division of General Motors, before moving into journalism. His debut novel, Motown Man, will be published by Urban Farmhouse Press in October 2020.