# What was the Motown "Wall of Sound"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 8, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323 "2009-07-08T13:04:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/1 "2009-07-08T13:04:24Z")
I’ve heard this term used from time to time about Motown - the “Wall of Sound” (most recently by Smokey Robinson on Spectacle, hosted by Elvis Costello, which I’m finding very interesting, by the way).
So, what was the Wall of Sound concept? How was it done, why was it different from other pop recordings?
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### Author:  [@Batboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batboy)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/2 "2009-07-08T13:22:40Z")
‘Wall of sound’ usually refers to a production style associated with Phil Spector, which sounds big and lush - like a wall of sound - because of doubling in the arrangement (more than one player playing the same thing at the same time), overdubbing/double tracking (a part being layered over itself multiple times), big orchestral elements in the arrangements, and finally the recording techniques themselves. Big reverb etc.
This is the first time I’ve heard of anyone talking about a Motown ‘wall of sound’, but one could easily draw parallels. Motown records made in the snakepit often used three guitars, acoustic and electric piano, multiple backing singers and overdubbed strings. Sometimes even two drum kits, and the (IMHO) crucial tamborine and congas. Even in arrangements for smaller bands, it’s often the unison lines that act to draw you in.
If you’re trying to hear it in your mind’s ear, imagine Abba or Beach Boy records. They’re often recorded in a simillar way, with multiple overdubs and lush, wide arrangements. When someone says ‘wall of sound’ to me in the studio, I know they’re describing that big, involving, enveloping sound.
If you’ve not seen it, check out the documentary ‘Standing on the shoulders of Motown’, which reunited the Funk Brothers (the musicians who played on most of those Motown records) to play together and talk about tracking the songs. Great stuff!
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/3 "2009-07-08T13:30:03Z")
> **[Wall of Sound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Sound)**
>
> The Wall of Sound (also called the Spector Sound) is a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios, in the 1960s, with assistance from engineer Larry Levine and the conglomerate of session musicians later known as "the Wrecking Crew". The intention was to exploit the possibilities of studio recording to create an unusually dense orchestral aesthetic that came across well through radios and jukeboxes of the era. Spector explained in 1964: A p...
Some more detail.
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### Author:  [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/4 "2009-07-08T13:33:19Z")
Not Motown, but two great example’s of Spector’s Wall of Sound are [here](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:jbfwxzq5ld6e) and [here](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:kzfoxq9gld6e).
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/5 "2009-07-08T13:55:54Z")
Back in the day, “The Wall of Sound” was Phil Specter’s trademark. For Motown, “The Motown Sound” said it all; here’s a [good description](http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1870975,00.html):
> [@](#):
>
> So what was the Motown Sound? Great melodies, lots of tambourines and hand clapping, blaring horns, interplay between the lead singer and his or her backup vocalists, driving bass lines and foot-slapping drum parts. In his still essential Motown history Where Did Our Love Go? Nelson George writes, “Motown chief engineer Mike McClain built a miniscule, tinny-sounding radio designed to approximate the sound of a car radio. The high-end bias of Motown’s recordings can be partially traced to the company’s reliance on this piece of equipment.” They knew people would be listening on their car stereos and on their transistor sets and they were going to do what it took to make their songs sound good and memorable. Even if you couldn’t put your finger on it, when a Motown song came on, you knew it.
Motown was the first black-owned record label to have cross-over hits. We could hear The Four Tops & The Supremes on KILT, along with the white rockers of the day. But there was nothing to prevent white kids from turning the dial up to KCOH, to hear slightly funkier stuff–like the output of our own [Duke/Peacock](http://www.houstonpress.com/2002-02-07/music/bobby-blue-bland)Records. And KIKK always had its fans–Yee Haw!
Motown tunes still sound pretty good to me.
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### Author:  [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/6 "2009-07-08T14:04:13Z")
It really produces an amazing effect. Something really innovating.
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### Author:  [@Notassmartasithought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notassmartasithought)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/7 "2009-07-09T02:27:02Z")
> [@Labdad](#):
>
> Not Motown, but two great example’s of Spector’s Wall of Sound are [here](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:jbfwxzq5ld6e) and [here](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:kzfoxq9gld6e).
Slight hijack, sorry.
**labdad** , I’m curious. Do you know why the same song has different recording times? Might some of the collections have used different recordings from the same session, or do you think it’s just dead air at the front or the back?
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/8 "2009-07-09T03:53:42Z")
Not being an expert or anything, but I’ve always thought that Springsteen’s _Born to Run_ was a fine example of the Wall of Sound.
Or maybe the song is just busy. 😉
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-motown-wall-of-sound/502323/9 "2009-07-09T03:57:52Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> Not being an expert or anything, but I’ve always thought that Springsteen’s _Born to Run_ was a fine example of the Wall of Sound.
>
> Or maybe the song is just busy. 😉
Yes, I’ve read that he was consciously trying to re-create that Wall of Sound, and that he and others, like Southside Johny of the Asbury Jukes, were huge fans of Phil Spector’s.