Books like One nation under a groove by Gerald Lyn Early

A visual history of Motown Records, the Detroit-based independent record company which became a style unto itself, a prolific and hugely successful production line of suave, sassy and sophisticated music through the sixties, seventies and eighties. Featuring extensive, specially commissioned photography of treasures gathered from the archives, this publication also captures the graphic and design iconography that underpinned Motown's extraordinary creativity. Packed with fresh insights gleaned from scores of interviews with key players, this revealing book delves into the workings of the Motown machine and details how a dedicated team of backroom believers, white and black, turned a small family business into a popular music powerhouse.

American studies scholar and former deejay Alice Echols captures the experience of the Disco Years--on dance floors, at the movies, in the streets, and beneath the sheets. Disco may have presented itself as shallow and disposable--the platforms, polyester, and plastic vibe of it all--but the disco scene carved out a haven for gay men who reclaimed their sexuality on dance floors where they had once been surveilled and harassed; it thrust black women onto center stage as some of the genre's most prominent stars; and it paved the way for the opening of Studio 54 and the viral popularity of the shoestring-budget Saturday Night Fever, a movie that challenged traditional notions of masculinity, even for heterosexuals. But while exploring the cultural milieu, Echols never loses sight of the era's defining soundtrack, which propelled popular music into new sonic territory, influencing everything from rap and rock to techno and trance.--From publisher description.

"1960s Detroit was a city with a pulse: people were marching in step with Martin Luther King, Jr., dancing in the street with Martha and the Vandellas, facing off with city police. And through it all, Motown provided the beat. This book tells the story of Motown - as both musical style and entrepreneurial phenomenon - and of its intrinsic relationship to the politics and culture of Motor Town, USA."--BOOK JACKET.