Michigan Music Blog

An early rock/pop artist, Del Shannon’s birth name was Charles Weedon Westover. He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up in Coopersville, and lived from December 30, 1934 to February 8, 1990. He was found dead by his wife by way of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 55 – many blame the anti-depressant drug Prozac for his suicide.

Del Shannon was best known for 1961 number 1 hit “Runaway”, though he would have several songs following this that also reached the charts at one position or another – “Hats Off To Larry” made it to #5 on the Billboard charts and “Little Town Flirt” made it to #12 on the list.

Though Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis, Tennessee and lived for a brief moment in Buffalo, New York, she grew up the fourth of five children in the city of Detroit, Michigan. She was a child prodigy with stellar piano skills and an angelic voice – but when she gave birth at the age of 14 her plans of following a music career had to be put on hold.

In 1960, now with 2 children, Aretha continued her pursuit in signed with Columbia Records, and even turned down contracts from Motown and RCA. She had little success with Columbia however, and soon signed onto Atlantic Records, which launched her gospel music career into stardom.

One of the more popular bands on the music scene today, the White Stripes consist of Jack White on vocals, guitar, and other instruments and his wife, Meg White on drums and some occasional vocals. The two were married in 1996, and started playing music together privately in 1997 when Meg first learned to play the drums. Later that year, on July 4, 1997 the duo made their debut at the Gold Dollar in Detroit. Their first self-titled CD, on the independent record label Sympathy For The Record Industry, was engineered at the Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit, Michigan just a few years later in 1999, and they’ve been making great music together ever since.

Berry Gordy was born on November 28, 1929 in Detroit, Michigan as the seventh of eight children. In an early effort to strike it rich quickly, Berry dropped out of high school in the 11th grade to pursue a boxing career – which he did until 1950 when he drafted by the U.S. Army for the Korean War. After his return, he enjoyed limited success as a songwriter and singer before deciding to take on the world of record producing. In January of 1959 Berry Gordy borrowed $800 from his family and founded Tamla Records, an R&B Record. Nobody knew that these would be the founding roots of the Motown music scene as have come to know and love it today.

Contrary to popular belief, Grand Funk Railroad is not a funk band whatsoever – they’re name is based on a stretch of railroad that went through their hometown of Flint, Michigan, called the Grand Trunk Railroad (though a few of their songs do have a funky sound to them). This is, however, a fairly large and well-known railroad system in the state of Michigan.

In 1970 the band was awarded for RIAA gold albums, more than other band that year. While the 1970’s were no doubt the band’s best days, they have seen continued success throughout the 1980’s, 1990’s, and even more recently, into the 21st century, as well.

Many people don’t realize that the 70’s rock band Brownsville Station is from the state of Michigan, as well. In fact, many of you may not even realize who exactly Brownsville Station is; but there is no doubt you’ll know them by their most famous song, “Smokin’ In The Boys Room”.

Seen as one of the earliest teen rebellion anthems, Smokin In The Boys Room gained Brownsville Station huge success all across the nation. It topped out at #3 on the record charts, but its impression on American youth and culture had already been made. The song was even covered in the 1980’s by Motley Crue.

Of course Brownsville Station had many other songs, beside Smokin In The Boys Room – but this is by far their most notable work.

If you are a fan of the local music scene in Michigan, or a fan of garage/punk rock music, you’ve no doubt heard of The Detroit Cobras. You’ve probably even met some of them and partied with band members – there have been over a dozen different ones over the years, and the band has only officially been around since 1995. Hailing from Detroit as their name implies, the Detroit Cobras are all about lineup changes, and often have a different touring band than that which is on their studio releases. They’ve had 5 albums on 2 different labels to date, their most recent release on Bloodshot Records, called “The Original Recordings” was released in 2008.

Robert Clark Seger was born on May 6, 1945 in Dearborn, Michigan – he is of course much better known as the singer/songwriter Bob Seger, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

He’s done many famous songs, including Night Moves, Like A Rock, Old Time Rock And Roll (named one of the Songs of The Century in 2001) and many, many more. He’s done numerous studio recordings, released several live recordings and has done a lot more, too – such as appearances on other albums and so on. According to Seger, his musical influences include Little Richard and Elvis Presley and James Brown.

William Robinson Jr. was born on February 19, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan – though he is probably known a lot better by the name ‘Smokey’ Robinson.

Smokey Robinson is an R&B / Soul singer, and a former record producer and record executive, as well. He is a singer and songwriter, and plays the piano to boot. Smokey Robinson’s music was so popular and so soulful, that The Beatles’ John Lennon even made several mentions of Robinson as one of his musical influences.

Smokey Robinson is still alive today – as of this writing his is 68 years old, and has even had some singles make it onto the American R&B Charts as recently at 1999; albeit at a rather poor rating.

Well since we had an article about Eminem, we’re almost obligated to mention his main crew, known as The Dirty Dozen or D-12.

Early on, the rap group known as D-12 was made up of Eminem, Bizarre, Eye-Kyu, Killa Hawk, Fuzz Scoota and DJ Proof. Some members would leave and some would join throughout the years, and eventually tragedy would strike not once, but twice.

Bugz, one of D-12’s members was killed one day at a picnic before a show in Detroit. DJ Proof also died a few years later from a gunshot wound to the head – this also happened in Detroit, and on the infamous 8 Mile Road no less.

Most certainly everybody is aware of the white rapper Bruce Marshall Mathers III, better known as Eminem or Slim Shady. From the hard, ghetto streets of Detroit (most notably 8 mile road), Eminem rose through the rap game’s ranks quickly, and is one of rap’s all time best selling artists, with over 70 million albums sold worldwide.

He has had his share of the spotlight besides his music, too. Troubles with his on again, off again wife and numerous lawsuits were all the headline news for quite a while. It seems now he’s kind of faded away – but who knows what Slim Shady has in store for the future.

Love him or hate him, everybody in Michigan knows Ted Nugent – hell some even know him personally. Known as The Nuge and the Motor City Madman, he loves hunting and is quite conservative in a lot of his views. He was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948, and has played with the Amboy Dukes, The Damn Yankees and Damnocracy during his career – though he is probably most known for his self-titled act and his solo career that followed.

Ted Nugent has been known to play hundreds of shows a year, and from 1967-1973 averaged 300 shows a year, and 200 shows a year from 1974-1980. Whether or not you are a fan of his music or his views, you can’t deny the fact that this man’s definitely worked for his money.

Whether or not you like her music, really you don’t get much more famous than Diana Ross. And she too is from Michigan. Born and raised in Detroit, Diana Ross was amongst the earliest pioneers of the soul scene in Motown while leading the group The Supremes; of course she enjoyed a great deal of success with her own solo career, which she launched in 1970. And it is in fact still going to this day.

To date she has recorded nearly 60 studio albums, and was named “Female Entertainer of the Century” by Billboard Magazine. To back it up, Diana 18 number one singles in the U.S. – a Guinness record.

Yes, believe it or not, the material girl herself is from Michigan, too.

Born in Bay City, Michigan in 1958 with the birth name Madonna Louise Ciccone, she was raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan and she is certainly no stranger to the area.

She was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she has won numerous awards for her work in both music and acting throughout the years – and for good reason, too. According to the RIAA, she is the best selling female rock artist in the 20^th century, and the 2^nd top selling female artist in the United States.

Another horrorcore rapper from the influence of the Insane Clown Posse, Esham delivers his style uniquely by combining it with acid rap – something that isn’t seen much. His underground raps talk mostly about death, murder, drug abuse and Satan worship – topics that have sold records since releasing his first one in high school.

Esham is another success in the rap game of Detroit – though he was born in New York Esham grew up on 7 Mile – not too far at all from the infamous 8 Mile. Esham wasn’t exactly the typical Detroit gangster, however. He studied piano, guitar and trombone in high school, and listen to bands such as Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne.

These guys made it real big on the Grunge scene in the mid to late 1990’s when the radio hit “Freshmen” hit airwaves nationwide – not many know that they were actually from Lansing, Michigan, and even done some recording in Studio C in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They were formed in 1991, and although no official word has been given in whether or not they will ever perform together again, they have released a CD as recently as 2001. Besides this, many members continue to make music with side and solo projects, making this possibility of a reunion tour and maybe even some new material very likely.

One of the earliest innovators and pioneers of both shock-rock and gothic music, Alice Cooper is also from Detroit, Michigan. Born as Vincent Damon Furnier in 1948, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona after a serious of childhood illnesses.

He has one of the longest musical careers to date; currently spanning 5 decades, and covers all genres from garage punk and rock and roll to heavy metal and even a bit of death metal. Even if he is getting up there in age, his contributions to rock and roll and heavy metal can’t be denied – he has influenced nearly every band out there today in some form or another.

Not many people realize that Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw Michigan, but indeed he was. In 1950 Stevland Hardaway Judkins was born; he would later change his name to Stevie Wonder and take his chance with the Detroit soul scene at the time. Obviously he would enjoy a great deal of success in the years to come.

Born blind, Stevie signed with Motown records when he was only 12 years of age; he could play the drums, the bongos, the harmonica and more. And while he still plays a variety of instruments to this day, he is mostly known of course for his amazing singing and keyboard skills.

Robert James Richie, born in Romeo Michigan is probably much better known by his stage name, Kid Rock. Having sold 25 million records worldwide to date, his success cannot be denied and comes mostly from his white-trash attitude and style that he and his backing band, Twisted Brown Trucker present.

Along with singing and songwriting, Kid Rock is also a multi-instrumentalist, playing the guitar, bass, banjo, keyboards, harmonica and more over the years – he also has many various awards and nominations under his belt, and has played roles in numerous television shows and movies. He is also known for his relationship with ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.

Perhaps the originators of horrorcore rap music, the Insane Clown Posse consists of two twisted, demented wicked clowns; Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (Joseph Utsler). From near Detroit, the Insane Clown Posse has been active on the rap scene for quite some time, when they started off known as the Inner City Posse.

The name changed to the Insane Clown Posse after visions of a dark carnival, which was also the inspiration for their demonic lyrics. Now they keep audiences entertained all over the country by spraying countless bottles of Faygo on them and reciting their twisted rhymes in true superstar fashion.