If you were growing up in the 1960's, you were a Beatles fan, a Rolling Stones fan, or a Motown fan.

Vanity Fair has a tribute to Detroit's Motown Sound, in honor of its 50th year. Almost everyone has heard the story: Berry Gordy, founder of Motown, started his recording company by borrowing $800 from a family member. Modeling it after the assembly-line production he saw in Detroit's auto industry, he created popular music for young audiences by assembling writers, stylists, musicians, and talent with one goal in mind - to produce hit songs.

The Motown Sound was all about the foot-stomping beat. It was the stepping stone from church gospel to 1970's style dance disco. But it was also the first grand-scale venture promoting black artists to a white buying audience. Although many white artists covered Motown, it was rarely in place of the original black artist's recording - a practice common throughout the 1950's.

The artists are household names today: Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and, of course, the Jackson 5.

There were many others. Much of what has been written about Motown and its artists has largely dealt with the scandals, the breakups, and the climbs to stardom.

But Motown's sweet ethereal love songs played against a backdrop of civil strife, race riots, and the Vietnam War. And aside from Sammy Davis Jr. and the great Nat King Cole, we had not seen African-American artists like those Gordy was bringing into our living rooms.

It was a stunning and remarkable achievement. Oprah Winfrey once described the experience of seeing the Supremes on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time; she recalled quickly calling her whole family to tell them that "colored people were on the TV."

It's hard to believe it was ever that rare of an event.

It's even harder to imagine a world without Motown. Thank you, Mr. Gordy.