Revive Detroit’s economy with music?
Leave it to the national media to speculate how Detroit should fix its woeful financial state. But today brought even more bad news from the auto industry, and National Public Radio makes a good point — Detroit needs to tap into some new marketable commodities.
The story, which can be heard on npr.org and calls the Detroit music scene a “rich treasure trove,” runs through a musical history of Detroit, playing clips of everything from The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” and Mitch Ryder’s “Good Golly, Miss Molly” to Eminem’s “8 Mile.”
But the real interesting part of the story is less about Detroit’s musical past and more about monetizing it in the future.
NPR’s Morning Edition, April 23: Detroit lawyer Gregory Reed is convinced that Detroit can still turn its music scene into a tourist destination. “We haven’t cultivated our music culture or our talent to create the industry around it except through Motown,” he says. “We haven’t harvested, we haven’t nurtured it, and we have literally neglected it.”
Reed has been named head of a newly created Detroit Entertainment Commission. He says businesses need to see that there is money to be made. “You’ve got to plug in the business side,” he says. “Because other than that, the talent will leave the city, and it’s just a cycle.”
Reed says the commission’s goal is to focus on entrepreneurs with private funds who realize music is a valuable resource that the city hasn’t fully tapped.
But even without a physical place to point to as the home to Detroit’s music scene, the city continues to cultivate talent that it exports to the country and the world.
Here are some classic Detroit music clips that are sure to help boost spirits, if not the entire local economy.
“Where Did Our Love Go?” The Supremes
“Jenny Take a Ride,” Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
“The Hardest Button to Button,” The White Stripes
