Motown Record - An Influence on the Music Industry?

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Started by Berry Gordy back in the late 1950's to start recording music by a singing group called, at that time, the Matadors, in Detroit, has had an impact throughout the 1960's & 1970's, & even in the 1980's. Furthermore, it is known as the most successful record company, & probably the most well-known corporation, started by an African American. On a side note, The Matadors changed the group name to The Miracles. Numerous times, they had #1 records throughout the mid- & late 1960's, only to be replaced by another #1 record by by that same company, or, like in 1969, they even had one song that only hit #2, because another song released by the same company took the #1 spot. They had quite a few songs written &/or by Bill 'Smokey' Robinson & Norman Whitfield & Barret Strong, also, the trio of Eddie Holland Jr, Lamont Dozier & Brian Holland (commonly known as the HDH team). Eddie & Barret also had sung a few good songs during the early days of Motown as well. Going into the 1970's, they still had #1 hits released by the label. During this decade, they moved out of Detroit, Michigan, to California, the official reasoning being that Berry Gordy wanted to try to expand to movies. This decade also saw many artists of sorts leaving the label for other ones. Norman Whitfield left, & started his short-lived Whitfield Records, & had a few hits with Rose Royce & their songs Car Wash that was used for a movie by the same title. The HDH team also left Motown to start Invictus Records & Hot Wax Records, record companies that did not last very long. The 1980's saw a decline in record sales, but they still had good music being released, until Berry sold the record company to MCA in 1988. It is just my opinion on this, but for me, there was not really anything big that happened since then. Diana Ross had a lot of trouble getting a hit, & it was the same with Smokey Robinson. This does not mean that nothing good got released by the label, & it is possible that maybe I missed something. The only good thing that I recall was that the backing band behind the singers did finally get recognition, & we got a glimpse at who was who in a movie titled Standing In The Shadows Of Motown, as well as a couple of autobiographies written by some of the artists. There were also two miniseries of two of the groups that had been with the Motown label, as well as a theater show called The Dream Girls that was based on The Supremes. So - does anyone have any favorite artists &/or songs? Maybe even a favorite decade, being that the music did change as time went by. I am also sure that many bands, groups, & musicians would name either the record label's music or at least one of their artists as an influence in their own music as well. I'm also sure that the phrase "sunshine on a cloudy day" starts a song annoyingly playing in your head.