Detroit, Michigan is known as Motor City and Motown due to its history as the center of the American auto industry. The city was settled by French explorers in the 18th century and became a major industrial center in the 20th century, attracting many Southern migrants. Motown Records was founded in Detroit in the 1960s and the Motor City nickname is still used today in public works and businesses. Other nicknames for Detroit include D-Town and Rock City.
Detroit, Michigan is a major urban center in the Great Lakes region of the American Midwest. The center of the American auto industry for more than a century, it has many nicknames deriving from this status, including Motor City and Motown. These nicknames originated in the early 20th century among new residents who came to work at the city’s auto-building plants. Motor City and other nicknames have since been used in the names of businesses, public works, and artwork related to or based in the Detroit area.
Like many areas in the Midwest, Detroit was settled by European explorers in the early 18th century. These explorers were French and named the city Detroit after the nearby Detroit River, a strait connecting Lake Huron and Lake Erie, two of the Great Lakes. The word Detroit is, in fact, French for strait. The settlement became part of the United States in the 18th. Over the next century it developed into a major industrial center, as did many cities based on the Great Lakes, then a major American hub for transportation and travel.
By 1900 Detroit had become a manufacturing center for horse-drawn carriages and carriages. This led automotive pioneer Henry Ford to build his first automobile assembly plant in the area in 1903. Many other American automobile companies soon followed suit. This industry boom coincided with a decline in jobs in the American South, leading to a mass migration of Southerners to Detroit and other Midwestern cities. These new residents referred to Detroit by nicknames such as the Motor City.
This northward migration of Southerners, many of them African Americans, continued into the 1940s and 1950s. In addition to the Motor City, they called Detroit Motortown, later shortened to Motown. In 1960, record producer Berry Gordy named his Detroit-based record company Motown. The label released many early hits by pioneering musicians in the rock, soul and blues genres. Motown Records remained a Detroit institution through the rest of the 20th century.
In the 21st century, the Motor City moniker has been semi-officially adopted by the city, appearing in the name of public works, such as the beautification initiative called the Motor City Makeover. Nightclubs and other businesses incorporate the nickname into their names. Many popular songs refer to Detroit as the Motor City, including the Motown classic “Dancing in the Street.” Other nicknames for Detroit include D-Town, the D and Rock City, a name inspired by a famous rock song from the 1970s.
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