Not ONE Motown song??
I very much appreciate Motown and what Berry Gordy did for black music in general, and Detroit in particular.
Many, many great, great songwriters, producers, and performers. Often, all three at once.
I like a lot of those recordings, but to these ears anyway, much of it is too polished and palatable in service of appealing to white listeners.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Yet my preference has always been for the stuff coming out of Muscle Shoals, Atlantic Records, Chess & Stax/Volt.
I refer to the former, especially, as "Dirt underneath the fingernails music."
I love pop confections as much or more than most, but there's a "realness" to soul music (as there is to gospel, country & western, roots music, blues, folk, and even funk) that stirs something deep inside me.
Aretha. James Brown. Wilson Pickett. Sam & Dave. Albert King. Marvin Gaye. Booker T and the MGs, etc.
And of course Stevie.
Gritty and pretty.
You can like both.