"Motown Junk" is an early stand alone single from the rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released on January 21, 1991, and peaked at #94 on the UK Singles Chart. The track has long been a live favourite from the earlier part of their career to the present day. The title track shows the band during their pinnacle of iconoclastic attitude, such as in the lyric, "I laughed when Lennon got shot". The Motown in the title refers to famed 1960s and 1970s label Motown Records. The song also displayed their diverse cultural scope with a Public Enemy-sampling intro and an outro sample of The Skids.

Both B-sides featured on the single ("Sorrow 16" and "We Her Majesty's Prisoners") were on the later singles "Slash 'n' Burn" - "You Love Us" respectively - from the band's debut album, Generation Terrorists. The single was the band's first from their then record label, Heavenly Records. Despite its relatively poor charting, the single gained the band much attention from the press.

The single's cover features a watch recovered from the Hiroshima bomb site depicting the exact moment of detonation.

Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band formed in 1986 consisting of James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar), Nicky Wire (bass, lyrics), and Sean Moore (drums, percussion). The band is part of the Cardiff music scene and were at their most prominent during the 1990s. They are colloquially known as "The Manics" or simply "Manics". Manic Street Preachers were originally a quartet but primary lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards vanished on 1 February 1995.

In 1992, the Manics released their debut album, Generation Terrorists. Their combination of androgynous glam punk imagery and critical social lyrics about "culture, alienation, boredom, and despair" soon gained them a loyal following and cult status. The band's later albums retained a leftist politicisation and intellectual lyrical style while adopting a broader alternative rock sound.

Following Edwards' disappearance, Bradfield, Moore, and Wire persisted with Manic Street Preachers and went on to gain critical and commercial success, becoming one of Britain's premier rock bands. Altogether, they have garnered eight Top 10 albums, fifteen Top 10 singles, and have reached number one three times with their 1998 This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours album, the 1998 "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" single, and the 2000 "The Masses Against the Classes" single.