WHAT'S GOING ON

WHATS GOING ON

Marvin Gaye, with irrepressible charm and astounding talent, was one of Motown’s most dynamic and popular performers. With his charm and a number of song hits in a style of what all R&B artists were currently doing, Gaye was a “sex symbol” for Motown. Things took a turn with the album What’s going on, which contained lyrical content of socially conscious themes of poverty and the Vietnam War just to name a few.

Marvin Gaye was struggling with various issues in 1970, one being his brother Frankie returning from Vietnam. Gaye wanted to start addressing more social and political issues with his music and when Obie Benson initially came up with the idea of writing about the corruption surrounding everyone, he positioned it to Marvin who loved it. The problem was that the record company wasn’t interested in protest music. For an R&B artist to start writing political music and addressing these issues in their lyrics would be completely breaking the rules. Many obstacles followed because of this. Berry Gordy was insisting that Marvin would be ruining his career if he released an album of protest songs but Marvin was so ecstatic about this concept album that he kept pushing forward. When the song “What’s going on” was finally recorded, Gordy stated, “It’s the worse thing I’ve ever heard in my life”. His attitude eventually changed after they sold 100,000 copies of the song the first day it was released.

The What’s going on album stood out from any other R&B album at that time in many ways. The album was saturated with innovative arrangements and included more studio musicians than your average Motown album. The lyrical content and concept of the album raised the bar, due to the fact that no other R&B artist had previously stepped outside the realm and wrote protest music. This album opened the door for many musicians such as Stevie Wonder and Bobby Womack. I personally love this album and admire revolutionary albums like this. This album not only opened the door for many other R&B artists but was very influential for many Hip Hop and Rap artists as well. The lyrical content of many Rap artists are clearly stating, “What’s going on” in their neighborhood and in society as well. You will often find many Hip Hop artists sampling from this album as well. One of my favorite examples would be the song “Six Feet Deep” by The Geto Boys. Needless to say, if you haven’t REALLY heard What’s Going On from beginning to end, take a good listen.

Howard, D. N. (2004). Sonic alchemy: visionary music producers and their maverick recordings. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp.