Soul man Marvin Gaye, prior to releasing the classic single "What's Going On" was looked at as a sex symbol that many women wanted. Most of the songs that he and the other Motown artist came out with had a signature sound because they were all composed in the "Snakepit" which had one piano, in which they had to figure out their song before coming upstairs to compose. With this in mind, the lyrical content of "What's Going On" was not in continuity with other songs in Motown or nationally. Marvin's brother Franklin had recently came from Vietnam during the time the song was written and shared his thoughts and what he had seen with Marvin and greatly influenced the song to be released.
Marvin faced many obstacles in releasing the song from both the family and business executives. With his family never being able to talk about anything cumbersome but only looking at things as love in a fantasy way, Marvin never ventured into a topic like what was in his coming single at that time. On a business level though, Berry Gordy called it "The worst thing I've ever heard in my life", so he obviously had no support from where he used to get it from prior to releasing the single; but with his determination, Marvin decided he would not release another song until Motown allowed "What's Going On" to be released.
Musically, the single was different from what was normally expected of a Motown song with a heavier jazz influence inspired by the jazz group "The Funk Brothers" that were proud to be in the making of something more original than what they had normally made. Another thing that set this song apart from other pop songs is the lyrical content as discussed before, as most artists would not dare talk about any problems going on in society.
The Marvin Gaye single is influential to me because it shows that having heart can get you places, maybe not immediately, but with persistence can definitely pay off in a major way with the single selling 100,000 copies in the first day. The song itself is influential because of the mixture of jazz coming from a pop artist, making it a great song.
Hello Donovan Hawkins,
ReplyDeleteI agree that people in Motown didn’t step outside the box when it came to including everyday horrors in their songs. Reality back then seemed to be suppressed by a very clean-cut image that was intertwined into the entertainment and music Industry. Not much has changed except for the fact we have Hip-Hop music now, but even that is starting to be watered down and sugar-coated. I believe music should be caught in its rawest form and left up to its creator to refine it, not the suit and ties trying to make money off of it. I would hope that professionals from our University keep open minds and open ears to what can potentially be the next step in sonic evolution.