Marvin Gaye "What's Going On"

Prior to Marvin Gaye recording “What’s Going On” his image was more of a handsome, clean cut, more of a sex symbol. His songs were all Motown songs, upbeat, love type of songs. It wasn’t until he saw the world start to go mad, that Marvin Gaye decided to alter his image.

Marvin Gaye’s brother came back from The Vietnam War, and told Marvin all about it. Marvin saw how they treated the soldiers after they came back from the war, through his own brother’s struggles. His brother also told him about how life really was over there, and that he would give up his own food to go in the garbage, so the starving children digging for food could eat. Marvin’s disgust for the reality of the situation of the world is what made him want to make a difference, instead of ignoring the problem.

Not only was “What’s Going On” not the Motown type of song, but Marvin Gaye was married to Barry Gordy, the founder of Motown’s sister, Anna. Barry Gordy didn’t want to release the song because it didn’t go with the traditional Motown sound that had already been established. Barry didn’t want to try anything new, and he wasn’t going to make it easy for Marvin either. Barry thought that by releasing this type of song would ruin Marvin’s career, and Motown’s reputation also. Because of Marvin’s previous success at Motown, and his strong will, he took his stance on the songs release by protesting any further Marvin Gaye Motown Recordings until the song was released.

Prior to “What’s Going On”, the Motown sound was more about love songs, or upbeat R&B, they were popular, and aside from Marvin Gaye, they had many of the great artists of the time on their label. The daring release of “What’s Going On” was a style unheard of for Motown. The song was about war, the killing, starving people, all the negative, and depressing things that were going on in the world. It was more a plea to stop all the awful things going on in the world instead of covering them up. The song also created what became Marvin Gaye's sound, by recording Marvin singing, and doubling up the two to create a large vocal sound, almost like his own background singing, or reverb.

The impact of “What’s Going On” was more effective that ever imagined. It opened the doors op for artists and producers like myself to be able to find new ways to open people’s eyes up to the world. I too like to make music that has meaning, rather than the constant popular, “what sounds like everyone else”, meaningless music that seems to flood the market. I want to also make music that people can relate, or learn something from, music that impacts the world in a good way.