What’s going on is a song written but Marvin Gaye, who was a soul singer and songwriter during the 1960’s and 1970’s. He would produce his own records and most to of the time his songs talked about controversial themes. The song what’s going on was released on May 21, 1971. This song does talk about the Vietnam War and it also talked about police brutality. The song ended up being really popular and it was even ranked the fourth greatest song of all time in the rolling stone magazine. The idea for this song first came from a member of Four Tops who witnessed police brutality on the streets. He was also inspired by his brother Frankie who returned from the Vietnam War and the horror stories that he told Marvin.
The Vietnam War started i
...n 1955 and the United States didn’t enter the war until 1965. The war ended in 1975 so this song was written and it came out during the time of conflict. This song definitely reached the audience that it needed to reach. Thousands of people were listening to this song and it also reached the top charts. It was being played all over the radio and it also sold over 100,000 copies the first week. In an article called Marvin Gayes “what’s going on?” by Lydia Hutchinson (2017) she said that this song has become a timeless spiritual anthem. This song brought attention to the issues going on at the time and this song is still prevalent today. Police brutality has been going on for so long and to this day it is still happening. It is crazy that a
song that was written in the 70’s can still be relatable to current events.
A really important lyric that I found in the song was when Marvin Gaye sang “We don’t need to escalate, you see war is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate.” (Gaye, 1971). These lyrics talk about how instead of going to war we should be spreading love and that is really what he wanted to do. He wanted people to stop spreading so much hate and fighting with each other and for people to just spread the love. The chorus in the song was also really important because it discussed police brutality by saying “Picket lines and picket signs, don’t punish me with brutality.” (Gaye, 1971). Marvin Gaye just couldn’t understand why police brutality was happening to innocent people. This song sided with wanting to end war and police brutality.
The song was more of a slow song that was in the genre of soul music. In the beginning of the song you can hear a soprano saxophone that made it have a jazz feel to the song. This song has a mixture of homophony and Polyphony layers. You can hear different voices and instruments in the background while Marvin Gaye is singing. You can hear the saxophone during the song and also used box drums, piano, and the keyboard. You can also hear the backing vocals, which were sung by Marvin Gaye, Lem Barney and Mel Farr. Marvin Gaye also recorded two vocal leads to see which one he liked better. The engineer put the two vocals together by accident and Marvin Gaye actually liked it so kept it
like it. The song is more of a conjunct melodic. It kind of stays the same beat and melody throughout the song, but there are some parts where it is a little disjunct melody towards the end. The meter of this song sounds like it measure in 4 beats. The range in the song change from high to low throughout the song. This piece is really unique, it has a lot going on the back, but it comes together and the beat is really good.
This song is really good at bringing awareness to what is going on in the world even to this day. I really liked how in the beginning of the song, it starts with what sound like a conversation and then it goes straight into a saxophone. The song is really laid back and unique and it did reach a lot of people all around the United States. I also really liked the lyrics and after listening to the song for a while it gets really catchy. Overall, I really liked this song and the message that the song brings because it can bring awareness and start a conversation.
