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What's Going On Marvin Gaye Analysis

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Sean Walsh
Explorations in Music What’s Going On - Marvin Gaye

Introduction

This essay will analyse the piece What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye, based on it’s melodic, harmonic and rhythmic content. It will also consider the form, structure, instrumentation and use of dynamics in the piece, while providing a contextualisation of the piece to convey where it sits in a broader context, historically, socially and politically. In addition, how it relates to its genre, what influenced the piece and what has the piece influenced will be explored. The creative processes involved in the recording and production of the piece will also be examined.

“What’s Going On” is a song by American recording artist Marvin Gaye. The piece is ranked at #4 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest songs of all time list (Carter, 2011). It could be said that this piece of music is one of the most important politically charged songs of modern day music. The song has been hailed by critics and music listeners alike. Bush (no date) describes What's Going On as not only a Marvin Gaye masterpiece, it's the most important and …show more content…

The CEO of Motown, Berry Gordy, had said to Gaye that “What’s Going On” was the worst record he’d ever heard and completely refused to release the piece. Dyson (2005) states that Gordy was irritated with the song's musical tributes to jazz and nervous about making something political. Furthermore, Gaye was seen as a Motown hitmaker which could be argued that making a politically charged record would be detrimental to his career. However, Gaye believed that “What’s Going On” was an important record that needed to be heard by the masses and refused to record any new material until “What’s Going On” was released. Eventually, with the help of lower executives at Motown and while Gordy was on holidays, the song was released and from that day some would say it changed the legacy of Marvin Gaye

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