Artist: Marvin Gaye · Year: 1971 · Label: Tamla / Motown · Rolling Stone Rank: 1 / 500
Before What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye was Motown’s velvet voice: a hit machine, a romantic symbol, the soundtrack of a thousand slow dances. After What’s Going On, he became something else entirely: a reporter, a prophet, a man who dared to ask the most uncomfortable question possible in the middle of the American dream: “Do you really know what’s happening out there?”
This isn’t just a soul record; it’s a continuous, 35–minute prayer about war, poverty, addiction, ecology and faith, wrapped in strings and groove so warm you almost forget how hard the lyrics punch.
From Hit Factory to Crisis of Conscience
At the end of the ’60s, Marvin Gaye was exhausted. The Motown schedule was brutal, his duet partner Tammi Terrell had died after a long illness, and the Vietnam War was tearing apart the United States. Gaye’s own brother returned from the war with stories that didn’t fit the optimistic image of Motown’s polished singles.
While Berry Gordy wanted more radio–friendly love songs, Gaye wanted to confront reality. He fought the label to release “What’s Going On” as a single, and when it became a hit, he used the leverage to demand full creative control over an entire album. The result is one of the first true “auteur” records in mainstream soul.
Sound, Songs and Studio Alchemy
One of the most striking elements of What’s Going On is its flow. The songs bleed into one another, as if the whole record were a single extended suite. Saxophone lines, ambient studio chatter, and layered backing vocals make it feel like you’re stepping into an ongoing conversation rather than pressing play on track one.
The title track sets the tone: a lush, jazz–tinged groove with shimmering strings and percussion that never rushes. Gaye overdubs his own harmonies, creating a “multi–Marvin” choir that became a signature technique. “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” anticipates environmental concerns decades before they became mainstream pop topics, while “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” rides a darker, tense groove that translates social frustration into rhythm.
The production, led by Gaye with musicians from the Motown house band, softens the political blow with warmth: congas, bass lines that move like water, horn arrangements that feel closer to cool jazz than to pop soul.
Impact and Legacy
What’s Going On changed not only Marvin Gaye’s trajectory but the role of Black artists in mainstream music. It proved that you could be commercially successful and politically explicit, spiritual and sensual at the same time.
The album became a blueprint for generations to come: you can hear its DNA in everything from Stevie Wonder’s ’70s masterpieces to D’Angelo’s Voodoo, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and beyond. Whenever an artist uses lush, live–band arrangements to talk about systemic injustice, Marvin is somewhere in the background, nodding.
How to Listen Today
The best way to experience What’s Going On is front–to–back, with no shuffle, as a single emotional arc. Start by simply letting the sound wash over you; on the second listen, focus on the bass lines and the background voices, which often comment on the main vocal like a Greek chorus.
If you’re a SlaveToMusic reader interested in production, pay attention to how the album balances clarity and haze: the mix is warm and soft, but every instrument has its own breathing space. It’s protest music that never screams— it sighs, pleads, and still hits just as hard.