What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released May 21, 1971, on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1970 and March–May 1971 at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World and United Sound Studios in Detroit and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California.
The first Marvin Gaye album credited as being produced by the artist himself, What's Going On is a unified concept album consisting of nine songs, most of which lead into the next. It has also been categorized as a song cycle; the album ends on a reprise of the album's opening theme. The album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam War veteran returning to the country he had been fighting for, and seeing nothing but injustice, suffering and hatred.
What's Going On was the first album on which Motown Records' main studio band, the group of session musicians known as the Funk Brothers, received an official credit. The album features introspective lyrics and socially conscious themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War. What's Going On was both an immediate commercial and critical success and has endured as a classic of early-1970s soul. A deluxe edition set of the album was released on February 27, 2001, and featured a rare live concert shot at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center from May 1972.
In worldwide critics', artists' and public surveys, it has been voted one of the landmark recordings in pop music history and is considered to be one of the greatest albums ever made. In 2003, the album was ranked number six on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, placing that same position nine years later.What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released May 21, 1971, on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in June 1970 and March–May 1971 at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World and United Sound Studios in Detroit and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California.
The first Marvin Gaye album credited as being produced by the artist himself, What's Going On is a unified concept album consisting of nine songs, most of which lead into the next. It has also been categorized as a song cycle; the album ends on a reprise of the album's opening theme. The album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam War veteran returning to the country he had been fighting for, and seeing nothing but injustice, suffering and hatred.
What's Going On was the first album on which Motown Records' main studio band, the group of session musicians known as the Funk Brothers, received an official credit. The album features introspective lyrics and socially conscious themes of drug abuse, poverty, and the Vietnam War. What's Going On was both an immediate commercial and critical success and has endured as a classic of early-1970s soul. A deluxe edition set of the album was released on February 27, 2001, and featured a rare live concert shot at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center from May 1972.
In worldwide critics', artists' and public surveys, it has been voted one of the landmark recordings in pop music history and is considered to be one of the greatest albums ever made. In 2003, the album was ranked number six on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, placing that same position nine years later.false2023-01-16 09:47:42What’s Going On9.419981998-04-071998-04-0736FunkMotownPopR&BSmooth SoulSoul1114562173170514b6452-ee3a-30fa-a4ba-e2f67207a30bafdb7919-059d-43c1-b668-ba1d265e7e42c1fa4d2c-ec62-37d5-b01d-6df7f8fd2c90/media/data/media5/Music/Marvin Gaye/What’s Going On (1971)/folder.jpgMarvin GayeAlbumArtist/config/metadata/People/M/Marvin Gaye/folder.jpgMarvin GayeArtist/config/metadata/People/M/Marvin Gaye/folder.jpgMarvin GayeMarvin GayeMarvin Pentz Gaye Jr. (né Gay; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and musician. He helped shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, which earned him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".
Gaye's Motown songs include "Ain't That Peculiar", "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". He also recorded duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross. During the 1970s, Gaye recorded the albums What's Going On (1971) and Let's Get It On (1973) and became one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of a production company.
His later recordings influenced several R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo soul. "Sexual Healing", released in 1982 on the album Midnight Love, won him his first two Grammy Awards. Gaye's last televised appearances were at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, where he sang "The Star-Spangled Banner"; and on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever; and Soul Train.
On April 1, 1984, on the day before his 45th birthday, Gaye was shot and killed by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., at their house in Western Heights, Los Angeles, after an argument. Gay Sr. later pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, and received a six-year suspended sentence and five years of probation. Many institutions have posthumously bestowed Gaye with awards and other honors including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and inductions into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.