Celebrate Marvin Gaye’s 50th Anniversary of ‘What’s Going On’ | New Animated Lyric Video
With his brother Frankie back from Vietnam and struggling to find a job, the Earth showing signs of ecological distress, police brutality at a protest in Berkeley, and a boiling point of inequality in black urban neighborhoods, Marvin Gaye wrote a poignant plea that we might organize to address these often-overlooked issues.
Fifty years later, the influence and meaning behind one of R&B‘s first seamless concept albums, “What’s Going On,” continues to ring true. Calling out to a broken country, Marvin searched for reason and hope in a world that felt desperate and senseless. He opened the door musically, culturally, and politically for countless musicians over the last five decades to address, with a vulnerable depth and complexity, the injustices of our world.
CNN has aired their special “What’s Going On: Marvin Gaye’s Anthem for the Ages” first on May 9th, 2021 hosted by Don Lemon and featuring interviews from artists inspired by Marvin‘s masterwork including Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Maxwell, Sheila E., Spike Lee, Lee Daniels and Capitol Records artist Devon Gilfillian, whose most recent release is a cover of the full “What’s Going On” album.
Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” continues to be hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time. It was the first of Marvin‘s albums to break the top ten of Billboard’s Top LPs, spawned three #1 singles, at the time became Motown‘s best-selling album, decades later earned the #1 spot on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2020 list of “The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.”
Marvin Gaye continues to hold his place as one of the greatest singers, composers and producers in this half a century, and What’s Going On has proven that its timeless message and sound will continue to change the face of music for years to come.
