Marvin Gaye Analysis

Life Through the Eyes of Marvin Gaye Throughout America’s history, people have been expressing their thoughts and feelings toward social injustices by violently acting against condescending authoritative figures, but not everyone chose to share their point of view this way. Marvin Gaye was an extremely influential individual during the late 1960’s to the early 1970’s, where he not only sang about his personal problems and past relationships, but also provided a voice for the people of his city who were being marginalized and scapegoated for things that were unreasonably implicated. After being absent from the music industry due to personal problems, he returned to the scene with politically charged and socially empowered songs that were inspired

It was a shout of desperation for the thousands of young Americans who were basically used as suicide bombs to fight for a country that oppresses minorities and criminalizes innocent people. This song was not only a reflection of things happening in the inner city, but also a form of exposure to outsiders. Moreover, in the introduction of this song, there is a consistent piano key note that repeatedly plays to act as a foundation of the song alongside with the distinctive sound of the triangle giving it that groovy melodic rhythm. Similar to “What’s Going On”, this song also has a Cuban clave, which gives it a Latin infused twist to the traditional soul rhythm. Overall the rhythm of this song, is very mellow, but there is an emphasis on the chord changes. The refrain of the song “Makes me wanna holler” is repeated throughout the song to share to the audience the despair that many Americans feel in regards to the violation of their constitutional rights where they are restricted to freedom of speech and access to resources. There is a harmony between the “dah dah dah dah…” and the instrumentation, that not only has that soulful Motown beat to it, but Gaye also vocalizes these

He was probably the most widely recognized enigmatic Motown singer of all time as he rose above his struggles early in his careers. He managed to fight through his inner troubles and found light after he was hidden in the shadows. With the emergence of his album “What’s Going On”, he was able to share his perspective on things that no other artists during his time challenged to do, which was to speak against the socio political issues affecting African-Americans, and minorities as a whole. Gaye has the deserving title of being called an influential person of his time because his songs reflected on the hardships prevalent in the inner-city in regards to excessive policing and poverty. His songs “What’s Going On” and “Inner City Blues” were a form of peaceful protest because it related and supported the black power movement. Americans that were constantly being oppressed and marginalized listened to his music because it gave them hope for a better future. Although he died at the age of 44, his music is still relevant to the socio political and financial struggles many Americans experience