Analysis Of What's Going In By Marvin Gaye

In 1971, Marvin Gaye, a renowned Motown artist, published a concept album that would become a huge hit for both critics and casual listeners throughout the US. Written towards the end of the Vietnam War, What’s Going On would touch on subjects including war protests, unification of the American people, and the poor treatment of veterans. Gaye’s brother served in Vietnam, and much of this album shows the brother’s thoughts and feelings when he returns. Throughout his album, Marvin Gaye uses his own experiences to give us a look at why he and many others had a dissatisfaction with society and the government during the Vietnam War era in the United States.

Johnny B Goode has the chord progression of 12 bar blues. The song includes a guitar, drums, tenor vocal, bass and piano. The guitar techniques used in this song are bending notes, pull offs and slides. The piano fills on a blues scale. Chuck Berry doesn’t use many vocal techniques; it is all the same sort of tone. The texture is thick, playing as a melody dominated homophony but the intro is monophonic with the guitar alone. The song uses lyrics that are repetitive “Go Johnny Go”. The guitar uses little riffs in this song. The time signature of the song is 4/4.

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

“What’s Going On” is a song by American recording artist Marvin Gaye. The piece is ranked at #4 on Rolling

He mentions the fight in the House of Representatives that broke out, in relation with the civil rights bill. He also about the equality between black and white people in the 1960’s. At this point this is being read the words “all is calm, all is bright” this completely contrast from the subject about racism but the song is representing a sense of tranquillity as if everything is okay when it is not.

The message of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On is that the abuse of the government's authorities will not lead to peace and harmony within the United States. Marvin Gaye sings about his through his lyrics that show the destruction inflicted upon normal families. He sings; “Mother, mother/ There’s too many of you crying/ Brother, brother, brother/ There’s far too many f you dying” (1-4) which show the families that have been affected by things such as poverty, or war, or police brutality, which was prominent and harmful back in the 1970s. Gaye sings about how “war is not the answer/For only love can conquer hate” (9-10). He is saying that the violence between people will not solve the problems they currently face and that to conquer problems they need to be united. It’s clear that Gaye is singing about police authorities when he sings “Picket lines and picket signs/ Don’t punish me with brutality” (13-14) and references to the signs used by protesters and workers on strike. When Gaye sings “Don’t punish me with brutality” (14), he is singing about the police force used against protestors although most of them were not harmful. Marvin Gaye sings about the violence between civilians and authorities. He sees the change needed and how The main message of the poem shown throughout the lyrics is that the authority's force against civilians who are against governmental actions is not useful, nor will it bring harmony within the country.

2. Is the intent of this song to promote or protest the Vietnam War? Why?

Ludacris does a remarkable job of portraying his message about the struggles that some adolescents are faced with. “Runaway Love”, by Ludacris, featuring Mary J. Blige (2007), represents the theme of struggle through hip-hop and rap music. It is about little girls who are “stuck up in the world on their own.” They have to take care of themselves because the people they are around do not care about them. They range from nine to eleven years in age, and their goal in life, at such a young age, is to run away from home. Ludacris is trying to get the listener to realize the struggles that even children have to face because adults are not the only ones who have problems, like most people believe. He is very successful in

In the film "Lean on Me", Joe Clark, a fictional version of the real Mr. Clark who was the principal at an inner-city high school in Paterson, New Jersey, is the ultimate example of an authoritarian leader. In the movie, Clark approaches his job at a decaying academic setting with single-minded goals: to clean up the school, physically and academically, in order to help the students who have potential to graduate and to get rid of the ones who are destined to fail, according to his perceptions. Clark 's leadership style has been both widely praised as successful and a model for similar such schools, and has also been criticized for its bullying tactics. This paper will discuss Clark 's methods of leadership, his style and tactics as

The song centres around the warfare associated with change “battle outside And it is ragin’”. The imagery used reflects the society the song was written in and the ideals of a society that was focused solely on war during that era (the 1960s). It also displays the different attitudes that generations have towards change and the warfare that can occur from this. Authoritarian figures “Senators, Congressman...Mothers and fathers” are used to demonstrate the conflict between the older and younger generations. “Don’t stand in the doorway Don’t block up the hall” shows how the older generations, may try to prevent

Marvin Gaye’s first hit “What’s Going On?” makes use of symbolism in his general topic covering the agonizing conditions of the everlasting matter

The song "The message" by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five depicts the struggle of young black adults growing up in society. The struggle to make it out of poverty can be compared to survival of the fittest in a jungle. Only the strong would survive and adapt to the changes to fit in. Trying their best to make a betterment with whatever little society offers. Being a young black African American in the early 1980's was not easy. It was easier to live the fast life and gain fast money by being part of the drug community. Drugs, guns, and money was glamorized and this is what the young adults looked at as a means of getting rich. In the songs, a young man talks about how he is trying hard to hold on to the little bit of sanity he has left in his soul. He talks about the struggle he endures while trying not to get pushed over the edge. He was born an innocent child who's blind to the ways of mind kind. Growing up he faced many challenges and had to fight

In my opinion, Kendrick Lamar, an award-winning rapper and songwriter, has one of the best abilities to describe his distressed and abused lifestyle in Compton, California. He is not your original cliché artist who does not speak about anything meaningful. Kendrick, also known as K. Dot, is one of the most well known and most respected rappers in this era. Not only does he speak about his gloomy past, but he also speaks about his fortunate future. His ability to give detailed representations of his struggles and his story telling allows me to, metaphorically, enter the mind of Kendrick Lamar.

to music critics Jackson’s album Thriller seemed to be inspired by “a mixture of several genres

“Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” by Pete Seeger became a popular anti-war protest song during the 1960s. This song did not only protest against the Vietnam War but also made their generation more aware about the global problems. Songs like “Not Ready to Make Nice” by Dixie chicks about freedom of speech was written after they received death threats for singing against the Iraq war, protests against the violation of human rights. But music is not only used to protest, it is also used to give hope and optimism. “We Shall Overcome”, a song sung by Guy Carawan together with the Montgomery Gospel Trio and the Nashville Quartet, is perhaps the best known example of civil rights song. Instead of blaming the government, this song registered a feeling of hope and faith among African-Americans during the civil rights movement.