Page "Marvin Gaye" Paragraph 50

Gaye's first recordings involving social commentary occurred a couple years before working on What's Going On, including " Abraham, Martin & John " and " The Onion Song ", two songs of which gave Gaye hit success in Europe where it charted mainly in the United Kingdom pop chart.

When Gaye began working on What's Going On, only a few R & B artists and pop artists in general had ever composed a full album of social issues on one record.

Though social issues had been discussed by R & B artists ranging from groups such as The Impressions and The Temptations, talk of political and social commentary on an album was uncommon in Motown, which advised its artists not to delve fully into discussing serious topics.

Early in his career, Gaye had been affected by events such as the 1965 Watts riots and asked himself once, " with the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?

" When Gaye called Gordy in the Bahamas about wanting to do a protest record, Gordy cautioned him, " Marvin, don't be ridiculous.

That's taking things too far.

" Once Gaye presented Gordy with the album, Gordy accused him of risking ruination of his image as a sex symbol.

The album became a success, however, and Gaye tried working on a follow-up but stopped work on it after Motown failed to promote the satiricial political song, " You're the Man ".

Following Gaye's death, several of Gaye's social commentary songs that had been unreleased including " The World Is Rated X " and " Where Are We Going " started showing up in compilation albums.

What's Going On would later be described by an Allmusic writer as an album that " not only redefined soul music as a creative force but also expanded its impact as an agent for social change ".