Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and the Civil Rights Movement: A History and Analysis

<p>Marvin Gaye’s first self-produced album, What’s Going On is a timeless work in American popular music. This thesis illuminates many of the intricacies that went in to the creation of the album and discusses its relevance during the Civil Rights Movement. Chapter 1 provides a background in popular music analysis and the genre of Soul music. Chapter 2 includes a biography of Gaye and a brief history of the Detroit record label known as Motown. The collaboration of musicians and engineers at Motown, along with Gaye’s influences from his personal life and music career, had profound effects on the outcome of What’s Going On. Chapters 3 and 4 provide analyses of individual songs from the album, discussing lyrics, form, harmony, and melody. Chapter 5 discusses the album as a whole by comparing it to a song cycle. </p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Music

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Music

Year dc:date.available

2019

Author dc:creator

• Barnhill, Jacob

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Samantha Inman
• Dr. Stephen Lias
• Mr. James Adams

• music theory
• soul
• marvin gaye
• civil rights movement

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/234

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1267