May 1971 marked a turning point. On the 21st of that month, the new Marvin Gaye album, titled What's Going On hit the shelves. This release didn't just change the course of soul music but of all popular music. Marvin Gaye spearheaded the Motown label. The Motown dream was of an America where black soul and gospel could be united with white pop music, and life could be one long love-song. But that vision would cause the artist to be pulled in several different directions at once. At the age of just 24, his singing partner (not a romantic partner) Tammi Terrell, with whom he had performed sublime duets, passed away on 16 March 1970 from a brain tumour. All around him, America was ablaze: the ghettos of the great metropolises were being flooded with drugs; the war in Vietnam was reaching its climax; African-Americans were excluded from politics and the economy: in short, the exquisite, magical soundtrack to America that Berry Gordy's label was putting out was totally at odds with the realities of the early 1970s.
This troubled soil, and the artist's tormented soul, would give birth to What's Going On. Marvin Gaye explained the big idea behind the album to Rolling Stone: "In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say. I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realised that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world."
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