{"id":7712,"date":"2026-09-30T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=7712"},"modified":"2026-09-29T16:14:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T20:14:04","slug":"arachnophonia-marvin-gaye-whats-going-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2026\/09\/arachnophonia-marvin-gaye-whats-going-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Arachnophonia: Marvin Gaye “What’s Going On”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Arachnophonia<\/a> (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library<\/a>\u2018s collection.<\/p>\n

All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question<\/a> or to additional relevant<\/a> information from<\/a> around the web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s installment of Arachnophonia<\/a> is by student manager Griffin (class of 2027) and features Marvin Gaye’s classic 1971 album What’s Going On<\/strong><\/a>. Thanks, Griffin!<\/em><\/p>\n

Marvin Gaye<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What’s Going On<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Marvin Gaye\u2019s critically acclaimed album, What\u2019s Going On<\/em><\/a>, has been around my music rotation apparatus for some time now. Whether it’s playing in shops, in my mom\u2019s playlist, or playing the album on a long car drive to save my sanity, I\u2019m familiar with Gaye\u2019s magnum opus. That being said, when I saw the vinyl for this album newly shelved at the Parsons Music Library<\/a> I made sure to sit down and give the full album a listen again (when I wasn\u2019t 5 hours deep staring at asphalt and yellow lines). Although I shouldn\u2019t have been surprised, it is still amazing how magical this album feels even 55 years since its release.<\/p>\n

Marvin Gaye\u2019s beautifully emotional voice and tonal range make it impossible to not be a pleasure for the ear. His soothingly melodic vocal performance contrasts the very serious topics covered in the lyrics. Discussing the Vietnam war, race, poverty, peace, religion, environment, the whole album makes social issues the focus. Finally, maybe the most iconic piece of this album is its extraordinary orchestral production. It truly gives the feeling of a huge production and captures magic in a bottle. It\u2019s satisfying picking out all of the instruments being used. (For any fans of the Silk Sonic<\/a><\/em> album, the production is reminiscent of this album.) I highly recommend everyone give What’s Going On<\/a><\/em> a listen, and check out this vinyl at the Parsons Music Library<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Arachnophonia (\u201cArachno\u201d = spider \/ \u201c-phonia\u201d = sound) is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library\u2018s collection. All links included in these … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15223,15242],"tags":[61217,232526,231577,231701,232598,232599,15334,38163,38102,231324,232259,231329,230949,232185,232597],"class_list":["post-7712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collection","category-promotional","tag-arachnophonia","tag-arachnophonia-26-27","tag-griffin-m","tag-marvin-gaye","tag-motown","tag-motown-records","tag-popular-music","tag-rhythm-and-blues-music","tag-soul-music","tag-vinyl","tag-vinyl-collection","tag-vinyl-lp","tag-vinyl-records","tag-vinyl-revival","tag-whats-going-on"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7bb9Y-20o","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7712"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7718,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7712\/revisions\/7718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}