It s actually accomplishing what we always started out wanting to do, that this would not just be what some would refer to as a one-and-done, or a Kumbaya moment where OK, we sang, we held hands, now everybody go back home. This is a commemorative year . even into the fall with Tulsa Ballet doing a full production and bringing African American artists and dancers from New York and an African American choreographer for a full production about the history of Greenwood, said Phil Armstrong, project director for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. This is the beginning. This is not just a time when we do this and never talk about it again. This is a launchpad: Every year we are going to look forward to commemorating and having some type of event that remembers and honors this history.
Marvin Gaye s What s Going On was released on 21 May 1971.
The album soon became Motown s best-selling album.
Five decades later the album s exploration remains as relevant today as it was when it was first written.
Motown wasn’t really known for its politically conscious music. Then came “What’s Going On.”
Released on May 21, 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War, Marvin Gaye’s album became a monster, spawning three hit singles on its way to becoming Motown’s best-selling album to date. The album also marked a turning point for Motown and for Marvin Gaye as an artist.
As a scholar of race and culture in the U.S. and the host of the weekly radio show “Soul Stories,” I am struck by how many of the themes Gaye explores remain as relevant today as they were when he first wrote about them 50 years ago.