Marvin Gaye vs. Berry Gordy and Motown

 Aidan Broussard

ENGL2016-45498-Fall 2025
Major Project
December 1, 2025

Marvin Gaye vs. Berry Gordy and Motown

Marvin Gaye vs. Berry Gordy and Motown. Marvin Gaye is widely considered the greatest and most influential R&B artist of all time. The two albums that showcase this are What’s Going On and Let’s Get It On, which signify his breaking away from the typical Motown hit-making style. In this course we’ve studied some conflicts and how they relate to and influence culture, society, and vernacular tradition, and this feud is no exception. The difference in this disagreement is that there is a clear winner: Marvin Gaye. He created political, sexual, and socially conscious albums that pushed music farther than Gordy envisioned. The two albums reached higher sales than others before, proving Gaye’s production to be better than Gordy’s in terms of Gordy’s goal of popularity.

While he released music after leaving the label, the vast majority of Gaye’s discography was released through Motown Records. The success of That Stubborn Kinda Fellow, Gaye’s second album, showed the record that his young R&B sound could make noise in the pop charts. Gordy and Motown executives wanted to continue this momentum, hoping Gaye would remain a reliable hit-maker within the signature Motown blueprint of upbeat, polished, romantic R&B songs designed for mainstream appeal. Gaye, however, wanted to grow and mature with different genres, such as funk and jazz. As David Ritz notes in his biography Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, Gaye “grew increasingly frustrated with being shaped into a hit-making product rather than a musician with something personal to say” (Ritz). Most of Gaye’s early non-R&B albums were commercially unsuccessful, leading to the label pushing Gaye back to the young R&B style with Moods of Marvin Gaye in 1965. The lack of success, however, did not stop Gaye’s desire to mature beyond simple R&B hits. 

The conflict culminated in 1970 with the recording and release of Gaye’s single “What’s Going On”. Gaye originally received the idea for the song from Obie Benson, a member of the Four Tops, and made it his own. Unfortunately, once Gordy learned that it was a protest song about police brutality and the war in Vietnam, he stated that it was “the worst thing I’ve ever heard” (Edmonds). He believed that releasing the song would ruin Gaye’s career. Gaye, always testing the restrictions of the label, refused to record more music until they released the song. The release of “What’s Going On” and the concept album of the same name and theme proved Gordy wrong, becoming some of the most popular releases in Motown history. (Hutchinson) The album opens with the title track and concludes with “Inner City Blues”, a five-minute twenty-seven-second song highlighting Gaye’s own financial struggles along with the overall state of the economy. The themes of financial instability, police brutality, the evils of war, and racism are prevalent throughout all nine songs; themes which show up throughout black music going forward, especially the genres of Hip-hip and Rap. The cohesiveness of the album moved R&B albums from simple collections of singles to interconnected concepts, as is shown by artists like Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind, and Fire. The album also moved soul music towards a medium of social and political commentary, not just entertainment (Werner).

Let’s Get It On, released just two years after What’s Going On, features the heavy sexual themes we see today in much R&B, such as that of Luther Vandross and D’Angelo. The album was not just purely sexual; its sexuality was the result of Gaye’s spiritual healing. After the many abuses of his father under the guise of Christianity, Gaye had repressed sexual feelings into his adulthood, leading to cases of impotence and feelings of guilt. Let’s Get It On showcases the journey of Gaye’s sexual healing in his spiritual healing (Ritz). 

After his major successes, Gaye continued to progress his sound through different genres. His next albums include a disco record and a commercially unsuccessful concept album about his divorce from Berry Gordy’s sister, Anna, and his strained relationship with his new wife, Janis. In Our Lifetime was the last record Gaye released with Motown Records, due to their releasing it without his permission. During this time, Gaye also struggled with abuse and suicidal thoughts, even attempting suicide by ingesting a full ounce of cocaine (Des Barres). His first and only album released during his life outside of Motown Records was Midnight Love, recorded in London after his divorce from Janis was settled. It became one of his most popular, reaching heights similar to Let’s Get It On. It included the song “Sexual Healing,” which has since been sampled and covered by multiple artists. 

Marvin Gaye was murdered by his father on April 1, 1984, while intervening in a fight between his father and mother. Several albums and compilation albums were released posthumously by several different studios. During and after his life, he influenced many artists, genres, songs, and albums. It is no doubt that R&B would not be the same without the writing of Marvin Gaye, with his many diverse styles and themes; in fact, he is one of the main creators of Neo Soul. He pushed cohesiveness, protest, and politics with What’s Going On, and sexuality, smoothness, and spirituality with Let’s Get It On. His influence, however, may have been smaller had he not grown to prominence with Motown, or if he had never feuded with Berry Gordy. His sound and styles continued after his death through Soul, Funk, R&B, Hip-hop, and Rap. He remains one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time.

Works Cited

Des Barres, Pamela. Rock Bottom: Dark Moments In Music Babylon. Macmillan, 1996.

Edmonds, Ben. What’s Going On? Marvin Gaye and the Last Days of the Motown Sound. Canongate, 2001.

Hutchinson, Lydia. “Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”.” 31 March 2017. Performing Songwriter.

Ritz, David. Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye. Da Capo Press, 1985.

Werner, Craig. A Change Is Gonna Come. University of Michigan Press, 2006.