What’s Going On

For a discussion of musical form in Contemporary Music Theories, we talked about Marvin Gaye’s classic “What’s Going On.”

The multitrack stems are in circulation, and they are quite a revelation. Here’s a nice walkthrough with Questlove and Motown executive Harry Weinger.

For their first real project, I am asking the class to pick a song and analyze its structure. They will identify and name each section, and give its start time and length in measures. Then they will identify all the vocal and instrumental parts in each section, along with any other sounds they hear. Hearing section changes in a song is not hard; you have been doing it intuitively for your entire music-listening life. The process has been mostly unconscious, though. How do you actually know when you have gone from the verse to the chorus, or from the chorus to the bridge? You might notice a change in the melody, the chords, the instrumentation or arrangement, the density, the loudness. A clear section change will use several of those techniques; a more ambiguous one might only use one or two. There are a lot of ambiguous cases.

A couple of students guessed that song sections might be marked by a change in time signature or tempo. That’s logically possible, but it doesn’t happen in practice. Songs usually stay in the same time signature throughout, unless it’s an extreme form of prog or metal or math rock. The tempo will usually be steady too, aside from the slight speeding up or slowing down that humans naturally do. If you feel the song suddenly “get faster” or “get slower”, it is almost certainly because the groove is becoming more or less dense or energetic. Maybe the hi-hats start playing on every sixteenth note instead of every eighth note; that will make the song feel “faster” even though it’s actually just busier.

How long is a measure? In nearly all current pop, rock, dance, hip-hop etc, measures are four beats long. Occasionally you will come across a song where the measures are three beats or six beats long; even more rarely the measures will be some other number of beats long. Whatever the number is, it is usually consistent through the whole song. We will get into time signatures and their complexities in a few weeks.

The next question is, how do you know how fast to count? There is a lot of subjectivity here. “What’s Going On” has a tempo of about 100 beats per minute, but you could also plausibly count it as 50 BPM or 200 BPM. One student pointed out that the correct tempo is the one that feels comfortable to count out loud. Counting the song at 50 BPM (“one… two… three… four…”) is uncomfortably slow, and counting it at 200 BPM (“onetwothreefour onetwothreefour”) is uncomfortably fast. You can further anchor yourself by listening for the snares/claps/snaps; those will almost always fall on beats two and four. In current hip-hop, there’s an additional wrinkle: the tempo is ambiguous on purpose, with halftime or doubletime feel always pulling against the main groove. For the purposes of this project, you can count the measures in whatever way makes sense to you, as long as you are consistent about it.

I color-coded and annotated the multitrack stems of “What’s Going On” in Ableton Live, which gives a nice overview of the structure and arrangement.

Here’s how I would describe the tune’s structure.

Intro A – 0:00 – 2 measures or so

The track begins with a group of men chatting and greeting each other. It’s the studio musicians and several players on the Detroit Lions who were friends with Marvin Gaye.

Intro B – 0:05 – 4 measures

The drums, percussion, bass, guitars and alto saxophone all enter, playing a groove on Emaj7. They are swathed in large natural-sounding reverb that will continue throughout the track.

Verse 1 – 0:14 – 8 measures

The alto sax exits. The two lead vocals, the backing vocals, the piano and the vibraphone enter. These last two instruments are very far in the background. The chords alternate between Emaj7 and C#m7, two jazzy chords from the key of E major.

Refrain 1 – 0:33 – 4 measures

The melody changes and there are two new chords, F#m7 and B7sus4. We are still within E major. The alto sax re-enters. There was some debate in class about whether this should count as a new section, and if so, what we should call it. Some people thought we should call it the “prechorus” but that would typically be followed by the chorus. Others thought we should just think of it as the back half of verse 1. There is no single “correct” answer here; it’s an inherently subjective question.

Verse 2 – 0:43 – 8 measures

Same instrumentation, melody and chords as Verse 1.

Refrain 2 – 1:02 – 4 measures

Same instrumentation, melody and chords as Refrain 1.

Prechorus 1 – 1:11 – 6 measures

There is another vocal melody over a new chord, Amaj7, with a quick move to B7 at the end. We are still within E major. The sax exits. New call-and-response backing vocals, snaps, and the string section all enter. Note that this is the first section not to be four or eight bars long. It feels like it’s interrupted early by the arrival of…

Chorus 1 – 1:26 – 4 measures

This is a new melody over the same chord progression as Verse 1 over the same instrumentation and vocal arrangement as Prechorus 1.

Break 1A – 1:35 – 8 measures

The most dramatic section break so far. The lead vocals switch to wordless vocalizing, and the backing vocals switch to speaking. The sax re-enters. The most dramatic change is in the harmony, a move to Am9. This chord is the first one we’ve heard that is not from E major; instead, it’s from A Dorian mode. I discuss this more below.

Break 1B – 1:54 – 4 measures

This was another point where the class wasn’t sure whether they considered it to be a section change or not. The instrumentation is the same as Break 1A; the only difference is that the chord changes to familiar Emaj7.

Verse 3 – 2:03 – 8 measures

The melody and harmony are the same as in the first two verses, but the arrangement now includes the strings, which are more prominent-sounding than they have been so far. There is also an additional layer of backing vocals.

Refrain 3 – 2:22 – 4 measures

Same as Refrains 1 and 2, but now with strings and additional backing vocals.

Prechorus 2 – 2:31 – 6 measures

Same as prechorus 1 but with strings.

Chorus 2 – 2:46 – 4 measures

Same as Prechorus 2 but with strings.

Break 2A – 2:55 – 8 measures

Same as Break 1A but with additional backing vocals and without snaps. The instrumentation will stay the same for the rest of the track. The mode shifts to A Dorian.

Break 2B – 3:13 – 4 measures

The mode changes back to E major.

Outtro A – 3:23 – 8 measures

The mode changes back to A Dorian.

Outtro B – 3:41 – 4 measures

The mode changes back to E major. Fade out.

This is not a class about music production, but it is worth thinking about how the studio process contributes to the music you are hearing. The instruments sound like they are all in a room together, giving the track a warm and organic groove. However, there isn’t much sonic separation between instruments, and it can be difficult to pick them out of the sound mass. Compare a classic Motown song to a Fleetwood Mac song like “Dreams.”

These instruments were recorded in perfect isolation, which results in a “cleaner” and more distinct sound, but it doesn’t have the groove or interplay of a Motown record. Note, however, that some of Motown’s organic groove is the result of studio technique. While the core tracks in “What’s Going On” were recorded together in a single room, many instruments and vocals were overdubbed later. Also, the reverb is artificial. Here are some more details about the layers of the track.

• Vocals: There are two different takes of Marvin Gaye’s lead vocal throughout the song, one mixed in the foreground, the other in the background. Sometimes they line up, sometimes they harmonize, and sometimes they are widely divergent. Apparently, Marvin Gaye couldn’t decide which take he liked better. At one point the engineer had both of them turned up, and Marvin liked the effect, so he kept them both in. Marvin also sings all the backing vocals.
• Drums: Played by Chet Forest, and mixed more politely than they would be in a current R&B song. It sounds like they were recorded with only a few microphones. The groove has light sixteenth-note swing and a laid-back feel. One student described the rhythm as “boom-bap.” That may be anachronistic, but it isn’t wrong; classic Motown has been a key inspiration for rap producers.
• Other percussion: The congas and bongos are played by Eddie “Bongo” Brown. There is also a cajón overdubbed by Marvin Gaye himself.
• Bass: Played by the great James Jamerson. The bass amp was miked, and you can faintly hear bleed from other instruments on the bass stem.
• Guitars: There are two separate guitar tracks, one possibly played on an acoustic, with somewhat different strumming patterns. I’m not sure whether Robert White played both parts, or if he played one and Joe Messina played the other. Layering is a very good way to beef up a guitar part.
• Piano: Played quietly and simply by Marvin, on an upright that is not in very good tune. I’m sure Motown could have afforded a piano tuner; he may have chosen this piano for its vibe.
• Alto sax: Played by Ernie Fountain. He mostly plays unobtrusive long tones, with a few tasteful riffs here and there. This is a great example of “playing the song” rather than showing off.
• Vibraphone: Played by Jack Brokensha. As with the sax, the vibes are a background layer, mixed quietly and mostly playing simple long notes. The vibes are there to add a glow to the sound, not to register on your consciousness.
• Strings: Ten violinists, four violists, three cellists and a double bass from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, expertly conducted and arranged by David Van De Pitte. They sound lush and expensive, and they were.

Questions: Does it take away from the music to know that this song could never be performed live the way it was recorded? Even if it were practical to bring a 27-piece ensemble onstage, Marvin Gaye can’t sing his own backing vocals in “real life.” Here’s a live version from 1972 for comparison.

This sounds great (Marvin Gaye was incapable of sounding bad), but it doesn’t have the lush grandeur of the studio version.

We won’t get into chords and scales until later in the semester, but here’s a preview of coming attractions. Let’s talk more about the vibe shift in the break. For this first minute and a half of the song, every note you hear in the melody, chords, bassline and so on comes exclusively from the E major scale.

However, when you get to the break, the chord, melodies and bassline are from a different scale called A Dorian mode, a jazzier cousin to A minor.

You could also consider A Dorian to be the E natural minor scale from A to A.

The E major scale and A Dorian mode have four notes in common: E, F-sharp, A and B. They also have three differing notes; where E major uses G-sharp, C-sharp and D-sharp, A Dorian uses G natural, C natural and D natural. The flattening of these notes gives A Dorian a moodier and more pensive feel. When the song returns to E major, you can feel the lift as G, C and D flip back to G-sharp, C-sharp and D-sharp. It’s not a complicated idea, but it’s a beautiful one, and it fits the emotions of the song perfectly.