What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye. Gaye’s is considered one of the most popular culture critics during his time. A culture critic is someone who has a strong point of view of what is going on in the world. The song was created during the 1970’s, in a time where the United States was one of the most violent countries. During this time in the United States there was many events going on. The song was inspired by the Vietnam War. The singer was questioning his country about their involvement in Vietnam. At the same time that the Vietnam War was taking place, the colored people in the United States were fighting for their rights. In Marvin Gaye’s, What’s Going On the singer was able to use pathos: a mixture of love and hate, to critic his home nation, as well as applying ethos, while at the same time maintaining loyal and showing pride for his country. …show more content…
Throughout the song, “Oh, what 's going on, what 's going on”, in the home front, people were fighting for what was known as their civil rights at least people who were not from the Anglo ethnic group. On the other side of the world, the country was involved in a war that in reality they had no reason to be in. The Vietnam War was fought over the spread of communism from North to South Vietnam. “Brother, brother, brother. There 's far too many of you dying” Gaye’s himself is a Vietnam War veteran who was drafted along with his brother. “Mother, mother. There 's too many of you crying”, young males were being sent off to war and mothers were not happy about this. No mother would like to see their young boys being sent off to their death, especially in a war that had no good intentions. All of these events made the country really