R(and)B, and thereafter...

R(and)B:
This is described as a style of music developed by African Americans that combines blues (and) jazz, characterized by a strong backbeat and repeated variations on syncopated instrumental phrases.
(sidenote: syncopation is the process of adding a strong accent on a normally weak accented word)

A better understanding of this is understood once looking at the definition of...

Jazz:
A style of music, native to America, characterized by a strong but flexible rhythmic understructure with solo and ensemble improvisations on basic tunes and chord patterns and, more recently, a highly sophisticated harmonic idiom.

That really helps one understand the R(and)B that Marvin Gaye was famous for. I recently heard Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On', released in 1971, talked about something that I've never heard before in an album. Issues that were currently happening, not about girls, or money, or cars. Not only did he talk about current events, he talked about God, and how he loves him.

Marvin Gaye showed me something that I've never seen before. What REAL R(and)B was, not 'Back of My 'Lac' by J. Holiday, which compared to Gaye is now more like Hip-Hop. Marvin takes his songs not as an outlet for sexcapades, but as a way to show people he wasn't all about hit music and top-chart hits.

The first six songs were like an album in itself, starting with "What's Going On" and ending with "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" (a little FYI, Ecology is a branch of sociology that is concerned with studying the relationships between human groups and their physical and social environments. Which is very appropriate considering the lyrics).

The reason I call the first six songs their own album is because they, much like The-Dream's 'Love/Hate", medley ( An arrangement made from a series of melodies, often from various sources) into each other. Not only that, but I CAN TELL where The-Dream got it from. His songs are beautiful and moving at the same time, while delivering a heart-stopping message about the Vietnam War, as well as not having enough money to support oneself, to a song about his Father (God) and all of his brother's and sister's (the whole world).

All-in-all, Marvin did something that I'm proud to say I listened to in my lifetime. As a matter of fact, I would enjoy my kids listening to what he had to say, his songs were beautiful and showed me what REAL R(and)B was.

May he Rest in Peace, for all of you who don't know Marvin Gaye. He was an African American, mountain-moving artist of the mid-to-late-1900s. Struggled with Cocaine, Depression, and then moved back in with his parents to help him cope. He was eventually killed by his Father, over an argument about missing documents (who didn't kill himself by the way (sorry Mom (and) Grandma)) who was then sentenced to probation and died 5 years later.

Marvin Gaye, I wish I was alive when you were around. You've changed my views on music and I appreciate what you've done.

-Brett Bailey