Marvin Gaye – Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
Inner City Blues is a piece by Marvin Gaye released on September 16, 1971.The song conveyed the ghettos of inner-city America and how the economic situation would lead to someone wanting to holler. In this essay I will identify the musical techniques used by Marvin Gaye e.g. musical space, range, register, scales and ornamentation. I will also discuss how Gaye negotiated the roles of the soloist and the accompanist and how the piece makes me feel and what emotion the piece exerts.
Marvin Gaye has used many techniques and strategies in order to create effect and to keep the listener interested. Inner City Blues is of funk styling as is evident with the drum beat and all the other instruments interlocking. The time signature is 4/4 with very noticeable accents on the 2nd and the 4th beats. The use of musical space is very apparent in this piece. The drum beat is constantly playing in the background but by having the other instruments, such as the guitar and brass, playing either long notes or staccato notes with a rest, the listener has a lot more time to take everything in. This technique is very effective in this piece as Gaye is trying to gets a strong message across so it is useful to have rests after the lyrics in or to comprehend what he is saying. There is quite a large range in this piece because of the variety of instruments used. With saying that the song is mostly low in pitch but in some places like the chorus and for occasional screams, Gaye sings with a high tenor voice and some of the notes played by the brass instrument are also high in pitch in order to cut through the thick of the other instruments.
The main use of ornamentation in the song is by the brass in...
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...ntion to what he is singing about instead of him blurting it all out at a fast rate.
This piece doesn’t have a very significant meaning to me personally but in 1971 the issues raised in the song would’ve related to many people living in America in that time. The upbeat feel of the song does not relate to the controversial lyrics being sung. The break towards the end of the song is the only section that effectively conveys the despair that Gaye is feeling. The lyrics ‘this aint living,’ portray how upset he is at what is going on in the world and it demonstrates his concern. I would usually pair the funky beat of this song up with an enjoyable set of lyrics but Gaye has done the complete opposite which creates create contrast in the song. I believe that Marvin Gaye has succeeded in getting his message across and the techniques he has used help this significantly.
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Goldman, Suzy B. "James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music." Negro American Literature Forum 3rd ser. 8 (1974): 231-33. St. Louis University. Web. Apr.-May 2014.
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