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What's Going On is a studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released May 21, 1971 on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in June of 1970 and March–May of 1971 at Hitsville U.S.A., Golden World and United Sound Studios in Detroit and at The Sound Factory in West Hollywood, California. The first Marvin Gaye album for it to be credited as produced solely by the artist himself, What's Going On is a unified album consisting of nine songs, most of which lead into the next. It has also been categorized as a song cycle, since the album ends on a reprise to the album's opening theme. The album is told from the point of view of a Vietnam War veteran returning to the country he had been fighting for, and seeing nothing but injustice, suffering and hatred.

What's Going On was the first album on which Motown Records' main studio band, The Funk Brothers, received an official credit. Featuring introspective lyrics about drug abuse, poverty and the Vietnam War, the album was also the first to reflect the beginning of a new trend in soul music. What's Going On was an both an immediate commercial and critical success and has endured as a classic of early-1970s soul. In worldwide critics/artists and public surveys, it has been voted as one of the landmark recordings in pop music history and is considered to be one of the greatest albums ever made.

In March 1970, Marvin Gaye had fallen into a deep depression after the death of his singing partner Tammi Terrell. He refused to record and perform, and went as far as to attempt a career in football with the Detroit Lions. After an unsuccessful Lions tryout, Gaye came in contact with Al Cleveland and the Four Tops' Renaldo Benson, who were working on a politically conscious song called "What's Going On". Gaye helped Cleveland and Benson complete the composition, and planned to produce it as a recording for Motown act The Originals. Cleveland and Benson persuaded Gaye to record the song himself, and in June 1970 Gaye recorded "What's Going On" and his own composition, "God Is Love".