Turning Good Song Into Shitty Mess Will Cost Pharrell, Thicke $7 Million
A jury in California decided on Wednesday that "Blurred Lines," the Marvin Gaye-ripoff pop track that poisoned the 2013 summer radiowaves with advocacy for ignorance over sexual consent, will cost songwriters Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams a $7.3 million payout to the Gaye family. Good. Fuck that song.
Please, recall: In 2013, Thicke and Williams preemptively sued Gaye's children to force the court into deciding whether or not "Blurred Lines," a masterfully obnoxious second-rate edition of Gaye's "Got to Give It Up," was an infringement on the 1977 hit. The Gaye family then countersued, for obvious reasons.
Then, Thicke—who had probably the most uncomfortable fall from barely-close-to-grace of any middling child of a famous person in 2014—tried to distance himself from the song, claiming he was "high" when it was written.
Let's keep this quote here for posterity, from the Hollywood Reporter:
Thicke: To be honest, that's the only part where — I was high on vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio. So my recollection is when we made the song, I thought I wanted — I — I wanted to be more involved than I actually was by the time, nine months later, it became a huge hit and I wanted credit. So I started kind of convincing myself that I was a little more part of it than I was and I — because I didn't want him — I wanted some credit for this big hit. But the reality is, is that Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of the song."
Nice! Pass the blame onto your alleged friend, Pharrell. According to the AP, the song made both singers more than $5 million each. T.I., for writing an original rap, is not being held accountable in the lawsuit.
To reiterate: good. Fuck that song.
Contact the author at dayna.evans@gawker.com.