Blurred Lines came straight through the radio waves in the summer of 2013 and stayed stuck in our heads for days and days. As the single started garnering popularity, rumors of a potential lawsuit from Marvin Gaye’s camp also began to gain momentum.
The artists involved in the production of ‘Blurred Lines’ including Pharrell, Robin, and T.I preemptively sued Gaye’s estate in order to block a lawsuit from Gaye’s camp. However, their plans backfired, and they recently had to face the music for their immature move when a judge ruled in favor of Gaye’s estate. They ended up having to pay a fine of $7.3 million. Yes, you heard it right! A jury ruled that the smash hit “Blurred Lines” had copied Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up”.
The lawsuit immediately attracted attention when The Hollywood Reporter disclosed extracts from the depositions. In the extracts, Thicke admitted to lying about writing the song when it was, in fact, Williams who wrote the song. Robin also admitted that he was high on Vicodin and alcohol during the songwriting process. Court documents from the lawsuit showed that the song raked in profits of $16.7 million, which was divided amongst the artists. Thicke gained $5.7 million, Pharrell parted with $5.2 million, and T.I pocketed $704,774. The remaining amount was snapped up by the record companies.
The Gaye camp even wrote a letter to clear the air and set the record straight. Some excerpts from the letter read as follow;
If Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams had tried to create a new song and coincidentally infused “Got to Give It Up” into their work, instead of deliberately undertaking to “write a song with the same groove,” we would probably be having a different conversation. Like most artists, they could have licensed and secured the song for appropriate use. This did not happen.
Instead of licensing our father’s song and giving him the appropriate songwriter credit, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams released “Blurred Lines” and then filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against us, forcing us into court.
They sought to quickly affirm that their song was “starkly different,” than “Got to Give It Up”. The Judge denied their motion for Summary Judgment, and a jury was charged with determining the “extrinsic and intrinsic similarities” of the songs. The jury has spoken.
The trial is far from over though. Robin and Pharrell’s attorney recently filed a new motion for another trial. The attorney also filed paperwork that labeled the jury’s verdict “inconsistent.”
