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In The Quantity Ones, I’m reviewing each single #1 single within the historical past of the Billboard Scorching 100, beginning with the chart’s starting, in 1958, and dealing my manner up into the current. Guide Bonus Beat: The Quantity Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the Historical past of Pop Music.
On the time, it appeared like enjoyable. The summer time of 2013 introduced a surge of smooth, flirty pop-funk anthems. These songs nonetheless had the all-surface sheen of the bright-plastic EDM period, however they seemed like being extra playful and self-aware. The 2013 tracks had been deeply sexy, however they nonetheless received performed at weddings, faculty dances, picnics. The largest of these songs — the one which dominated the chart for your entire summer time — was a bubbly, offhand sex-goof from a profession underdog with an unlikely nepo-baby life story. Earlier than it grew to become overwhelming, the success of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Traces” was a sunny, unpredictable burst of sexed-up randomness. That’s the way it felt within the second, anyway.
Issues change rapidly. Over the three months that “Blurred Traces” held sway over the Scorching 100, Robin Thicke ceased to come back off as a lovable white-soul household man and emerged as a deluded slimeball. Individuals began to note one thing that ought to’ve been apparent within the first place: The music’s lyrics had been much less about mutual pleasure, extra about creepy objectification, to the purpose the place “rapey” grew to become the phrase that everybody related to it. The music video, the principle cause that the observe received a lot consideration within the first place, solely bolstered that impression. The title wasn’t serving to something, both. The backlash rapidly got here to overwhelm any affection that most individuals had for the observe.
Within the years after “Blurred Traces,” completely different kinds of scandal got here to encompass the individuals concerned in making the music. All three of them received into an avoidable authorized battle with the household of a late, beloved musical icon, and the ensuing lawsuit rewrote the music-industry guidelines in ways in which made issues shittier for everybody besides the homeowners of copyrights on outdated songs. Final 12 months, my good friend Jayson Greene wrote a nice Pitchfork piece that persuasively argued that “Blurred Traces” rapidly grew to become an avatar of all kinds of poisonous bullshit that will come to contaminate in style tradition over the following decade:
Decide any disheartening pop-cultural pattern of the previous decade and likelihood is it applies to “Blurred Traces”: The hole outrage cycle in information, more and more reliant on scorching takes tossed out with superhuman velocity, typically and not using a speck of human logic? The predatory energy dynamics of the leisure {industry}, and American society’s ongoing dismissal of consent? The more and more litigious pop panorama, through which legal professionals and music publishers combat for scraps, and each pop music feels safely Xeroxed from the final one?
That’s an entire lot of legacy to hold on one comparatively unassuming pop music. However if you dig into the whole lot that surrounds “Blurred Traces,” it’s onerous to listen to the comparatively unassuming pop music beneath all of it. I appreciated “Blurred Traces.” I performed it within the automobile, danced to it, sang alongside. I’d already been knowledgeable music critic for almost a decade at that time, however I consumed “Blurred Traces” passively, with out serious about it a lot. That’s the best way that most individuals devour most pop music. Years later, the context has come to outweigh the music itself. If I squint my ears onerous sufficient, I can hear traces of the music that I appreciated. However I can hear lots of different bullshit, too. I’ve been dreading this column for months due to all of the bullshit, however the bullshit should be addressed. At this level, “Blurred Traces” is much less of a music, extra of a car for bullshit. Let’s get to shoveling.
It might be onerous to invent a fictional character with a extra textbook nepo-baby backstory than Robin Thicke. He’s actually the son of one in all America’s favourite sitcom dads. Robin Thicke grew up rich and fame-adjacent in Los Angeles. (When Thicke was born, Barbra Streisand’s “Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)” was the #1 music in America.) On the time of Thicke’s start, his father Alan had already served as a Canadian game-show host, and he’d turn into the producer and lead author of Norman Lear’s talk-show parody Fernwood 2 Night time. Alan Thicke would go on to host syndicated daytime and late-night discuss reveals. In 1985, he took the function of Dr. Jason Seaver on Rising Pains, a success sitcom that lasted for seven years and launched the world to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Alan Thicke met Robin’s mom Gloria Loring when he served as a producer on The Bobby Vinton Present, a spread program hosted by a man who’s been on this column just a few instances. Loring was a singer and actress who was guesting on the present. Beneath the alias Cody Jameson, she’d already launched “Brooklyn,” a music that peaked at #74 on the Scorching 100. Afterward, Loring would star on Days Of Our Lives, and he or she and her costar Carl Anderson would document the duet “Buddies And Lovers,” which peaked at #2 in 1986. (It’s a 3.) Alan Thicke was a little bit of a musician, too. Collectively, he and Loring wrote the Rising Pains theme music, in addition to the just-as-memorable themes for sitcoms like Diff’lease Strokes and The Info Of Life.
In order that was Robin Thicke’s household background. His roots in in style tradition ran deep. Within the ’80s, Thicke’s older brother Brennan voiced the title character on the Dennis The Menace cartoon. As a teen, Robin Thicke briefly had a bunch referred to as Suppose 2wice — wonderful identify — with future Beverly Hills 90210 star Bryan Austin Inexperienced, and the 2 of them made an ineptly lip-synced look on a Rising Pains episode. Robin additionally frolicked at Balistyx, the all-ages rap membership evening run by David Faustino, the child who performed Bud Bundy on Married… With Kids. That’s the place a teenage Robin met Paula Patton, a lady who later grew to become an ultra-glamorous film star. Thicke and Patton had been collectively for many years, they usually received married in 2005.
It positive looks like Robin Thicke had a charmed existence, however he couldn’t simply waltz into pop stardom. A teenage Robin was a part of an R&B group referred to as As One, and he needed that to be his profession, however his father needed him to complete faculty. When As One recorded a demo tape, Alan Thicke didn’t pay for the studio time. As a substitute, that cash got here from Al Jarreau, whose nephew was one of many different members. (Al Jarreau’s highest-charting single, until you depend “We Are The World,” is 1981’s “We’re In This Love Collectively,” which peaked at #15.) The demo received Thicke seen by the R&B star Brian McKnight, who grew to become a mentor determine. In 1995, Thicke co-wrote McKnight’s album observe “Anyway,” and that gave Thicke an enormous early songwriting credit score. (Brian McKnight’s hightest-charting Scorching 100 hit, 1999’s “Again At One,” peaked at #2. It’s a 6.)
Did individuals suppose it was bizarre that Robin Thicke, the white son of a sitcom star, was making strikes within the R&B world? I imply, most likely. I can’t think about that folks didn’t suppose it was bizarre. Perhaps the novelty made Thicke extra interesting, or perhaps his expertise was simply sufficient to beat all that. By way of McKnight, Thicke met Jimmy Iovine and signed to Interscope. His solo profession took some time to get going, however Thicke made a residing writing and producing for individuals like Brandy, Shade Me Badd, Brownstone, and Christina Aguilera. He additionally co-wrote the previous New Child On The Block Jordan Knight’s 1999 solo single “Give It To You,” which peaked at #10. (It’s an 8.)
Robin Thicke’s Interscope deal by no means got here to something, however he went by means of just a few completely different label offers earlier than ending up again on Interscope to launch his 2003 debut album A Lovely World. It got here out beneath the identify Thicke, with out the Robin. Thicke’s debut single “After I Get You Alone” was constructed on a pattern of Walter Martin’s disco novelty “A Fifth Of Beethoven,” and it received a fairly large push. I can bear in mind an MTV spot that introduced Thicke as an thrilling new artist, and I assumed this hunky longhair appeared like an absolute instrument. The music flopped, and so did the album. However Pharrell Williams, pink scorching on the time, was a fan, and he received Interscope to maneuver Thicke onto the roster of the Neptunes’ Star Trak imprint. (Pharrell has been featured on this column a bunch of instances, and he’ll ultimately be on this column as lead artist.)
Robin Thicke, with the “Robin” added again onto his identify, lastly had his breakout second with a 2006 music that couldn’t be any farther from “Blurred Traces.” “Misplaced With out U” is a young love-jam with feathery falsetto vocals and only a trace of bossa nova in its light backbeat. The video captures a collection of intimate moments between Thicke and Paula Patton, and the picture of this cunning wealthy white man along with his even foxier Black spouse actually resonated with Black ladies, who grew to become Thicke’s core fanbase proper up till “Blurred Traces.” “Misplaced With out U” grew to become Thicke’s first Scorching 100 hit, going all the best way to #14. Extra importantly, although, it made Thicke the primary white male artist since George Michael to achieve #1 on the R&B chart.
A lot of white individuals had been making R&B data within the mid-’00s, they usually discovered various levels of acceptance at Black radio. However Thicke actually solely succeeded there. He’d soar on tracks with rappers, and a few of these tracks had been actually good. I completely cherished “Shooter,” the Carter II observe that Thicke and former Quantity Ones artist Lil Wayne launched in 2005. The one time I interviewed Wayne, I wasted an excessive amount of of my telephone time telling him that “Shooter” must be a single. He actually did launch it as a single, but it surely went nowhere. Not directly, “Shooter” additionally led to me being immortalized in comic-strip type. My mother printed that strip out and had it taped up on her workplace door till she retired. I don’t suppose anybody ever instructed her what “skeet skeet” means.
That sketch offers a reasonably good concept of how the world noticed Robin Thicke. Loads of individuals thought it was bizarre that Alan Thicke’s son was an R&B singer — kind of like how individuals thought it was bizarre {that a} seven-foot dork was writing rap opinions. (I don’t know the place that cartoonist received 6’10” from. I’m taller than 6’10”.) However R&B radio cherished Robin Thicke, and it’s the rationale that his sophomore album The Evolution Of Robin Thicke ultimately went platinum. He saved cranking out silky love songs, and that viewers continued to like them. 2009’s “Intercourse Remedy” solely made it to #54 on the Scorching 100, but it surely was one other R&B chart-topper. Different songs landed excessive up on that chart. They had been principally streamlined gradual jams, they usually constructed a sure frisson from the truth that the viewers knew about Thicke’s marriage to Paula Patton. Within the public eye, the 2 of them performed an idealized couple who remained sexy for each other ever since adolescence.
By 2013, Robin Thicke’s profession was in a kind of holding sample. He may do nicely on R&B radio. He may carry out on Oprah or open for Beyoncé or Alicia Keys on tour. However Thicke hadn’t damaged by means of to a white viewers regardless of being a white man himself. At some point, Thicke and Pharrell went into the studio with an concept. They needed to make a enjoyable get together document, one thing like Marvin Gaye’s 1977 chart-topper “Received To Give It Up (Half 1).” In a 2013 GQ interview that will later come again to hang-out Thicke in an enormous manner, he set the scene like this:
Pharrell and I had been within the studio, and I instructed him that one in all my favourite songs of all time was Marvin Gaye’s “Received To Give It Up.” I used to be like, “Rattling, we should always make one thing like that, one thing with that groove.” Then he began enjoying a bit one thing, and we actually wrote the music in a couple of half hour and recorded it.
Afterward, Thicke admitted in a fateful deposition that he was mendacity in that interview. As a substitute, Thicke mentioned that he was “excessive on alcohol and Vicodin” through the songwriting session and that Pharrell “wrote virtually each single a part of the music.” I wager that sort of factor occurs on a regular basis. Thicke nonetheless received songwriting credit score, and he sang it, however the observe was Pharrell’s creation. In a 2019 interview with Rick Rubin, Pharrell mentioned that he typically tried to “reverse engineer” the songs that he cherished and that he’d tried to try this with “Blurred Traces.” However “Blurred Traces” doesn’t pattern or interpolate “Received To Give It Up.” This may turn into a sticking level later.
Whoever’s truly liable for creating “Blurred Traces,” I actually don’t suppose these guys meant to put in writing a rape-culture anthem. I don’t suppose they thought that onerous about it. In several interviews over time, Robin Thicke and Pharrell mentioned that the music was actually about various things. It was, as an illustration, about Paula Patton; Thicke as soon as claimed that she was a great woman who he transformed into a nasty woman. Pharrell instructed The Impartial that it was an imagined pickup-line state of affairs: “The music was a pie-in-the-sky concept of a dialog that by no means occurred! The music ain’t about doing it! Nothing ever occurs. ‘Trigger she’s a great woman. Duh!” This smells like bullshit to me. From the place I’m sitting, “Blurred Traces” is certainly about intercourse, but it surely’s not deliberately about rape.
The music’s perspective is fairly apparent. Robin Thicke’s narrator meets a “good woman” with a boyfriend, however he thinks he can sense that she’s actually “an animal” who needs to have loopy, nasty intercourse. He tells her that he can do issues that the boyfriend can’t. That’s actually it. However the music’s language actually is gross and coercive. “I do know you need it” is the kind of line that no person ought to ever use, and it seems 18 instances on “Blurred Traces.” Thicke sings that she’s the most well liked bitch on this place and that he hates these blurred traces. I feel that he thinks he means the traces between good woman and animal, the dichotomy that the music each units up and seeks to undercut. However you don’t must dig too deep to come back to the conclusion that he’s actually speaking about consent. At greatest, this can be a skeezy-creep music, and it’s not that tough to see how individuals learn one thing darker into it.
Within the second, not one of the artists thought twice about any of this. Robin Thicke thought the music was self-aware and humorous, and that’s why he introduced in a visitor verse from T.I., somebody who’s already been on this column just a few instances. In that fateful GQ interview, Thicke mentioned, “I assumed, who else is a grown Southern gentleman with a household? T.I. Regardless that he’s a hardcore rapper, he’s an actual Southern gentleman. He says ‘Sir’ and ‘Ma’am,’ he stays cool, and he’s actually beloved… As a result of all three of us are fortunately married with youngsters, we had been like, ‘We’re the right guys to make enjoyable of this.’” It didn’t actually work out that manner.
T.I. had already been out and in of jail a bunch of instances when he appeared on “Blurred Traces,” however it might be years earlier than he was accused of an extended listing of deeply upsetting intercourse offenses. The man may at all times rap, and his verse on the observe is slippery and masterful, but it surely performs very otherwise right now. At this level, I don’t wish to hear T.I. say, “Not many ladies can refuse this pimpin’.” I positively don’t wish to hear him speaking about “I’ll provide you with one thing large enough to tear your ass in two.” It’s yet one more queasy layer on a music that’s already received too lots of them.
You possibly can’t strip the context away from “Blurred Traces.” It’s not potential. Even in case you take away the whole lot that occurred with the three individuals behind the music after its launch, you’re nonetheless caught with these lyrics. If you happen to can fake that you just don’t know what the phrases imply, “Blurred Traces” is light-weight and efficient party-funk. Pharrell actually does discover methods to translate ’70s soul into digital blips and bloops. The drum machines hit good counter-rhythms, and Thicke sings over all of it with a fluidly sleazy lounge-lizard grace. He appears like he’s having enjoyable. He most likely was having enjoyable. Perhaps the alcohol and Vicodin had one thing to do with it.
Robin Thicke was most likely having enjoyable when he shot the video, too. He ought to’ve had much less enjoyable. Diane Martel, the veteran music-video director, got here up with the idea and pitched it to Thicke. She needed to do her personal model of the aesthetic related to Terry Richardson, the porny high-fashion photographer who’d already been accused of sexual abuse and who would face extra accusations within the years forward. She needed to encompass Thicke, Pharrell, and T.I. with stunning bare ladies. Supposedly, they rejected the concept at first, however then they had been OK with it.
The video is de facto what blew “Blurred Traces” into the stratosphere. Within the clip, the three artists mug frantically whereas within the presence of near-naked fashions Emily Ratajkowski, Elle Evans, and Jessi M’Bengue. There are two variations of the video. In a single, the fashions put on skimpy plastic garments. Within the more-famous uncensored model, they’re topless in G-strings. They flirt with the celebrities, and the celebrities paw at them. After the video’s launch, Diane Martel claimed that the ladies had been in cost and that the blokes had been simply goofs. Thicke introduced up Benny Hill as a reference level, and there’s some sly slapstick sensibility to the ultimate product. But when Robin Thicke was actually the punchline, then we wouldn’t see the phrases “Robin Thicke has an enormous dick” spelled out in balloons. The entire thing is de facto smooth high-gloss softcore porn. The uncensored model was banned from YouTube, which added to the infamy, and the ensuing information tales helped propel the observe up the charts.
When Robin Thicke first performed “Blurred Traces” for his Interscope bosses, they didn’t give him a lot response. After they noticed the video, they mentioned that it was a smash. The video created a buzz of dialog across the music, and I’m positive it served as wank materials for loads of youngsters. The clip catapulted Emily Ratajkowski to stardom; the following 12 months, she performed Ben Affleck’s mistress in Gone Woman. Years later, Ratajkowski wrote in her memoir that Thicke had groped her breasts with out permission through the shoot, and Martel affirmed her story. The exploitation ought to’ve been apparent on the time. Perhaps I simply wasn’t paying consideration. Perhaps I simply noticed one thing shiny and went with it.
Due to that video, “Blurred Traces” took off like a rocket. Downloads initially pushed the music to #1, and it will definitely grew to become 2013’s biggest-selling digital single. The video saved the music’s streams excessive all 12 months, too. And when radio received ahold of “Blurred Traces,” it might not let go. The music was inescapable for your entire summer time, popping up on tons of various radio codecs and holding the #1 spot for your entire summer time, at the same time as some very credible summer-jam contenders — together with one other one which prominently featured Pharrell — challenged its primacy. For all kinds of causes, the music held the zeitgeist in a chokehold. For a lot of of those self same causes, it rapidly grew to become radioactive quickly afterwards.
Looking back, it’s exceptional that “Blurred Traces” was capable of keep away from backlash for so long as it did. A lot of critics calmly embraced each the music and the video, and I used to be one in all them. I didn’t write a ton about “Blurred Traces” on the time, however again once I wrote a weekly best-videos column, I had “Blurred Traces” at #2 for its week, behind Cat Energy’s “Manhattan.” Beneath the clip, I wrote, “T.I.’s old-man dancing might be the best factor that has ever occurred.” I’d similar to to say that I now not take into account this to be the case. Many issues have occurred which might be higher than this. Even setting apart all of the fucked-up issues that I used to be glossing over, that’s simply lazy writing! Sorry, everybody.
In time, the dialog modified. “Blurred Traces” reached #1 in June. In July, my outdated Village Voice colleague Trica Romano revealed a Every day Beast article stating how some commentators had cautioned that the music was “sort of rapey.” Within the aforementioned GQ interview, Robin Thicke anticipated that response, and he tried to argue towards it: “Individuals say, ‘Hey, do you suppose that is degrading to ladies?’ I’m like, ‘After all it’s. What a pleasure it’s to degrade a girl. I’ve by no means gotten to try this earlier than. I’ve at all times revered ladies.’” Afterward, Thicke complained that GQ hadn’t famous that he was doing a sarcastic Ron Burgundy voice when he mentioned that. Actually, potential pop stars ought to research that GQ interview as a shining instance of what to not say.
We are able to now pinpoint the precise second that the world turned towards Robin Thicke. It occurred two months after “Blurred Traces” reached #1, through the MTV Video Music Awards. Early within the evening, Miley Cyrus, desperate to shake off any remaining traces of her Disney-kid picture, got here out to carry out her personal hedonistic summer time hit “We Can’t Cease,” one of many hits that stalled out at #2 behind “Blurred Traces.” (It’s a 5. Miley Cyrus will quickly make her first look on this column.) In some ways, “We Can’t Cease” served as a companion piece to “Blurred Traces.” Each songs represented celebrity rap producers working with white pop singers, making dancefloor earworms that glorified outrageous and probably harmful habits. Each had controversy-baiting Diane Martel movies that made liberal use of the Terry Richardson aesthetic. Perhaps these two songs had been at all times destined to come back collectively in some apocalyptic manner.
On the VMAs, Miley Cyrus was clearly decided to make herself the main focus of all dialog, and 2013 represented the final 12 months that the award present, as soon as a venerable pop establishment, may make such a stunt potential. Cyrus spent her entire efficiency together with her tongue hanging out, frantically popping her ass amidst a sea of Black backup dancers dressed like teddy bears. The efficiency was a textbook instance of racial pantomime and performative sexuality, and MTV actually went in on cutaways to unimpressed faces of stars within the viewers. The entire thing was virtually designed to set Twitter on hearth, and that was precisely what occurred. The hearth solely burned hotter when Robin Thicke got here to the stage and sang “Blurred Traces” with Cyrus.
Robin Thicke did not go into that VMAs to function focal point. He got here out dressed like a nightclub referee, and he appeared virtually painfully bored. Cyrus handily upstaged him, taking the music over and frantically grinding on him. Afterward, Cyrus mentioned that Thicke, in rehearsals, had mentioned that he needed her to be as scantily clad as potential. On the time, Cyrus was 20 years outdated, and Thicke was 36. It was gross. In his Pitchfork piece, Jayson Greene means that the choice to carry out with Cyrus would possibly’ve been an try to “dial down the criticism” of “Blurred Traces.” When Miley Cyrus was the one singing the “I do know you need it” half, it may not appear so rapey. As a substitute, Robin Thicke grew to become a part of a deafening moral-panic noise vortex. If something, that ought to’ve occurred sooner.
The Miley Cyrus VMAs efficiency — and it actually did go down in historical past because the Miley Cyrus efficiency — was a cultural occasion. In his piece, Jayson Greene notes that “‘what’s twerking’ was Google’s high question for 2013,” which is truthfully hilarious. Cyrus rode that controversy to much more fame. Robin Thicke, then again, torpedoed any of his remaining goodwill. At a VMA afterparty, Thicke posed for a photograph whereas groping a much-younger blonde woman’s ass. In the course of the rise of “Blurred Traces,” Thicke made a degree of claiming that he had his spouse Paula Patton’s permission to make the video, and he always invoked her identify each time he was requested about sexism. A few months after the VMAs, Patton filed for divorce. Throughout a custody battle just a few years later, Patton accused Thicke of home violence and baby abuse, and he or she received full custody of their son.
“Blurred Traces” hung onto the #1 spot for just a few weeks after the VMAs — radio playlists change slowly — however Thicke was already cashed by the point it slid down the chart. On the VMAs, “Blurred Traces” went straight right into a efficiency of Thicke’s follow-up single “Give It 2 U,” a thumping Dr. Luke dance-pop observe with verses from 2 Chainz and future Quantity Ones artist Kendrick Lamar. Individuals barely seen. (Right this moment, it’s wild to see Kendrick up on that VMAs stage, trying actually misplaced.) “Give It 2 U” peaked at #25 after which promptly disappeared. The “Blurred Traces” single went diamond, however the album, additionally referred to as Blurred Traces, didn’t even attain platinum standing regardless of a #1 debut. Within the months that adopted, a bunch of British school campuses banned “Blurred Traces,” and the music went from lighthearted summer time smash to poisonous cultural artifact.
If that was the tip of the “Blurred Traces” story, it might’ve already been a thunderous crash right down to earth. However then there was the authorized battle with the Marvin Gaye property, which was eminently avoidable and which has had a catastrophic impact on the music enterprise as an entire. Robin Thicke truly began that combat. With “Blurred Traces” nonetheless sitting comfortably at #1, Thicke, Pharrell, and T.I. filed a joint lawsuit towards Marvin Gaye’s property. Apparently, Gaye’s youngsters had threatened a lawsuit over the similarities between “Blurred Traces” and “Received To Give It Up.” Reasonably than provide a settlement and even anticipate them to sue, Thicke and his collaborators tried to lock down a courtroom declaration that there have been no legally actionable similarities between the 2 songs. A decide dismissed their case. After that, they tried providing the Gayes a six-figure settlement, and the Gayes rejected it. From there, the Gayes’ lawsuit was inevitable.
The factor is that “Blurred Traces” and “Received To Give It Up” should not the identical music. The secret’s completely different. The melody is completely different. The subject material and vibe are each completely different. If anybody ought to’ve sued, it’s Fats Albert; these hey-hey-heys sounded awfully acquainted. “Blurred Traces” is clearly and clearly impressed by “Received To Give It Up.” You might even argue that it’s a ripoff. However musicians encourage one another, they usually rip one another off, on a regular basis. That’s the best way music is meant to perform. It’s an extended, persevering with, evolving dialog. “Blurred Traces” was not a excessive level of that dialog, but it surely was an entry in it. The Gaye household didn’t see it that manner. Finally, neither did a jury.
Juries are famously unpredictable, and Robin Thicke didn’t assist himself by coming off as an aloof, condescending dickbag through the trial. (He later mentioned that he was consumed by the tip of his marriage.) Throughout his deposition, Thicke mentioned that he was drunk and excessive not simply through the “Blurred Traces” writing classes however throughout just about the whole lot of 2013. This didn’t make him terribly sympathetic. A jury discovered Thicke and Pharrell responsible of copyright infringement, and a decide ordered them to pay $7.3 million to the Marvin Gaye property. T.I. didn’t must pay, since his verse didn’t have something to do with “Received To Give It Up.” Thicke and Pharrell appealed the choice, however they misplaced. In 2015, a decide upheld the decision, although he lowered the quantity to $5.3 million and 50% of all future royalties. At this level, T.I. needed to pay, too. Marvin Gaye, lifeless almost 30 years when “Blurred Traces” got here out, now has a songwriting credit score.
This determination hit the music enterprise like a bomb, and we’re nonetheless residing with its aftereffects. Today, anytime there’s a possible hit music, legal professionals and musicologists get deep into the weeds, awarding songwriting credit to anybody whose earlier hits sound something like the brand new ones. Typically sufficient, writers get credit added on retroactively. Right this moment, the writing credit of songs can embody dozens of names, which will certainly make future editions of this column enjoyable to put in writing. For the previous few years, non-public fairness companies have been shopping for up publishing rights for eye-popping sums after which pushing the songs of their catalogs to labels; it’s the principle causes we now have so many big hits constructed on apparent samples. The entire state of affairs fucking sucks, and it’s had a nightmarish impact on pop-music creativity, as my good friend Marc Hogan argued in a New York Occasions op-ed final week.
It’s onerous to assign fault for this entire state of affairs, which could’ve come to cross anyway. However Robin Thicke, Pharrell, and T.I. may’ve prevented it in the event that they’d supplied an honest chunk of change to Marvin Gaye’s youngsters, or perhaps in the event that they hadn’t tried submitting a preemptive lawsuit within the first place. That new authorized panorama, mixed with the backlash towards the rape-adjacent nature of the “Blurred Traces” lyrics, has destroyed any legacy that the music would possibly’ve ever had.
Over time, Robin Thicke and Pharrell have each expressed completely different ranges of contrition for “Blurred Traces.” (T.I., off in his personal universe, isn’t expressing contrition for something.) In 2019, Pharrell, the observe’s important author, primarily apologized whereas speaking to GQ:
I noticed that there are males who use that very same language when profiting from a girl, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my habits. Or the best way I take into consideration issues. It simply issues the way it impacts ladies. And I used to be like, Received it. I get it. Cool. My thoughts opened as much as what was truly being mentioned within the music and the way it may make somebody really feel. Regardless that it wasn’t the bulk, it didn’t matter. I cared what they had been feeling too. I noticed that we reside in a chauvinist tradition in our nation. Hadn’t realized that. Didn’t understand that a few of my songs catered to that. In order that blew my thoughts.
Positive. The prolonged “Blurred Traces” saga most likely wasn’t nice for Pharrell’s checking account, but it surely didn’t harm his profession. Robin Thicke was a unique story. Thicke adopted Blurred Traces with 2014’s Paula, a determined album-length ode to his ex-wife. The document was an prompt punchline and a infamous flop. Lead single “Get Her Again” peaked at #82. Apart from a random guest-appearance on a 2015 Flo Rida observe, Thicke hasn’t been again on the Scorching 100 since.
Robin Thicke didn’t get Paula Patton again, and he ultimately had extra youngsters with a a lot youthful lady. He didn’t launch one other album till the 2021 unbiased launch On Earth, And In Heaven, which didn’t go wherever. Final 12 months, he launched singles with the rappers Yo Gotti and Rapsody, and people didn’t go wherever, both. However Thicke landed on his toes, roughly, within the recreation present world, the identical place the place his father received his begin.
In 2019, Thicke grew to become one of many judges on Fox’s adaptation of the South Korean present The Masked Singer, which appears to be doing fairly nicely regardless of being an unwatchable, dystopian abomination. A few years in the past, Thicke and fellow decide Ken Jeong received some optimistic press once they walked off set after one of many unmasked singers turned out to be Rudy Giuliani. Apart from that, the present continues to exist in its personal nightmarish gap, and I’m positive it pays Thicke a good-looking wage. I’d be totally shocked if the person ever makes one other hit.
So. “Blurred Traces.” I actually do not know the right way to evaluate this factor. You’ll discover that there’s an entire lot of context on this long-as-fuck column and that there’s not that a lot in regards to the music itself. That’s as a result of there’s a lot context and since there’s barely any music on the heart of it. As soon as upon a time, I regarded “Blurred Traces” as a reasonably enjoyable get together jam. It had sparkle and vitality and playfulness. However these qualities existed on the floor, and darker currents swirled beneath. If I’d written this column in summer time 2013, I’d’ve virtually definitely given “Blurred Traces” a better rating. I’m not going to lie and say that it’s not catchy, however catchiness can solely go to date. I’m positive somebody may discover redeeming qualities in “Blurred Traces” in the event that they tried onerous sufficient. It’s not going to be me.
GRADE: 4/10
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