Blurred Lines’ Pharrell Williams & Robin Thicke Ordered To Pay $7.3M To Marvin Gaye Family
Despite its commercial success, the chart-topping ‘Blurred Lines’ single has brought Robin Thicke a great deal of flak since its release in March 2013. The song has often been accused of trivializing sexual consent, and is banned from several Universities around the world.
Now it seems – two years later – Blurred Lines is coming back yet again to haunt Robin and his featured singers, Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris Jr., a.k.a. T.I. After hearing the single, the family of the late Marvin Gaye claimed it copied his 1977 song ‘Got To Give Up’, and subsequently sued all those involved in the making of the record for copyright infringement. After only two days of deliberations, the jury found in favor of the Gaye family, awarding them $4 million in damages plus an addition $1.8 million of Thicke’s profits as well as $1.6 million from Williams.
There were some involved in the creation of Blurred Lines who said they were merely ‘inspired’ by Marvin Gaye’s work; while Thicke even claimed to be intoxicated during the media interviews where he stated he was influenced by the legendary singer. It seems the similarity between these songs wasn’t blurred enough.
