Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have to pay $7.4 million dollars to the estate of Marvin Gaye.
Why?
Because their song, "Blurred Lines:"
(warning: this gets nasty)
is said to have ripped off Gaye's song "Got to Give It Up:"
Did you listen to them both?
Do they sound like each other...except for maybe a tiny part of the beat? (They were calling it "the groove" in the lawsuit.)
I've heard some blatant music riffs stolen -- but this sure isn't one of them. In fact, if I'd been on the jury, Gaye's family wouldn't have gotten the award.
Gaye's daughter says that Thicke and Williams started all this fuss -- so they got what they deserved -- and she is 'free from their chains.' (Gaye isn't around to comment...he was murdered decades ago by his own father. Very sad.)
"Blurred Lines" is a catchy tune, one of 2013's big hits, and made its writers more than $16 million. So they're still emerging with a profit. And according to Pharrell, they came up with the basic outline in one hour. Inspired tunes can happen like that. (These, too.) Thicke has been acting like a jerk in his personal life -- but that doesn't make this judicial decision right.
If lawsuits like this keep happening, who else is going to get sued? Sesame Street..Handel...Beethoven?
Are they going after Al Yankovic next?
Sic 'em, Al!
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