How “Blurred Lines” has reshaped pop music

Robin Thicke is not equivocating. “I know you want it,” the R&B star croons without a shred of irony in “Blurred Lines”, his chart-topper of 2013. His fictitious interlocutor is “a good girl” who, the lyrics continue, “must wanna get nasty”. (The listener has to take his word for it.) Ten years ago, Mr Thicke released the single about a man pursuing a woman with Pharrell Williams, a producer, and T.I., a rapper (all pictured above). With its punchy bassline and clattering cowbells, “Blurred Lines” is a catchy party anthem. But it also ignited two major disputes, becoming one of the most controversial songs of the past decade.

Four years before the #MeToo movement held powerful men to account for sexual abuse, “Blurred Lines” sparked discussions online about consent and cancel culture. Critics were enraged by the smarmy persona Mr Thicke adopted. They read provocative lines such as “Do it like it hurt, like it hurt/What, you don’t like work?” as a reference to men forcing themselves on women against their will. When it comes to sexual consent, listeners pointed out, there ought to be no “blurred lines”. Michael Cragg, the author of a book about pop music, reckons Mr Thicke’s factual delivery also riled people up. “There is no playfulness there, just a sense of unease”, he argues.

The music video entrenched critics’ views. It shows Emily Ratajkowski—now a famous model—and two other women prancing almost naked around fully clothed male singers. It was decried for being misogynistic and objectifying women. The backlash was so severe that around 20 university student unions in Britain barred the song. “Blurred Lines” was effectively “no-platformed”, prefiguring the campaigns that emerged in the following years to boycott music by R. Kelly and Michael Jackson owing to accusations of child abuse. For his part, Mr Thicke has said he would not make such a video again and that the “good girl” in his song referred to his wife at the time. (His representatives did not respond to requests for comment.)

Did the furore stop mainstream artists from singing about sex altogether? No. But the tone has shifted in the last decade, notes Mr Cragg. These days male pop stars tend to brag less about their conquests. Instead, he observes, more female artists are broaching the subject in their songs, thereby taking control of the narrative. Take “WAP”, a number-one hit from 2020 by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, two American rappers. They highlight female sexuality almost to the point of absurdity; tongue-in-cheek lyrics such as “Bring a bucket and a mop” mock the sexual boasts frequently made by men. The accompanying music video was playful and raucous.

A separate controversy has swirled around the musical makeup of “Blurred Lines”. A jury ruled in 2015 that Mr Thicke and Mr Williams had copied the feel and sound, essentially the musical style, of Marvin Gaye’s tune of 1977, “Got To Give It Up”. The soul singer’s family successfully argued that “Blurred Lines” drew inspiration from the older song in a number of ways which amounted to an infringement. In 2018 Mr Thicke and Mr Williams appealed against the ruling, and lost. Some think the ruling was mistaken and led to a skewed interpretation of the law. Hayleigh Bosher of Brunel University argues that “Blurred Lines” opened the floodgates for copyright claims that “were too broadly encapsulating”. Copyright law is “about copying, not inspiration,” she says.

Between 2016, the year after the first “Blurred Lines” verdict, and 2020, an average of 15 musical copyright cases a year were filed in American courts, according to data compiled by students at George Washington University’s law school. Between 2010 and 2015 the average was five a year. The data set is not complete and does not include ongoing claims, but it does suggest a significant uptick in the number of such disputes since “Blurred Lines” (see chart).

Other factors are at play too. These days it is easier for claimants to allege that their music has been plagiarised. That is because more songs are released on a proliferating range of platforms, making them widely available to listen to. Artists including Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry and Led Zeppelin have been targeted in such cases, though many have either been settled or dismissed. The result, however, is that songwriters are more prudent about their work; many hire musicologists to check their tracks for similarities with existing ones before they are released, or include ludicrously long lists of songwriting credits (over 100 artists are credited on “Renaissance”, Beyoncé’s latest album).

“Blurred Lines” has left a complex legacy. Social media mean public scrutiny is inevitable, so pop musicians are thinking harder about their lyrics and sexual politics. On the legal side, though, there is a danger that more stringent applications of copyright law will dampen creativity. Musicians, like all artists, are inspired by other people’s creations.

The song was a huge commercial success in spite of the fallout. It is Mr Thicke’s most-listened-to track, with more than 700m streams on Spotify and more than 10m copies sold, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Mr Thicke has not released much since, however. Infamy can boost a song—the same cannot be said for the artist. ■