Pharrell has finally spoken out against the “Blurred Lines” jury verdict.
The musician and producer tells the Financial Times that the decision to award Marvin Gaye’s family $7.3 million over alleged similarities between 1977 single “Got To Give It Up” and he and Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit ‘Blurred Lines’ will be devastating to creativity in not just music, but across the arts.
“The verdict handicaps any creator out there who is making something that might be inspired by something else,” Pharrell says, via the NME. “This applies to fashion, music, design… anything. If we lose our freedom to be inspired, we’re going to look up one day and the entertainment industry as we know it will be frozen in litigation. This is about protecting the intellectual rights of people who have ideas.”
He adds: “Everything that’s around you in a room was inspired by something or someone. If you kill that, there’s no creativity.”
Gaye died in 1984, and the copyright to his music was left to his children Nona, Frankie and Marvin Gaye III.
The NME also relays word that Pharrell revealed during the case’s testimony that he took inspiration for “Blurred Lines” not from Marvin Gaye — but Miley Cyrus.
“I had Earl Sweatshirt in one room and Miley Cyrus in the other,” he said in court. “I was doing a bunch of country-sounding music with Miley. It was like blending this country sound with this up-tempo groove.”
Here’s a mashup of the two songs…