Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams have been ordered to pay $7.4 million to the family of late soul singer Marvin Gaye over the similarities between Blurred Lines and Got To Give It Up.
There are clearly similarities between the two songs, as you can hear in the video embedded above. But suggesting this amounts to plagiarism seems a little harsh.
The jury made it clear they didn’t believe this was intentional, but awarded in favor of Gaye’s family anyway.
I had big problems with Blurred Lines when it was released, mainly because it appears to be a song about badgering women into having sex. Which is surely a bigger crime than any amount of alleged plagiarism.
