Artists, Songwriters React to ‘Blurred’ Verdict

Artists and songwriters have reacted online to the “Blurred Lines” verdict. Keith Urban weighed in with the Associated Press yesterday (March 12) saying “I’d be most curious to hear what Marvin thought.”

MusicRow recently featured an exclusive interview with Richard Busch, a Nashville-based lawyer for the Gaye family, regarding the verdict. Meanwhile, “Blurred Lines” song creators, Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke and T.I. released a statement to Rolling Stone on Tuesday (Mar. 10).

It’s tough because everybody is influenced by things. They always say the art of originality is knowing how to hide your sources. It’s tricky. My initial reaction was shock. It seems more like a sound, feel, style, genre, and era [in which] none of which could be copywritten.

If you have a massive hit like ‘Blurred Lines,’ you’ve got a bigger target on your back. A lot of people in the same position just call it an homage. But when you have a big hit, they come after you.”

I have mixed feeling on all of it, quite frankly. I’d be most curious to hear what Marvin thought about the whole situation.”—Keith Urban

While we respect the judicial process, we are extremely disappointed in the ruling made today, which sets a horrible precedent for music and creativity going forward. ‘Blurred Lines’ was created from the heart and minds of Pharrell, Robin and T.I. and not taken from anyone or anywhere else. We are reviewing the decision, considering our options and you will hear more from us soon about this matter.—statement from Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke and T.I.

Jason Isbell, Chely Wright. Photo: Twitter

Other artists to weigh in on the subject include Chely Wright, and Jason Isbell. Buzzfeed quoted songwriter for “Stay With Me” (Sam Smith) Jimmy Naples, “Talk Dirty” (Jason DeRulo) producer (in addition to Florida Georgia Line and Tim McGraw releases) Ricky Reed, and songwriter for “Single Ladies” (Beyonce), “Umbrella” (Rihanna) and “Baby” (Justin Bieber) Terius (The-Dream) Nash.

Lots of uninformed chatter from folks who don’t know much about writing music & copyright law. You should read this- http://t.co/CNO7VEuZik— Chely Wright

Don’t let blogs tell you music fans are being hurt the most by the ‘Blurred Lines’ verdict. PLENTY of formulaic, soundalike crap out there. — Jason Isbell

I didn’t feel like he’d ripped off the song. They’d obviously been inspired by it, but I was a bit disappointed to hear the verdict. If you’re gonna say he was inspired by that record, but actually none of the melodies or chords or anything line up, but he’s still broken the rules somehow, all of a sudden you start looking at anyone who’s ever sampled an Amen break. The Beatles could make a lot of claims on that basis. So it’s hard to draw the line, isn’t it? —Jimmy Napes

The system does a great job of protecting the copyrights that are in place for songs that other artists are inspired by or sample. But the ‘Blurred Lines’ case makes me a little nervous because those songs aren’t really musically related in any way when it comes to the chords or the melodies. There’s nothing similar aside from the good feeling that it gives you when you listen to it. That for me is pretty scary because it could open up a whole floodgate of people being like, ‘Well, this song kinda feels like this old song.’ What’s made music great for generations and generations is that young musicians are inspired by the old dogs and make records that show their influence. If people start suing based on a feeling, that will be a dark day for creators. I would hate to see lawsuits make things harder for producers and songwriters. The funny thing is, a lot of times musician-to-musician, we respect one another. The village elders, so to speak, respect the up-and-coming cats and vice-versa. If it was up to us, we would probably sort things out most times. But people bring in publishers, and lawyers, and estates, and all this kind of stuff and it becomes a money thing. That’s when it gets scary. —Ricky Reed

My head is kind of like a jukebox, but I think it only puts me in the realm of greats. I never bite anything. I’m definitely inspired…but I try to make sure that I’m pushing the envelope, even if I have to fail three times to get there. It’s a conscious effort to stay pure, and clean, and new as an artist. There’s nothing new under the sun, as my grandfather always said, but there is such a thing as being original in how you pull the notes from the stars….No one really celebrates originality. Not in a pop space. When you’re growing up and the things you see on TV are imitations, you’re going to imitate because that’s what gets you on TV. Nobody celebrates when people do something really new. —Terius (The-Dream)Nash