“It is the same, it isn’t the same, yes it is…” Round and around we go.
Since the Blurred Lines verdict for the Gaye family the above argument has been dominating my social media pages. For those of you unfamiliar with what this whole thing is all about see below.
So Did Williams and Thicke steal from Gaye? Is Blurred Lines a smokescreen for Got to Give it Up?
Well once again, as outlined in my last blog post, it depends on WHO is doing the listening.
To show you this, let us take a look at one of my global blogging colleagues, Joe Bennett who did a fantastic breakdown of the nuts and bolts from both songs. Here is the link below:
Did Robin Thicke steal ‘Blurred Lines’ from Marvin Gaye?
So I believe that Joe shows conclusively that the songs are indeed different given his expert musical analysis. However, Joe’s expert ears were not part of the jury, instead the panel was probably made up of non-musicians whose opinions were ultimately similar to those expressed below:
“Not understanding the anger about this expected Blurred Lines ruling. Don’t blatantly copy songs, & if you do, get it cleared beforehand.” – Michonne
“‘Got To Give It Up’ is one of my all time favs, had no idea these fools claimed original production and didn’t share royalties.” J Vincennes
The two Tweeters here are absolutely convinced Blurred Lines stole from Got to Give it Up, so why the discrepancy?
Once again, as in my other post, it is because musicians listen differently. So while Joe can analyse the chord changes and bass lines to the cheques come home, to others that stuff was not even THERE! In other words, to many non-musicians the aural similarities between the two tracks are blatant, while to musicians, the songs are obviously quite different. Who is right? Apparently the musicians are NOT, at least for now. So once again, let me repeat my summary from the last time, musicians listen differently.
I therefore hereby decree an end to all social media arguments.
🙂
stefanwalcott.com 
Good thoughts on this and thanks for pointing to that Joe Bennett article. It’s a very thorough analysis of the issues surrounding the Music of this case an clearly shows there is no infringement and also shows music in the courts is dumb.