Ed Sheeran and the “Blurred Lines” effect

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ed Sheeran just won a big copyright trial. But he might not have even been in court if not for Robin Thicke and Pharrell’s “Blurred Lines.” Pitchfork’s Jayson Greene explains how the song of the summer from 10 years ago simply refuses to go away. This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Matt Collette, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ten years ago in the summer of 2013, blurred lines was everywhere.
0:04.8	And eventually, it made its way to court for sounding too much like a Marvin Gaye song called Got to Give It Up.
0:13.8	The verdict in that court case had huge implications for the music industry, and it's the reason Ed Sheeran was just in court because this...
0:26.2	When your legs don't work like they used to before...
0:29.2	Kind of sort of sounded a bit too much like this.
0:36.2	Coming up on today, explain the lasting legacy of a song that just refuses to go away.
0:57.2	From the tune.
1:05.2	Sean Rahm is firm here with Jason Green, contributing writer at Pitchfork, who's recently written about blurred lines and thinking out loud, and where the two songs intersect.
1:15.2	We're gonna start with blurred lines because...
1:18.2	Well, because unlike, I would say, 99% of the other number one pop hits from 2013,
1:25.2	blurred lines has had an infernal afterlife that has extended so far past the moment it was on the charts.
1:33.2	It is a singular phenomenon for so many reasons, and what's remarkable is that all of the reasons it has lingered in our cultural imagination are not good ones.
1:43.2	The story of blurred lines begins with Robin Thick, son of the actor, Alan, bonafide nepotbaby.
1:50.2	I mean, he's like a factory preset nepotbaby. Absolutely. 100% dude.
1:55.2	Back in 1991, he even wrote a song for his dad's beloved sitcom, Growing Pains.
2:00.2	Robin has been into music in a big way for a couple of years, loves music, especially rap music.
2:12.2	But what's funny too is to look back because no one really thought of Robin Thick this way when he first pops up in the culture.
2:18.2	If you were checking out video blocks on countdown shows around then, you would have seen this scruffy looking guy who had at the time.
2:27.2	It's crazy to look at now. He had long hair.
2:29.2	He either was or is pretending to be for the sake of a video, a bike messenger, but he's in a video around that time for this one I get you alone song.
2:38.2	It samples the fifth of Beethoven and he's riding his bike.
2:41.2	He looks like a total like, hesher burnout dude from a Judd Appetite comedy.
	...

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