Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams Deny 'Blurred Lines' Copyright Infringement Claim
Artists deny that they ripped off a Marvin Gaye hit.
— -- Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams appeared in federal court this week, denying they ripped off a Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up" in their song "Blurred Lines."
In court Wednesday, Thicke gave an impromptu concert, taking to a keyboard to perform a medley of famous songs to show how pop tunes often share similar chord progressions.
“Sometime song progressions sounds similar without copying each other,” Billboard.com associate editor Jason Lipshutz said on “Good Morning America. “That’s what he tried to demonstrate.”
Other artists acknowledge that musical mimicry is sometimes practiced in the industry.
Recently, One Direction made headlines for a guitar riff in their song, “Best Song Ever.” Some thought it was strikingly similar to The Who’s 1971 classic, “Baba O’Riley.”
But instead of crying foul, The Who front man Pete Townsh end readily admitted those three One Direction chords are the same ones “we’ve all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry.”
Thicke and Williams insist they are not copycats, calling any similarities between the two songs coincidental.
Because Gaye's song came one year before copyright laws were changed in the 1970s, jurors will not be able to hear the two songs side by side. Instead a stripped-down version of Gaye's song will be played.