Tag: Robin Thicke

NEWS ROUNDUP: Blurred Lines, The NRA & More

NEWS ROUNDUP: Blurred Lines, The NRA & More

By Jasmine Williams

Blurred Lines Gets Cleared Up

On Wednesday, Robin Thicke and Pharrell lost their appeal in the infamous “Blurred Lines” copyright case, the landmark music verdict ruled that the groovy 2013 track sounded way too familiar to Marvin Gaye’s much groovier song, “Got to Give It Up.” The appeal results continue the “giving credit where credit is due” debate and is extremely worrying to those who believe that the court’s outcome damages creative freedom in the songwriting field. The three judges in the appeals case were not unanimous in the decision to uphold the ruling; the dissenting judge cautioned that the final result “establishes a dangerous precedent that strikes a devastating blow to future musicians and composers everywhere.” Marvin Gaye’s three children, who were awarded more than $5 million from the original decision, struck back with the statement, “If an artist wants to use the work of others for ‘inspiration,’ they always have been welcome to ask for permission.”

Country Music Turns Its Back On The NRA

Country music has long been linked with a specific type of Americana – one that features flag-flying, blue jeans, trucks, and of course, the right to bear arms. However, a recent edit to the NRA’s website indicates that the classic genre’s relationship with guns is changing. The shift began after the Las Vegas shooting on October 1st, when a gunman massacred fifty-eight people during country music festival, Route 91 Harvest. In the week following the shooting, Rolling Stone reported that many of the musicians featured on the NRA’s website were no longer inclined to confirm their ties with the association. This week, ahead of Saturday’s student-led “March For Our Lives” protests, over thirty country musicians’ names have been removed from the NRA’s online list of associated artists.

That New New:

R&B’s princess of minimalism is back with a new ear worm – Jhené Aiko debuted a double serving of videos for her new track, “Never Call Me.” Global music collector, Diplo returns with a solo EP called “California.” Jack White’s long-awaited album, Boarding House Reach, is here, and reviews are mixed. Kimya Dawson, Leon Bridges, and Thom Yorke have all announced tours, while Bloc Party will be playing their seminal album Silent Alarm on six European stops this October. Magda Davitt, the artist formerly known as Sinead O’Connor, also delivered dates this week; next month she plays in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In other live news, passes for all of Red Bull Music Festival’s May events are on sale now and on Monday, tickets for Christine and the Queens’ Halloween show are up on Brooklyn Vegan.

More Music News:

  • Realizing that teachers across the United States like to use their zany music videos in the classroom, OK Go has debuted an educational website. OK Go Sandbox pairs the band’s creative clips with free learning guides that bundle suggested assignments, spelling words and more.
  • Lollapalooza announced its lineup, and like so many others this year, the Chicago festival features very few female musicians, and a lot of lame excuses as to why male stars always seem to get top billing.
  • As part of a court ruling for securities fraud, Pharma-bro Martin Shkreli has been ordered to forfeit his copies of unreleased albums by Wu-Tang and Lil Wayne. However, we still might never hear Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and The Carter V; their future will probably be determined by U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. He doesn’t seem like much of a hip-hop fan.

A Year in Controversies: How the Think-piece Shapes Music Criticism

musicthoughts

In the age of the ubiquitous think-piece, here’s another, and this time, it’s about think-pieces.  In 2013 what think-pieces mean is that no one is about to get away with anything.  You’re a white girl who twerked in a music video?  You’re a white girl trying to criticize consumerism by skewering the particular facets of hip-hop culture that bug you most?  You’re a white girl making a comeback built on spoofing both these things?  Well guess what – you’re racist.  Are you a male journalist discussing any of this?  You aren’t even allowed to.

Arcade Fire, Lorde, Miley Cyrus, Lily Allen, Beyonce, and also everyone who has negative thoughts about Beyonce: you are racist.  Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, Action Bronson, James Brooks, Chris Ott, Beyonce, and also everyone who has negative thoughts about Beyonce: you’re sexist.  And R. Kelly?  You are criminally sick, and it’s sad it took us all this long to come to terms with that.

While the internet has been known to work itself into a tizzy and sometimes misses the point, all this goes beyond the “haters gon’ hate” anachronism.  This year certainly wasn’t the first time anyone examined culture through a progressive lens, but it feels refreshing to read about privilege in relation to pop music.  There will be those that will roll their eyes and some whose eyes will be opened.  Whether you are more upset over Arcade Fire’s appropriation of Haitian culture in the making and promoting of Reflektor or that they asked fans to dress in formal wear for their shows doesn’t exactly matter because the conversations are still happening.

And sometimes, just the conversation is the positive thing, the thing that shows real sea change.  Best case in point: the roundtable of eight female journalists that Spin assembled to discuss the work of James Brooks, an artist who’d been discussed up to that point mainly on message boards and on his girlfriend Grimes’ tumblr.  As a song, “On Fraternity” was not especially memorable, but the discussion that followed its release – about whether it was appropriate for Brooks as a man to “explain” rape culture to women, or to name his project Dead Girlfriends, kind of was.  Because it compiled the opinions of eight amazing writers who, because of their gender, are still a minority in their industry (even in 2013).

It’s the same industry that produced a guy like Chris Ott, who has some very valid points about the ethics of advertisers appropriating “cool” as interpreted by young writers.  But because he singled out the Pelly twins (and dug himself a deeper hole in trying to explain why) his arguments got lost in the (equally valid) debate about whether his comments were sexist.  In the end, he may have looked more curmudgeonly than anything else, but it raises an interesting question about the very blurry lines between free speech, hate speech, and sponsored content.

Which brings me to everyone’s favorite Marvin Gaye rip-off.  Robin Thicke’s video, the MTV VMA performance, and the date-rapey overtones of “Blurred Lines” were among the most discussed stories of the year.  In one of the more interesting examinations of the song’s politics, a feminist writer talked about how she was able to compartmentalize the its content because she just really, really loved the song.  There are a lot of women who share her ability to do that.  Agree or not, you have to admire that admission, because there were plenty of people who just shrugged and kept dancing without bothering to point out that women have to do this all the time, because so much of music portrays them as less than human.

There have always been controversial characters and questionable lyrics.  That piece also named R. Kelly as one of them (the writer, again, was able to set aside Kelly’s “alleged” crimes to enjoy “Remix to Ignition”).  But that was before Jess Hopper interviewed Jim DeRogatis, the reporter who broke Kelly’s sex scandal.  For fifteen years, juries and fans alike ignored his crimes, made jokes.  But because of that piece there are a lot of people who are now unable, or straight up refuse, to compartmentalize that reality to get through Black Panties without wanting to barf.  Why did it take fifteen years to come to terms with the fact that R. Kelly is a predator?  We knew it all along.

The difference, really, is the internet.  Most of DeRogatis’ reporting on the subject was done in print; Hopper is in a distinct position as music editor of Rookie, contributor to Spin, Village Voice, etc. etc. etc. to reach an audience that DeRogatis could not.  There are a lot of people writing think-pieces and open letters and retweeting important writing these days, and while they may not do it as eloquently as the professionals, they are no longer just screaming into a void.  Will that give artists in 2014 pause while they consider more deeply how their works and actions will be perceived?  Even if it takes us until 2050, let’s keep thinking.