A JURY HAS awarded Marvin Gaye’s children nearly $7.4 million after finding that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied their father’s music to create Blurred Lines.
Marvin Gaye died in April 1984, leaving his children the copyrights to his music. Nona, Frankie, and Marvin Gaye III sued Thicke and Williams back in 2013.
Nona wept as the verdict was being read and was hugged by her lawyer, Richard Busch.
Gaye said:
Right now, I feel free. Free from… Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.
Thicke and Williams’ lawyer has said a decision in favour of the Gaye children could have a chilling effect on musicians who try to emulate an era or another artist’s sound.
But Busch branded the two singers “liars” who went beyond trying to emulate the sound of Gaye’s late-1970s music – instead, outright copying the R&B legend’s hit Got To Give It Up.
Last year, Thicke said he didn’t compose Blurred Lines and wasn’t present when it was written. Pharrell later testified that he wrote it in about an hour in mid-2012.
Williams told jurors that Gaye’s music was part of the soundtrack of his youth, but claims he didn’t use any of it to create the song.
The trial focused on detailed analyses of chords and notes in both songs - an expert for the Gaye family said there were eight distinct elements from Got To Give It Up that were used in Blurred Lines, but an expert for Williams and Thicke denied those similarities existed.
The verdict may face years of appeals.
