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| She's having so much fun, you can just see it in her eyes. |
For the record, I am certainly not a music elitist when it comes to pop music-I listen to Taylor Swift and One Direction. Most of the time, pop music is innocuous at the very worst but occasionally can be catchy even if it's not particularly good. (My conservatory colleagues are probably rolling their eyes at me right now). But really? This entire endeavor was just really sloppy. It's as though the producers just got really lazy and decided to throw together a bunch of random footage of the guys messing around with models(that they paid to be there and do this stuff) and try to pass it off as a music video.
As far as the song itself goes, the lyrics are pretty standard(guy trying to get some action) but people are up in arms because the lyrics have implications of rape and heavily objectify women.
Is it offensive? Of course! But so it about 70-80% of all music out there if you bothered to listen to the lyrics.
But the supposedly "anti-feminist" approaches to both the song and video are not what I find most offensive.
It's just not a very good song.
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| You can't tell me that this is art. It's compensation. |
What's hilarious though is that so many other reviewers have been saying that it's a "catchy dance song with a good beat" which I could not disagree with more. Are we even listening to the same song right now? I had to try approximately 5 times before I could make it through the entire thing and even now I wouldn't be able to sing you the melody(because there isn't one!)
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| Seriously, what is with the goat? |
Point blank: this is a weird song with a weird video. When I see the types of music videos that are coming out today, I always have to think "Future generations are going to think that we were really messed up". I think that they do it for the controversy-Thicke and Pharell knew the video was going to be talked about and publicized to death and now it's at the top of Billboard's Hot 100 because people have been obsessed about it. Not because it's good but because it's absurd. And as long as we keep consuming what they're dishing out, they're going to keep making stupid things like this and profiting from it. But this is me saying no. No, I will not continue to listen to this so that you can get more money for very little work. There is little if any artistry being displayed here and the only way to end this monstrosity they're trying to call music is to not give these "artists" the power of your ears, your attention and your money. They only have worth while they're relevant, they derive power from their audiences. So no, Robin Thicke-after this moment, I'm going to forget about your ridiculous and slightly macabre video. You do not pass Go and you certainly do not get my $200.
Because capitalism, betches.
This is really poorly written. If you're going to critique something you should at least try and do it correctly. As a member of the "true blue" class of 2015 I'm ashamed.
ReplyDeleteNoted. What would you recommend that I improve on in terms of my writing?
DeleteHi there! I started to write a casual response to this and it quickly turned into a small essay on Blurred Lines? I just have a lot of feelings about this song musically.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can’t even fathom defending the music video, I have to make an argument for the musical merits of “Blurred Lines”.
I’m not sure I agree with your observation on the lack of a bass line. From the start of the song, the importance of the bass is undeniable proclaimed; the very first thing you hear is a deep bass fanfare of sorts, announcing the song’s presence and leading listeners into the groove. While it doesn’t play on every beat, the bass line VERY clearly outlines the harmonic form by alternating between the tonic and the dominant and leading the song into each section with the descending 5-4-3-2-1, holding your hand as it leads you back to the tonic. This song is about as far from atonal as you can get. Straight up tonic and dominant chords all day, so I’m not sure I know what you mean when you say that it has “left the realm of tonality.” Also, given this is an R&B song, one must consider that BOTH melody and rhythm are important when talking about the musicality of the song.
Personally, I don’t think the bass line, especially as a part of the larger groove, doesn’t feel anemic at all. The riff-based, interlocking groove is so exciting to me. The harmonic form is almost unbearably predictable, yes, but the lack of constant bass keeps the song from sounding stale. The pick-up notes and constant re-entry of the bass adds a little syncopation, a little unexpected touch. Every second of the song is a new experience, thinking about the score vertically – that is, how the different parts are interacting. I stopped what I was doing to REALLY listen to the song the first time I heard the incredibly striking first break – the part of the song that so respectfully and eloquently goes “you the hottest bitch in this place.” An instrument can communicate just as much with silence.
In my opinion, the groove is meticulously composed and fabulous. Every time you listen to it, there’s something new to hear, little snippets of musical heritage, another way to appreciate the detail that goes into creating music – the syncopated and rhythmic cowbell that feels a bit like it belongs in Motown groove, the vocal interjections that emphasize collaboration and draw upon the age-old musical tradition of overlapping call-and-refrain, the weird rattling chain thing that makes you slightly uncomfortable in the larger context of domesticating women, the claps that accent the upbeats and lighten the song, the pounding and driving bass drum hits that links it with club hits that are dominating top 40 charts, the sparse synthesizer that is reminiscent of jazz comping, it’s all there.
This groove is DIFFERENT than a lot of what is happening in top 40 right and that makes it striking and controversial. “Blurred Lines” manages to pay musical homage to past genres and still sound fresh. It reminds me a lot of Prince’s “When Doves Cry”, actually. “When Doves Cry” was really weird and ended up being really popular because of it. The two songs share a lot of characteristics: striking vocal interjections, interlocking grooves, high male vocal harmonies, and sparse bass parts (“When Doves Cry” doesn't have one at all, actually, which is fascinating, considering we normally write of popular music as being formulaic and rigid in composition).
Overall, the song is really well done, musically. Don’t even get me started on the problems with the message conveyed in the lyrics and the video :)
Hey Jay!
DeleteFirst off-love your comment; it's exactly the type of thing I hope people will post!
Secondly, I hope you'll excuse inaccuracies in my analysis(I haven't taken theory since high school) so I'm a little rusty. I think you pose some interesting points. I actually had never heard "When Doves Cry" before but having listened to it now, I actually find it much more kosher to my ear, though that might be because more music has emulated "Doves"? I'm not entirely sure why that is but I thought I'd mention it.
I think my point about not quite tonality was the fact that it seems like 'Blurred Lines' has a lot more half step progressions than most other songs which I kind of have the knee jerk reaction as being not as in the box as some of the other pop songs out there right now. It's a little weird and that's kind of what I was trying to get at. My first reaction is that the lack of a hugely thumping bass was kind of bizarre and I feel like it doesn't sound quite as rounded out as most other songs do.
Also just a question since I haven't studied much music past like..Bartok but how did you know to classify it as R&B? My friend who is a classical vocalist and I were trying for a really long time to figure out what to call the song(without resorting to Google) and were stumped!
Thanks again for the comment-I really appreciate it! I'm definitely going to give the song a second listen after your explanation if nothing else and let you know if I changed my mind. Either way, thanks again!
Well, first, Thicke identifies himself as an R&B artist, so that was part of it. R&B is kind of a fuzzy term, plus has existed since the 1940's and has been constantly evolving since then. Like, when the term first popped up as a genre that record companies and radios used, it was just a euphemism for race records. But R&B, in a contemporary sense, describes a feel of music that draws from pop, hip hop, funk, soul for inspiration. It's a little smooth, a little dance-y, a little syncopated, and deeply rooted in black traditions of music-making.
DeleteThe idea for the chromatic lines, according to Wikipedia, came from Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up." I hadn't listened to that song in YEARS, but listening to it now, the nod to Gaye is very in-your-face. Chromatic lines in this context don't really point to a lack of a key center, but instead are used to emphasize the dominant (the vocals go c-c#-d). When our ears hear those ascending half-steps, we know where we want the line to go, and we feel a sense of satisfying closure and resolution when it takes us to the familiar D, the dominant chord.
In my opinion, the song doesn't really need a thumping bass part, because that is present in the synthesized bass drum part. Especially if you're listening on headphones, it's right there and can stand by itself. To have the bass and the bass drum doing the same thing would take away from the intricate layering of the song and kind of go against the notion (taken from soul/motown) that the groove should have a lot of unique parts coming together to create something greater than the sum of the parts.
Also, weirdly enough, I find "When Doves Cry" much more difficult to listen to than "Blurred Lines"
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