When I first heard the song "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, I did not listen to the lyrics like I did while watching the music video. Some people took the song in the wrong way, and I can say that I was one of those people. In Tricia Romano's article 'Blurred Lines,' Robin Thicke's Summer Anthem, Is Kind of Rapey" she states that the song makes some female music fans uncomfortable. I for one felt very uncomfortable while watching this music video.
The argument out there is that Robin Thicke did not mean for music fans to take his song in the wrong way. What I do not understand is why did he write the song this way if he knew people could possibly take it into a different direction; especially creating a music video that portrayed the "not right" direction of the song. I can see how Jennifer Lai sees this video as nonsexual, but not everyone sees it like that. Even though Robin Thicke does not specifically say "I know you want it, and I am going to force you to have it," it is definitely assumed when he repeatedly says "I know you want it."
Although this song can be portrayed in two or even more ways, I believe that Robin Thicke could have prevented all of this by simply creating a music video that suited the way he wanted people to take it as. This could have prevented a lot of drama for him and music fans.
I also did not listen to the lyrics when I first heard this song! I liked it because of the beat but didn't really think about what it meant. I also agree with you about the music video depicting the meaning of the song. If Robin Thicke didn't want this song to be racy then he should have made a more PG video. It could still have his random stuff but just not be so suggestive in content.
ReplyDeleteI thought the same thing as both of you did as well. I was not paying much attention to the lyrics when I listened to the song. I mainly focused on its catchy tune. Danielle brought up a good point asking why he wrote the song if he knew it could turn out so controversial? When writing about these topics, he had to have seen this coming. I feel that if people weren't questioning it, something would be weird. Now that I have seen all the arguments against this song, I have realized that I probably shouldn't be belting out all of the words.
ReplyDeleteWhen you question "why did he write the song this way if he knew people could possibly take it into the wrong direction," my personal opinion is because he wanted to make his mark in the music business. When people take risks like Robin Thicke, they are noticed by a large spectrum of the population, so what better way to gain popularity and recognition?! If that is what he was going for, he definitely succeeded! Like you, I am also uncomfortable and confused with the music video. In my opinion, it isn't the lyrics that make the song "rapey," but rather, it is the video itself.
ReplyDeleteHey Dan! I agree with you and your first impression of the song. The first time I heard the song this summer, the lyrics didn't even phase me as having a hidden meaning. I thought that if everyone else liked the song there probably wasn't anything wrong with it. I was being played on the radio 4-5 times a day how could they play a song that implied something bad. My opinion changed after watching the video like you said. I agree with you that if Robin Thicke had made a different music video maybe the song wouldn't have created so much drama. I am amazed that he took such a risk with the music video when the song was clearly a hit and lots of people all ages would be interested in seeing the music video.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that if Thicke didn't want the song to be taken the wrong way he simply could have had a different message sent in the music video. A different video could have easily changed the way people viewed the song and created far less drama like you said. However, I think that Thicke was intentionally looking for this drama as Chloe pointed out above. All the hype around the song created a significant amount attention for song an helped push it to be more popular than it otherwise would have.
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