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Robin Thicke/Pharrell Williams vs Gaye Family on plagiarism lawsuit

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Robin Thicke/Pharrell Williams vs Gaye Family on plagiarism lawsuit

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The long drawn-out copyright battle over Robin Thicke's 2013 song "Blurred Lines" has ended after a judge ordered Thicke and Pharrell Williams to pay almost $5 million to Marvin Gaye's estate in the case's final ruling.

Members of Gaye's family sued Thicke and Williams, along with rapper and featured artist on the song, T.I., in 2013 for copyright infringement of Gaye's 1977 hit song "Got to Give It Up."

In 2015, the Gaye family won their case. The court ordered Thicke and Williams to pay Gaye's estate more than $7 million dollars, an amount that was later reduced to $5.3 million.

Thicke and Williams appealed the verdict, and in March of this year a judge mostly upheld the jury's decision.

In a Dec. 6 ruling, a judge in the Central District of California reaffirmed the March ruling, declaring Thicke, Williams, and More Water From Nazareth Publishing must pay Gaye's estate $2.9 million in damages.

Thicke was ordered to pay an additional $1.76 million dollars, while Williams and his publishing company must each pay Gaye's estates separate rewards of $357,630.

T.I. was cleared of any liability in March, a decision upheld in this last and final verdict.

The Gaye estate was also rewarded half of the song's running royalties from after the court's original judgment date, and interest of 0.25% based on the 2015 decision.

The Central District's verdict finishes a legal battle followed by much of the music industry. In 2016, more than 200 musicians, including Jennifer Hudson and Hans Zimmer, filed an amicus brief in support of Thicke and Williams appeal, claiming the verdict would be "very dangerous" to the music industry.

Since the Gaye family first filed their lawsuit, other high-profile artists like Lana Del Rey and Mark Ronson have been similarly sued.

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Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams to pay $5 million in final "Blurred Lines" verdict

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The five-year legal battle has ended with a verdict in favor of Martin Gaye's estate, who sued claiming "Blurred Lines" copied Gaye's "Got To Give It Up"

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https://youtu.be/Q6_KrHPx22A

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Hercules - I Won't Say I'm In Love (Music Video) HD

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mix of modern and old classic style

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Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic - Leave the Door Open [Official Video]

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Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams accused of plagiarising Marvin Gaye

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Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams accused of plagiarising Marvin Gaye

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The Gaye family accused the two artists of ripping off Marvin Gaye's 1977 'Got to Give it Up' in their 2013 hit, 'Blurred Lines'. This lawsuit went to open up other similar cases of suspected plagiarism.

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The long drawn-out copyright battle over Robin Thicke's 2013 song "Blurred Lines" has ended after a judge ordered Thicke and Pharrell Williams to pay almost $5 million to Marvin Gaye's estate in the case's final ruling.

Members of Gaye's family sued Thicke and Williams, along with rapper and featured artist on the song, T.I., in 2013 for copyright infringement of Gaye's 1977 hit song "Got to Give It Up."

In 2015, the Gaye family won their case. The court ordered Thicke and Williams to pay Gaye's estate more than $7 million dollars, an amount that was later reduced to $5.3 million.

Thicke and Williams appealed the verdict, and in March of this year a judge mostly upheld the jury's decision.

In a Dec. 6 ruling, a judge in the Central District of California reaffirmed the March ruling, declaring Thicke, Williams, and More Water From Nazareth Publishing must pay Gaye's estate $2.9 million in damages.

Thicke was ordered to pay an additional $1.76 million dollars, while Williams and his publishing company must each pay Gaye's estates separate rewards of $357,630.

T.I. was cleared of any liability in March, a decision upheld in this last and final verdict.

The Gaye estate was also rewarded half of the song's running royalties from after the court's original judgment date, and interest of 0.25% based on the 2015 decision.

The Central District's verdict finishes a legal battle followed by much of the music industry. In 2016, more than 200 musicians, including Jennifer Hudson and Hans Zimmer, filed an amicus brief in support of Thicke and Williams appeal, claiming the verdict would be "very dangerous" to the music industry.

Since the Gaye family first filed their lawsuit, other high-profile artists like Lana Del Rey and Mark Ronson have been similarly sued.

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Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams to pay $5 million in final "Blurred Lines" verdict

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The five-year legal battle has ended with a verdict in favor of Martin Gaye's estate, who sued claiming "Blurred Lines" copied Gaye's "Got To Give It Up"

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The Contours' 1962 hit is playing during this raunchy scene in the 1988 summer fling, 'Dirty Dancing', where the female lead, Baby gets her first glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes at her upmarket family holiday resort.

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You Can't Hurry Love (originally The Supremes)

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You Can't Hurry Love (originally The Supremes)

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Originally recorded by The Supremes in 1966, Phil Collins (ex-Genesis drummer) released this peppy cover in 1982, with the aim of trying to recreate 'that Sixties sound'.

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Phil Collins - You Can't Hurry Love (Official Music Video)

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This is a clip taken from Soul Train- an American music variety show which ran from 1971-2006. As the name suggests, many soul singers plus R&B and hip-hop artists performed. It's well worth a browse if not only for the amazing fashion and very groovy dancing.

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Jackson 5 - I want you back (Soul Train) - 1969 HD & HQ

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As initially part of the Supremes, Diana Ross rose to fame, becoming a part of one of Motown’s most popular performers in the 1960s. This level of fame that she achieved allowed her to break from the Supremes and record a lot of solo material, with her debut album featuring famous songs such as Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. In addition to Motown and the Supremes giving her a platform to  perform solo, her fame and music also has led to her becoming a gay icon within the LGBTQ+ community, with songs such as “I’m Coming Out” inspiring and empowering many in general, especially within the LGBTQ+ community, which was made possible by the platform and fame that her work with Motown helped her to achieve.

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In addition to providing a platform for a predominant number of artists of colour, Motown also stood up for civil rights, producing and distributing some of Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speeches, creating a means for his voice and message to be heard by a wider number of people and immortalised. Furthermore, because the Motown record label’s workforce was predominantly black, this meant that any profit made off the record was benefiting the black community.

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It was perhaps inevitable that The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Motown Records would work together. As the premier figure in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, Dr. King's campaign for equality, justice, and liberation was exemplified in some ways by America's No. 1 black-owned record label. Motown, an enterprise that primarily signed African-American artists, was well aware of Dr. King's campaigning theology, even when the white teenage record buyers the company courted may not have been ready to embrace the cause of Civil Rights.

But while Motown's links to Dr. King's campaign may have been almost invisible to the outside world at times, there is no doubting the company's commitment. From its artists to its founding father, Berry Gordy Jr., Motown celebrated Dr. King's work wholeheartedly - with soul, you might say. It released albums of his most pivotal speeches, and their words, recorded for posterity by Motown, still resonate.

The company's first two albums of King's speeches rank among the most iconic images in Motown's huge catalogue, but don't contain a single element of the company's trademark sound - apart from its sometimes underestimated Black consciousness. Motown was willing to subsume its corporate identity to a greater cause. These records were all about getting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s message across.

Detroit and The Walk To Freedom

The first record captured Dr. King's speech at 1963's The Walk To Freedom in Detroit. For decades, Detroit had been the destination of preference for many African-Americans in the south who were longing for a better life in the north. Detroit was booming, with 10 major automobile manufacturing companies. Production-line work at General Motors, Ford, or Fruehauf trailers was hard, repetitive, and noisy, but compared to breaking your back to earn cents as a sharecropper or farm hand in the south, it was rewarding and regular. Not only that, but Detroit was seen as a model for race relations, and Black businesses were springing up to cater for the new population. Some would make an impact way beyond the city - none more so than Motown, the record label founded in 1959 that brought a new, arguably "industrialized," soul sound to the world. Detroit's reputation for integration, which attracted Dr. King, who believed in equality of opportunity rather than separate development, had an echo in the way that Motown was marketing Detroit's music to the world. Motown was not selling out, it was buying into a bigger, wider audience.

It might seem strange that The Walk To Freedom, a protest march hailed as "the largest and greatest demonstration of freedom ever held in the United States," should take place in a city where African-American people could thrive. This was a metropolis where powerful local politicians could take the stage alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr; the city Mayor could boast of racial progress, and its police chief would promise the Civil Rights figurehead there would be no dogs or water cannons turned on the marchers - unlike in Alabama, where the movement's charismatic leader had been jailed for exercising his democratic right to protest.

But behind the gloss and boasts, Detroit was a divided city. Subtly so, perhaps, but unequal all the same. Housing policies that dated to the 30s had drawn lines on a map: Black residents here, white there. Facilities were likewise uneven, the suburbs were white and well-served, the inner-city housing projects accommodated Black people, had fewer amenities and were often in a poor condition. Even when an African-American managed to break into a middle-class earnings bracket, bank loans were denied to him (and it was a him - women were routinely refused) or granted only at a punitive interest rate.

It is no accident that Berry Gordy borrowed the few hundred dollars he needed to found his empire from his family, not a bank. Government-supported mortgage schemes supposedly meant for everyone were frequently blocked to Black people at a local level. The usual indicators of poverty, such as ill health and unemployment, ran higher in Black neighborhoods. A better life in Detroit than Alabama? Sure. But everything is relative. Dr. King knew there were still doors shut to his people.

On June 23, 1963, Dr. King led 150,000 marchers through Detroit to Cobo Hall, the three-year-old convention center named in unintended grim irony after Albert Cobo, the Republican mayor of Detroit for most of the 50s, who had fought against integrated neighborhoods and complained about a "negro invasion" of white districts. An audience of 14,000 was gripped by Dr. King's address, which came to be known as The Great March To Freedom. It should have been remembered as one of the greatest speeches of the 20th Century - and would be more widely acclaimed as such had the great orator not delivered a similar message in Washington D.C. two months later.

The Great March On Washington

The Washington event drew history's gaze more acutely because Dr. King was campaigning in the United States' political epicenter. The world's media was in permanent residence. Delivered a little over a mile from the White House, his words could hardly be ignored by President Kennedy, who was already sympathetic to the cause, though his Civil Rights Act was opposed in the Senate for 54 days solid and did not become law until nearly eight months after his assassination in November 1963.

While Washington's establishment spoke grandly of The People, the city remained deeply segregated: some people were more People than others. It was seen as the powerbase of white America, but beyond the marble halls of the elite, African Americans nicknamed Washington Chocolate City, it was so Black. In 1960, nearly 54 per cent of the District of Columbia's population was African American - it was the first predominantly Black major city in the US. But as elsewhere, the city's facilities and wealth were chiefly distributed away from its Black districts. So the March On Washington's primary focus was to protest economic inequality, and it sought to rebalance access to work, education and housing, among other demands.

The march drew 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, and it was here that many people believe Dr. King gave his first "I have a dream" speech. The great man did use those words, but in this form: "I still have a dream," a direct reference to the fact he had revealed this hope at the earlier Detroit rally.

The Motown records

Dr. King's dazzling and deeply moving words from both speeches were released on record - appropriately by Motown, which was starting to build the sort of global reputation for the city's soul music that previously only its cars had enjoyed. Motown issued the album of the Detroit speech in August 1963, titling it The Great March To Freedom. The label had negotiated a 40-cents-per-copy royalty and a $400 advance for the album with Dr. King, a generous deal for a record with a wholesale price of $1.80. Dr King refused the royalties, instead asking for the payments to go to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Berry Gordy also made a $500 donation to the organization and Motown acts appeared at its fundraisers.

In the book Motown: The Sound Of Young America, company insider Barney Ales has admitted that distributors weren't keen on The Great March To Freedom, being more au fait with promoting records that promised to liberate your feet and libidos than your oppressed souls. The company probably pressed 10,000 copies, with half of that number returned unsold. America's record-buyers did not know what they were missing.

Undeterred, Gordy was not done with promoting Dr. King's message, rightly believing these albums would earn their place in history. The Great March To Freedom was soon joined by a further set, The Great March On Washington. This made sense: the rally in the capital had quickly overshadowed the Detroit event, drawing far more publicity. The Great March On Washington also featured other speakers from the day, union leaders A. Phillip Randolph and Water Reuther, and Civil Rights campaign mainstays Roy Eilkins and Whitney Young, plus a rousing version of "We Shall Overcome" by Liz Lands, a gospel singer and aspiring R&B artist whose five-octave range won her a Motown contract that year.

Motown retained its interest in Martin Luther King and Berry Gordy Jr was a discreet financial contributor to the cause. Shortly after Dr. King's shocking assassination in 1968, excerpts from the Detroit speech were issued as a single, "I Have A Dream." The album Free At Last followed, while Motown's Black Forum imprint, a label established to preserve and propagate the message of Black rights, issued the acclaimed Why I Oppose The War In Vietnam in 1970. It won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Recording the following year. (It was only the second time the company had landed a Grammy, the first being The Temptations' Best R&B Performance award in 1968 for "Cloud Nine.")

Motown's artists were inspired

Motown's connections with Dr. King were more than just a business matter. Berry Gordy was among the inner circle who personally supported and advised Dr King's widow, Coretta Scott King, following her husband's cruel and untimely murder. More than this, Motown's artists found inspiration in Dr. King's life and work. Shorty Long's elegant 1969 single "I Had A Dream" drew heavily on his words in Detroit. Stevie Wonder's joyous 1980 tribute, "Happy Birthday," which delivered unstoppable momentum to the campaign to create a national holiday in honor of the Civil Rights leader's birthday, was pressed with excerpts from Dr. King's speeches on the other side. Tom Clay, a Detroit DJ, created a remarkable cut-up single juxtaposing "What The World Needs Now Is Love" and Dick Holler's protest ballad "Abraham, Martin And John" with excerpts of speeches from Dr. King and John F. and Bobby Kennedy, and it provided a much-needed and musically arresting No. 8 smash for Motown's new subsidiary MoWest in 1971. The year before, Marvin Gaye had enjoyed a UK Top Ten hit with a beautiful cut of "Abraham, Martin And John" which carried more than a few hints of the new direction which would deliver his masterpiece, . Gaye was particularly affected by the killing of Dr. King, and stated: "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

Diana Ross was aware that her fame could allow her to speak to a mainstream audience about Dr. King's work which was perhaps indifferent or ignorant about his message. On the night of his assassination, The Supremes appeared on The Tonight Show, and Ross directly mentioned the tragedy. Seven months later, in November 1968, Ross again broached the subject while starring on a TV showbiz institution, speaking of Dr King during a monologue at London's Royal Variety Performance. This was controversial issue in the UK as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Princess Anne were in the audience, and the Royal Family is supposedly above potentially contentious political matters.

One of the greatest orators of the age

Motown released The Great March To Freedom and The Great March On Washington on its mainstream R&B subsidiary, Gordy. Their front sleeves did not bear the label's logo, as would normally be the case. Instead, a dramatic, newsy-looking layout emphasized the import of their contents. The first of the two records was also in a gatefold sleeve - four years before this became a rock music "innovation" - featuring an impressive photo of the mass of protesters in Detroit. Motown, or more accurately recording engineer Milton Henry, captured the atmosphere beautifully. These releases are not hi-fi experiences, but they are real: you can hear the vastness of the crowds in Detroit and the capital, and the rapt attention the people gave Dr. King. It's not hard to imagine the scene.

Needless to say, Dr. King's words, which speak of peace, dignity, and freedom as well as the struggles ahead, became keystones of the Civil Rights era. His impeccable, perfectly paced, utterly measured delivery still sounds like the work of one of the greatest orators of the modern age. This is a voice that remains relevant, speaking of matters that remain unaddressed. Some of the terminology may have changed, but the power of Dr. King's message is totally intact.

The legacy

While freedom still remains unattainable for so many, hope remains. Detroit has been struggling for years: its population has tumbled to less than a million, unthinkable when Dr. King spoke, and political power in Washington has fed on and even encouraged inequality in recent years. But the words Dr. King delivered on those two glorious days continue to resonate. Motown and especially Berry Gordy were highly prescient to realize the pivotal nature of Dr. King's campaigns. In ensuring his words could be heard down the generations, these historic records of his work gave the Civil Rights trailblazer a platform that has lasted far beyond his all-too-short lifespan. Previous generations had not been able to hear their words of their leaders in the struggle. That had now changed: Motown made sure you could hear them in your own home as often as you needed to. These speeches helped provide inspiration for President Obama and the Black Lives Matter movement, both of which have updated and developed his mission by peaceful means. Though Dr. King's dream remains some distance short of reality as yet, the Great March goes on.

Buy The Great March on Washington on vinyl here.

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Motown And Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream Speech

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It was perhaps inevitable that The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Motown Records would work together. As the premier figure in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, Dr. King's campaign for equality, justice, and liberation was exemplified in some ways by America's No. 1 black-owned record label.

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Motown’s music is seen to still be very popular with contemporary audiences, with the musical Motown: The Musical made, showcasing many of Motown’s most popular songs, most of them being originally recorded before the 1970s

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Debbie dean being the first white girl signed to Motown records but not a R&B or Blues singer.

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An outlier from the earliest days of Motown, Debbie Dean - née Reba Smith - was the first white artist to sign with Motown, and the first white female performer to appear on a Motown single. ( Nick and the Jaguars, who had released the surf rock instrumental Ich-i-bon #1 in August 1959, were the first (credited) white performers on a Motown label, but theirs was a one-off deal for Tamla to release that one pre-recorded single, rather than them actually signing a contract with Berry Gordy.)

A Southerner with a fine singing voice, Debbie was already in her early thirties by the time she got to Motown in 1960, and rather too old to be a teenybopper idol; perhaps evidence of Motown's crossover ambitions right from the start, she cut three singles for Motown in the early Sixties before eventually leaving the label in 1962, by which time Motown records were starting to find their way into middle-class white homes in large numbers anyway.

Debbie's Motown story wasn't finished, though - in partnership with her friend the writer-producer Deke Richards, she returned to Motown as a successful songwriter in the mid-Sixties, even getting the chance to record again once she was reintroduced to Berry Gordy, resulting in a prized Northern Soul single and several excellent unreleased cuts. Debbie Dean passed away in 2001.

Review Archive: Debbie DEAN (6 items)

We have 6 reviews for Debbie Dean here on Motown Junkies - click the link above to see our archive for more details.

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This is just a short biographical summary - for the full story, check out this artist's reviews! ** An outlier from the earliest days of Motown, Debbie Dean - née Reba Smith - was the first white artist to sign with Motown, and the first white female performer to appear on a Motown single....

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How Motown Broke Racial Barriers Like No Other Record Label

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In the way its music was presented and the universal themes its artists sang of, Motown broke racial barriers to move everyone, no matter their skin colour.

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Showing the least amount of their skin. A certain maturity to the music and the look.

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The Jackson 5 was one of the youngest Mowtown groups to reach superstardom in 1969 just before hip-hop and the 70's R&B. Michael Jackson only being 11 at the time. First single being "I want you back" being an instant hit, number one in pop and R&B. This legacy obviously affected Michael Jackson having to keep breaking the charts and breaking the system of the music industry. A chance to represent black culture.

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The Jackson 5 was one of the youngest Motown groups to reach superstardom. Brothers Michael, Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine were all born in Gary, Indiana. After their father realized they could succeed as performers, he drove them to different venues in Chicago and New York where they won an amateur talent competition at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. There they met Gladys Knight.

After producing a track called "Big Boy," out of the Gary-based Steeltown Records, and being championed by Bobby Taylor of the Vancouvers and Diana Ross, the group finally got to audition for Motown in July 1968. Michael was nine, Marion, 11, Jermaine 14, Tito 15 and Jackie 17. Berry Gordy signed the brothers on March 11, 1969 and flew them to Los Angeles.

In 1969, the group opened for Diana Ross and released their first single "I Want You Back." It was a number one pop and R&B hit along with their next two singles, "ABC" and "The Love You Save." The Jackson 5 continued to have successes and was the first group to have their first four singles go to number one on Billboard's Hot 100.

Because of their popularity, networks like ABC began to make money by producing Jackson 5 dolls and starting a Jackson 5 cartoon show. Michael and Jermaine were encouraged by Gordy to go solo while staying in the Jackson 5. They both did well, but Michael's success was greater than his older brother's with songs like "Got to Be There" and "Ben." Like all things, the Jackson 5 craze died down and their last big hit was 1974's "Dancing Machine."

In 1975 the Jackson 5 announced they were breaking their contract with Motown to sign with Epic Records, which they did on March 10, 1976. Jermaine however, who had married Berry Gordy's daughter Hazel, decided to leave the Jackson 5 and stay with Motown. The youngest Jackson, Randy, joined the group. As Motown held the rights to the name "Jackson 5," the brothers continued as "The Jacksons." In 1978 they released an album, Destiny, which was almost entirely self-written. The album's success encouraged Michael to continue his solo career which became a huge success later with his album Thriller.

2300 Jackson Street was the last record made by the four remaining Jacksons (Marlon also left the group) in 1989. In 2001 the six brothers performed at Madison Square Garden honoring Michael's 30-year career.

The Jackson 5 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

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Jackson 5, The | Detroit Historical Society

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The Jackson 5 was one of the youngest Motown groups to reach superstardom. Brothers Michael, Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine were all born in Gary, Indiana. After their father realized they could succeed as performers, he drove them to different venues in Chicago and New York where they won an amateur talent competition at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem.

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Movie based on the Supremes, talking about the Motown label and black musicians in the music industry. Notably made in 2006. Dramatised however it still presents how white artists appropriates the genre but being more conservative. This stuff "Takes real money" to get where they need to break the pop charts.