Let’s just imagine that you, the reader, are a member of the Gaye family. Ha ha, very mature, reader. Can we move on now? Okay, so imagine that you are a Gaye—god damn it, reader, please stop giggling—and you have just been awarded an unprecedented seven-figure sum by a jury who decided that Pharrell Williams’ and Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit single “Blurred Lines” ripped off your deceased family member Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got To Give It Up” based on the nebulous concept of “feel.”
You’d feel pretty good, right? Good enough to play Williams’ feel-good single, “Happy,” on your iPod? Well, let’s imagine that that’s what you did. So you’re walking down the street, and “Happy” begins to play, and the sudden, sinking realization washes over you that this song—which you are hearing for the first time, even though it’s on your iPod—is remarkably similar to another of your dearly departed relative Marvin Gaye’s compositions, 1965’s “Ain’t That Peculiar.” This Pharrell guy has been making a career out of copying your dead loved one’s music! That that would be terrible. Terrible enough for you to complain about in what was supposed to be a gloating interview with Entertainment Tonight about the decision the next day.