Five years ago, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams finally lost the (musical) lawsuit of the century. Their song, “Blurred Lines,” had been an inescapable summertime hit, a wedding-DJ-standby, and the center of a very Obama-Era debate over whether it was creepy to have a song called “Blurred Lines” in the first place (it was.) Now, it was also found to have violated IP owned by Marvin Gaye’s estate, specifically the classic song “Got To Give It Up”—a brilliant track that VIBED a lot like “Blurred Lines” without sharing much, if any, direct musical DNA. It was a bombshell.
In the years since, the music industry has changed. Songwriters became more cautious, backroom deals were struck, catalogs got bought, and everyone accused Ed Sheeran of stealing their songs. But why was the lawsuit actually decided in favor of Gaye? And what does that tell us about the legal structures that shape modern music? To get a better sense, Saxon and Sam dig into the details of the case, unpacking the epically unmoored nature of modern copyright, the invisible impact of sampling, the music biz negotiations that followed the ruling, and the AI possibilities hurtling at us all. Come to hear us try and remember what 2013 sounded like. Stay for some beautiful—and we mean beautiful—depositions.
The Political Economy of Rap Beefs
Karaoke and Personal Pop
Millennials Nostalgia Tour
Keep on Streamin’ in the Free World
A Living Wage and a Tik Tok Ban: Could…Congress Transform Music?
Imagine Dragons: The Most Popular Band of the Millennium?
Universal VS. TikTok: The Showdown No One Should Have Wanted
Pitchfork, GQ, and the Music Criticism Lifestyle
Royalty Rumble at Spotify and a Crisis at Hipgnosis
BMI Sells Out
Can You Actually Support This Podcast On Patreon? (w/Penny Fractions)
E-Zoo and the Future of Nightlife
Bandcamp Blues: (Penny Fractions 4 Nothing)
Scooter, Baby! The Life and Times of the Most 2010’s Manager You Can Possibly Imagine
Moog’s World: The Story Behind the Synthesizer Behind Modern Music (feat. Albert Glinsky)
State of Pl-A(i) With Cherie Hu
Astroworld and the opposite of ”Utopia”
Super Fans and Super Strikes
Ambient Music: Functionality and Liberating Potentials
K-Pop Merger Mania (feat. the Idolcast)
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Derringer Discoveries - A Music Adventure Podcast
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R&B Money
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