Produced by Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke’s party track “Blurred Lines” has been a big success since its release in 2013. However, the song was involved in a wide outcry for the prevailing theme in its lyrics. A stir was caused when people asked what the concept behind “Blurred Lines” is and if it was related to promoting rape culture. Pharrell denied the sex violence behind the song and claimed the lyrics are from “a decent place” back in 2014. But the Grammy-winning producer once again offered his opinion in a new GQ interview, and now it differs:

At the time “Blurred Lines” came out, the masses, especially female fans, “welcomed the song,” Pharrell asserted. Therefore, the prejudice against the song confused the producer and left him in doubt, “What are you talking about? There are women who really like the song and connect to the energy that just gets you up. And I know you want it — women sing those kinds of lyrics all the time. So it’s like, what’s rapey about that?”  Pharrell said.

Now that the producer glances back with a current societal perspective, he admits that “‘Blurred Lines’ opened me up.” Pharrell came to a realization it seems, “there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behavior. Or the way I think about things. It just matters how it affects women. And I was like, got it. I get it. Cool. My mind opened up to what was actually being said in the song and how it could make someone feel. Even though it wasn’t the majority, it didn’t matter. I cared what they were feeling too. I realized that we live in a chauvinist culture in our country. Hadn’t realized that. Didn’t realize that some of my songs catered to that. So that blew my mind.”

“Blurred Lines” was ruled as a copyright infringement against Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.” Thicke and Pharrell were ordered to pay around 5 million dollars to the Gaye estate, who is now running half of the royalty of “Blurred Lines” in songwriter and publishing revenue.

Photo credit: Sharon Alagna