Blurred Lines

On March 26, 2013, Thicke released "Blurred Lines" featuring T.I. and Pharrell as the lead single to his sixth studio album, also titled Blurred Lines. The video, featuring models Emily Ratajkowski, Jessi MBengue, and Elle Evans, was released on March 20, 2013 and garnered more than a million views in days after release on Vevo. Thicke said he had received the approval of his wife Paula Patton before shooting the video.[25] As Robin explained to the Breakfast Club, "The album is called Blurred Lines. I've realized as I've gotten older that we all think we're living either in a black or white world, or on a straight path, but most of us are living right in between those straight lines. And everything you thought you knew, the older you get, you realize, 'Damn, I don't know nothing about this. I better pay attention, I better listen and keep learning.' So I think that, that's what I've been realizing these past few years."[26] The singer also explained his foray into a more poppy sound than his usual milieu. "The last year I've been wanting to have more fun. I think I took myself very seriously as an artist and I wanted to be like Marvin Gaye, and John Lennon and Bob Marley and these great artists and songwriters that sang about love and sang about relationships," Robin explained. "And then the last year, my wife and I just really wanted to have fun again, we wanted to be young again and we wanted to dance again and go out with our friends, so I wanted to make music that reflected that culture also." The song has been a worldwide hit, has peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and has also reached number one in 13 more countries including the United Kingdom, where Blurred Lines became only the 137th record in history to surpass the one million sales mark,[27] and the United States. The new album Blurred Lines was released on July 30, 2013.[28] The song and related music videos also received criticism for being misogynistic and promoting rape culture,[29] with some critics going so far as to call the lyrics "creepy" and the song "kind of rapey".[30][31] In an interview for GQ magazine Thicke joked about the video saying, "What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman. I've never gotten to do that before. I've always respected women."[32] Video director Diane Martel was asked on an interview if Thicke's statement in GQ that "the idea was to be 'derogatory towards women'" was discussed on set, to which she responded, "Thats crazy. Maybe he wasnt thinking when he said that."[33][34] The song's unrated music video was originally banned from YouTube before being reposted some weeks later.[32][35] Thicke claimed that he, T.I., and Pharrell were poking fun at how modern pop music has become so derogatory toward women. On August 25, at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Thicke performed "Blurred Lines" with Miley Cyrus, followed by Give It 2 U with 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar.[36] The performance drew negative reactions for its alleged raunchiness,[37] sexism,[38][39] racism,[40][39] slut-shaming,[40] and cultural appropriation.[41][42] It became the most tweeted about event in history, with Twitter users generating 360,000 tweets about the event per minute; breaking the previous record held by Beyonc's Super Bowl XLVII halftime show performance six months earlier.[43][44]

Artistry
Songwriting and producing
Thicke began his songwriting career by writing hits for popular artists. He co-wrote and produced the Color Me Badd hit "Sexual Capacity" in 1996. He also co-wrote on the selftitled debut album by Christina Aguilera, which sold 17 million copies worldwide. The Thicke original "When I Get You Alone" was performed by Guy Sebastian, the winner of the first Australian Idol 2003, during the competition and at the Idol grand finale. "When I Get You Alone" was a popular song choice for Sebastian; he put the live idol performance on his four-times platinum debut single "Angels Brought Me Here"; it was the fastest selling single in Australia debuting at number one and immediately breaking an Aria record.[45] In 2004, Thicke co-wrote "Out With My Baby" with Guy Sebastian, from Sebastian's second album, Beautiful Life. Thicke also produced this single for Sebastian.[46] During this same year, he wrote a song with the singer and actress RavenSymon for the album This Is My Time, with the song "Set Me Free".[citation needed] In April 2007, Thicke co-wrote "Wrong for You" with singer/songwriter Angela Via. In 2008, he was enlisted by producer Polow da Don to play piano on the Usher track, "Love in This Club".[47] Thicke wrote and produced the song "Tie My Hands" on Tha Carter III, which went on to win Best Rap Album. Thicke wrote and produced the song "Giving Myself" for the album Jennifer Hudson, which went on to win Best R&B Album.[citation
needed]

Collaborations
In 2007, Thicke appeared on 50 Cent's album Curtis, which was released on September 11, 2007, on a song called "Follow My Lead". The following year, he worked with Ashanti on her fourth studio album, The Declaration, which was released on June 3, 2008.[10][11] Also that year, Thicke reunited with Lil Wayne and was featured on his album Tha Carter III on a track titled "Tie My Hands", which Thicke also produced. Thicke also appeared on R. Kelly's Untitled on the track "Pregnant" which also features Tyrese and The-Dream.[citation needed]