Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines hit number one first in the UK and then traveled across the pond to top the US charts, and has thus far grabbed more than 100 million views on YouTube. It has taken a while for Robin Thicke to make it big, but Blurred Lines just sucked us into a three-play YouTube loop writing this sentence. And despite a “rapey” tone, the song seems to be stuck in everyone’s head this summer. It seems like everyone likes Blurred Lines — which recently smashed another non-chart record — and Pharrell, who is featured on and co-wrote the track, said:
“It’s just one of those songs that loosens people up… With everybody so anxious about everything going on in the world, people need something to help them be happy again.” Thicke’s Blurred Lines became the song with the highest-ever number of listeners, at 242.65 million to the previous record of 188 million. Recently, the Canadian singer mused of his success with the crossover hit this summer: “It used to be kind of a centered audience that knew me… But now it’s young girls, it’s old people, it’s people from India and Germany.
It’s a whole other level, which is very exciting, I can’t deny it.” He adds: “I look at it like an actor… You could be a great actor and be in good films for 10 or 20 years. But then you’re Jeff Bridges and you get ‘Crazy Heart,’ and all of a sudden everyone says, ‘This guy’s good — we like this guy!’ ” Thicke also addressed the consent-related criticism Blurred Lines has incurred since it hit big, saying that bloggers like to stir up controversy and opining that the track really is more about female sexual agency: “I’m making her a full-blown equal… You’re an animal, I’m an animal.’” Robin Thicke passed out Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Thrift Shop for most consecutive weeks at number one this year.