Thicke: Slicke or Dicke?

yeah, i just think that whether a song is gross or not probably shouldn't be judged primarily by our individual "can get it"-o-meters and if people are giving robin a pass for language they'd crucify chad for it's worth looking at why and whether it's anything more than taste in haircuts.

― da croupier, Tuesday, June 18, 2013 2:16 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well except I think criticizing women for "giving robin a pass" because of their "can get it" o meters (which I'm not saying you're doing) starts to get into the territory of "denying womens' sexual agency." I mean it reminds me of those butthurt internet nerd comments that you always see about how "HARUMPH, GUESS IT'S NOT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IF HE'S HOT" -- well (1) no, that's not true, but(2) the "unwanted" part of "repeated unwanted advances" parts is kind of a key element of what makes something harassment.

Like, sorry butthurt internet nerd, you're not as hot as Robin Thicke, and women might want him to say something that they don't want you to say.

And that's a "might" -- it doesn't mean they do, but you're not entitled to some level playing field with Robin Thicke just because, and women shouldn't really be criticized for not giving you that level playing field.

i apologize for the implication but i didn't mean to primarily single out women re "can-get-i"-o-meters, or that personal preferences shouldn't affect one's perception of music - obviously men and women are influenced by their tastes, obviously tastes does influence our preferences, and they should. if someone gives robin thicke's "blurred lines" a 9 and chad kroeger's "blurred lines" a 4 because of haircut, genre, etc that's totally cool. i'm just saying if one's a sexy gentleman and one's a "kinda rapey" pig because of haircut and guitar tone, that's a sign we're not actually dealing with the content of the music. i never would judge someone for what they do or don't find hot, enjoyable, etc (well not seriously judge them), but I do think writers should be conscious of what they're responding to and letting slide.

itt guy who typed "pussy buffet" onto ILX on three separate occasions parses sexist language

i have no problem with rock guys being overtly into women though! shit, one of my favorite musical discoveries of last year was an extended girl-as-car metaphor by a guy whose physical appearance i only have the vaguest knowledge of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEYhapqsb3I

i mean there's always context. the rest of robin thicke's catalog would seem to indicate that he, y'know, likes women as human beings.

smart take

I think Thicke's got the same songwritery/model detachment as Chris Isaak that can make him flirt with models in a video without it coming across as entitlement or worse.

(Also because the dude is married and talks about his marriage and makes his wife the love object in all of his other videos!)

smart take

― balls, Tuesday, June 18, 2013 3:10 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

!

you have such an insane memory when it comes to ilxors

always nice to know there are dudes still thinking about dumb shit i said in 2005

haha i just remembered you were kinda ott zealous in yr defense of 'the whisper song' so it was kinda weird to see you go in on this much more innocuous thicke song (more weird to see to see those old responding to the larger debate voice pieces w/o the context of the actual larger debate, i can barely remember what you're responding to there though i think jessica hopper was involved). 'kinda rapey's too far for this track but it's obv skeezy, more so than default hair metal trax about girls (which when not obv ott gleeful misogynist could be kinda ott vulnerable romantic)(the only huge hair metal act i can think of right now that was really better in misogynist mode and they knew it was motley crue; g'n'f'n'r, cinderella, skid row, bon jovi were better bringing on the heartbreak), less so than kanye on his best day. video amplifies it obv (though bros playful disinterest probably mitigates a little bit) but it's there in the song also.

I'm predicting circles of dancing gals at nightclubs pointed at each other and mouthing "You're the finest bitch in this place" for the next 12-18 months.

yeah maura sorry i've got you on the defense here, i'm being strawmanny and asking for that - shades of 'wait', oddly enough. where i was all defensively "hey don't say it's wrong for men to be sexually aggressive" to no one in particularly all those years ago now my stance is "let's just admit this stuff can be gross if you're not playing along," again to no one in particular. i was on better ground when there were particulars re: the sfw video, obv.

wait til you see my thicke

lol

haha some dude otm

nailed it

ship!

Just watched the unrated video. Daddy horny, michael.

wait so there's a 1970s hit that sounds a LOT like Blurred Lines. I can't think of what it is but it has cowbell and a falsetto male voice, and I feel like it might be War or KC and the Sunshine Band or something.

LOL

YouTube commenters say Gaye stole the beat from Thicke. Film at 11.

Rémi Vouliot 1 week ago

Marvin so gayyyy! He stole Robin Thicke song omFG KILL HIM

durr yup that's the song

Tbh "either it's defensible or it aint" is a p fine sentence-long summation of croup's pov itt imo #hourslater

more like "you can like something skeevy, just admit that's what it is."

Wait, so this isn't a sample? This is just them making the song sound like the Marvin song?

pharrell rarely (if ever?) samples

Yeah, but he (and most) rarely craft a song that sounds remarkably like a hit song from 30 years ago.

it's an homage certainly

I was kind of surprised that MJ-like ad lib looped throughout the song wasn't a sample

is there a good ~9 min baleric mix of this yet y/n

If I were him, I'd bump up the album release date immediately. This thing's gonna peak before the record is even out at this rate.

eh part of the game these days. he'll get to capitalize on his summer jam in late July way more than Carly Rae Jepson did in mid-September.

glad that 2 Chainz/Kendrick/will.i.am song isn't on the album tracklist.

this album sounded great to me, really happy with how it turned out. the best stuff is up-tempo... even the edm songs work i think! the song w/ kendrick & 2 chainz is on the album, they just cut 2 chainz's verse

whiney likes half of it

is there a lot of Thicke/Pro J stuff in his usual mode or is it wall to wall outside producers like Sex Therapy?

"the edm songs" btw = the second track and "give it 2 u"

i dunno about producers, that info wasn't included.

i just mean was there still boilerplate thicke bossa nova jams and piano ballads really

nah

"4 the rest of my life" is a instructive as far as the ballads go

but yeah there isn't any bossa nova stuff, it sounds a lot more like they're going for hits a la "magic" (tho not that philly soul)

This is p good is there a video

haha

whether she accomplished this is i guess an entirely different ball of wax http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/80424/qa-veteran-music-video-director-diane-martel-on-her-controversial-videos-for-robin-thicke-and-miley-cyrus

I wanted to deal with the misogynist, funny lyrics in a way where the girls were going to overpower the men. Look at Emily Ratajkowski’s performance; it’s very, very funny and subtly ridiculing. That’s what is fresh to me. It also forces the men to feel playful and not at all like predators. I directed the girls to look into the camera, this is very intentional and they do it most of the time; they are in the power position. I don’t think the video is sexist. The lyrics are ridiculous, the guys are silly as fuck. That said, I respect women who are watching out for negative images in pop culture and who find the nudity offensive, but I find [the video] meta and playful.

Was the intention to always do both a regular and unrated version?

I wanted to do a nude video and turned the job down when they said we couldn’t. They came back agreeing to do the nude one if I would do a clothed version.

it's very "baby, it's cold outside" - there are very sympathetic and unsympathetic ways to read it and nobody's really wrong.

I don't get that thing about "the diminishing importance of music videos". Since "Call Me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style" and especially the subsequent allowing for YouTube plays to play a (significant) part in Billboard chart positions, in other words, post-"Harlem Shake", music videos have become enormously important again for the music industry. The interviewer apparently is not aware of that, but I'm sure Diane Martel is. It's probably the very reason for her new "commercial" approach to begin with.

i guess you didn't get to the part where she said this:

Most labels don’t give a fuck about videos anymore. Maybe they will again, I don’t know. It’s grim right now.

which we can debate the merits of, but i think to anyone who was doing mariah carey videos in the 90s "enormously important" would be on a different scale than post-harlem shake.

My guess would be the labels want directors to deliver a viral hit for no budget.

yeah i bet the budget for a video that doesn't double as an alcohol or tech ad IS pretty grim right now

Not that the Robin Thicke video looks like it cost a lot, kind of the opposite

The Miley video is terrible but it does look semi-expensively terrible