It worked. Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" music video changed the game. At first deemed too racy for YouTube, the video attracted a massive audience that awed over the singer's audacity pure simple genius. There's been plenty of squabbling over its suggestive themes, however, it's done nothing but fuel the flame. There more bad, provocative things critics said about it, the more people wanted to watch it. It became a global sensation. No one had ever seen anything like it. It even spawned a genre of new artsy music videos that show naked women dancing in 'artsy' ways. Justin Timberlake even took a page from Thicke's book with his video for "Tunnel Vision." Thicke set the tone for a new generation of video, and now he's got his first No. 1 album in return.
Blurred Lines has become his first No. 1 album since his debut ten years ago. Six albums later and he's topping the Billboard 200 with 177,000 copies sold. This past week has also been Thicke's best selling week to date. His previous best came in 2008 when Something Else launched at No. 3 with 137,000 copies sold.
The original music video for "Blurred Lines" features Thicke with TI and Williams alongside three supermodels, dancing around scantly dressed against white walls. The video is provocative, sexy, classy and invigorating. A perfect match for the song. But then the unedited version came out, and it changed everything.
The explicit version is essentially the one and the same, besides one major difference: the models are topless, making it just a tad more memorable for most viewers. Once the unrated video made its way into public hands, there was no stopping it, and the more people watched the video, the more they listened to the song. The video made the song popular, and once it achieved worldwide recognition, people tapped into its simplistic, funky chopped beat, catchy falsettos, and overall feel good groove. It may have given the track a boost up the charts, however it deserves its recognition.
Thicke has made it to the top and with the smash success of Blurred Lines, there's no ceiling in sight.