“Get Lucky”, for the record, got stuck at #2 for pretty much the entire time that “Blurred Lines” was at #1. It did make #1 in Australia and most of Europe (and in Israel and Lebanon, for some reason).
Here’s the year-end chart, for the curious; Thrift Shop tops out at #1, followed by “Blurred Lines”, “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, “Harlem Shake”, and “Can’t Hold Us”. “Get Lucky”, alas, only makes it to #14.
Me to. But because I’m still trying to fight being out of touch, I’m listening to them now. I’ll report back on the “Official Simplicio Song of the Year that I Just Got Around to Hearing at the End of December” when I finish.
So far I do not care for this Bruno Mars fellow.
I’d like to vote for the clown doing “Royals”.
+1
Can’t choose between Thrift Shop and Blurred Lines. If Get Lucky was on the list, I’d have a hard time choosing between those three.
I don’t get all the love for “Get Lucky”. It’s a cute little disco pastiche, nothing more. It may be better than anything else this year, but that doesn’t make it great in any objective sense.
My three biggest earworms of the year have all featured Pharrell Williams in some capacity:
“Get Lucky”, “Blurred Lines”, and my pick o’ the pops for 2013 “Happy”. It wasn’t a number one anywhere, but it’s a sublime slice of retro Northern Soul.
YMMV. I love how it sounds like great disco made by human hands. Nile Rogers guitar is absolutely perfect groove-funk skanky rhythm guitar. Pharrell Williams’ voice is a nice falsetto that has a bit of slop to it - he’s not a great singer, but is a great frontman/salesman. It just goes down so smooth, and I can listen to it forever without it getting old - which did happen, fast, with Blurred Lines. I respect how perfectly crafted it is, for what it is trying to be.
How’s that?
I hope it’s not Blurred Lines. I thought it was a catchy song at first but then I found out it’s about a guy pressuring a girl to have sex with him…now it just brings back very unpleasant memories of high school for me.
I went with Thrift Shop.
I’m going with “Royals” mostly because I think it was the most unique single of the year. And I have to give props to a 16-year-old girl who isn’t acting like Miley Cyrus in order to sell records.
I voted for Katy Perry because she has better boobs than Miley Cyrus, and judging from the way these artists are marketed, that’s at least as important as their music.
I don’t actually listen to any of this stuff.
The first time I heard “Blurred Lines,” my biggest objection to the song is that it sounds way too blatantly like Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.”
Gaye’s family has a lawsuit pending now, and they’ll win assuming the jury doesn’t consist of 12 Gallaudet almni.
I voted “Royals,” although “Blurred Lines” would be my #2 choice. (“Get Lucky” is awesome, too, but inexplicably never hit #1.)
Go Royals!
(I see the Miley backlash is good and strong.)
Everyone hears something different. I certainly would say that the Thicke song could have been inspired by Gaye’s, but I wouldn’t call it plagiarism or a rip off. Lots of songs sound similar to each other. Entire genres are based around that, even. I didn’t even make the connection until it was pointed out to me, to which my response was “yeah, I guess they kinda sound similar, but they’re substantially different songs.”
The songs have a similar beat and flavor (sexual lyrics, falsetto, background noise), but the melodies aren’t even close.
Lisa, Univ of Cincinnati alumnus
I voted Royals by Lorde, because that was the only song I’d heard before. Listening to the others, there wasn’t any other song I liked anyway.
“Royals” by a mile. Lorde is Gode.
I voted for *Blurred Lines *for the upbeat rhythm, the bass line, the cowbell and the hilarious parodies it spawned.
One more for the missing Get Lucky…
Bruno Mars short of that