Singer and producer Pharrell Williams might be best known today for his 2013 earworm “Happy.” But there’s another song he worked on the same year that left him less than thrilled.
“Some of my old songs, I would never write or sing today,” Williams said in GQ’s latest cover story. “I get embarrassed by some of that stuff. It just took a lot of time and growth to get to that place.”
Pharrell said his awakening when it came to the way he represented women in his music came within the last few years. But it wasn’t the #MeToo movement, which recently saw its two-year anniversary, that sparked a change of heart.
It was backlash over the 2013 song “Blurred Lines,” performed by Robin Thicke and featuring Williams, who also co-wrote and produced the track. It raised eyebrows for questionable lyrics like, “I hate these blurred lines / I know you want it / But you’re a good girl,” and for the music video, which featured models (including Emily Ratajkowski) topless.
“I didn’t get it at first,” Williams admitted. “Because there were older white women who, when that song came on, they would behave in some of the most surprising ways ever. And I would be like, ‘Wow.’ They would have me blushing. So when there started to be an issue with it, lyrically, I was, like, ‘What are you talking about? There are women who really like the song and connect to the energy that just gets you up. And I know you want it – women sing those kinds of lyrics all the time.’ So it’s like, ‘What’s rapey about that?’ “
He continued: “And then I realized that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behavior. Or the way I think about things. It just matters how it affects women. And I was like, ‘Got it. I get it. Cool.’ My mind opened up to what was actually being said in the song and how it could make someone feel.”
Williams now operates under a different level. He’s more interested in ideas surrounding restrictive gender roles. The only lines he’s talking about blurring now are between masculinity and femininity.
“I realized that we live in a chauvinist culture in our country,” he said. “Hadn’t realized that. Didn’t realize that some of my songs catered to that. So that blew my mind.”
