How Putin Destroyed Music

On April 8, 2000 Christopher Walken walked onto the Saturday Night Live stage playing a music producer demanding “More Cowbell” during Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” studio session, in the now famous sketch [1].

In 2013 Pharrell Williams tried to add just a little cowbell to a song he was producing for Robin Thicke called “Blurred Lines” [2], and that choice proved to be fatal for both of their careers and for music in general. After the song became a hit the estate of Marvin Gaye called up looking for a piece of the action, and in March of 2015 musical creativity died when a Los Angeles jury ruled that “Blurred Lines” stole the “vibe” of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” (1977) including its cowbell, its falsetto, and its 110 Beats Per Minute pace, awarding $5.3 million plus 50% of all royalties going forward to the estate of Marvin Gaye, on a song that had already made $16 million (case 2:13-cv-06004, Ninth Circuit; ASCAP data) [3][4].

The cowbell was the linchpin and musicologist Anthony Ricigliano’s testimony hinged on it, without it, the lawsuit likely would have failed [3]. The verdict appears to have banned cowbell, falsetto, possibly 110 BPM, and anything vaguely R&B, soul, funk, or Motown, which are all African American created genres along with gospel, blues, jazz, rock and roll, hip-hop, and rap. Classic R&B, Soul, Funk, and Motown still play on streaming platforms like Spotify and SiriusXM [4][5], but nobody is allowed to write any new Soul, Funk, R&B, or Motown styled songs. And despite being a catchy song, due to the additional royalties involved radio stations stopped playing, “Blurred Lines,” and then two years later an appeals court upheld the verdict.

Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s creativity were crushed. Pharrell, a producer (N.E.R.D., “Happy,” 2013), told Variety in 2019 that the verdict had “handcuffed” his creativity, making R&B and funk “off-limits” for fear of lawsuits over elements like cowbell or falsetto; he shifted to safer pop productions and soundtracks like Despicable Me 3 in 2017, and non-musical ventures like becoming Louis Vuitton’s menswear director in 2023 [6][7]. His solo output stalled with no major albums for 10 years from 2014 to 2024 [7].

Thicke took it even worse, known for soulful R&B like in “Lost Without U,” 2006, he called it “devastating” in a 2015 Billboard interview, and told Rolling Stone in 2018 that the lawsuit “killed his confidence” to make soul or funk; his 2014 album Paula flopped, selling only 14,000 copies and he pivoted to generic pop, and now appears on The Masked Singer, 2019-present [3][8][9].

2000-2008: Cultural Context and Putin’s Rise

A KGB veteran, Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia since 2000, exploiting U.S. administration shifts every 4-8 years to fine tune his propaganda. [10][11] By 2007 as Barack Obama surged in the primaries Russian Troll Farms were set up in the Ukraine that would eventually become known as Putin’s Internet Research Agency (IRA), funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, they pivoted from Russian propaganda to targeting the U.S. by 2012 with two specific goals: to undermine confidence in the process that leads to the presidency, and to raise the perception that America has failed African Americans [12][13].

2008-2016: The Woke Wave Builds

From 2008 to 2016 the IRA’s knockoff Black Lives Matter pages “Blacktivist” (360K likes) and “Black Matters” (301K likes) urged Black Americans to either abstain or to vote for a 3rd Party [12], after spending a mere $100K on 66% race-related ads, and producing a total of 571 “Don’t Shoot” videos that fed the narrative that police shoot unarmed Black men, between 2008 and 2016 perceptions of racism against Black Americans doubled. When Obama was elected in 2008 only 24% of Black Americans and 15% of White Americans saw racism against Black Americans as a “very big problem;” by the time Obama left office in 2016 50% of Black Americans and 30% of White Americans said that racism against Black Americans  was a very big problem [13][25][26].

And then by 2021 after just 4 years of the Mainstream Media calling Trump a racist and a Nazi and after the George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020 caused $1-2 billion in riot damages but were called “mostly peaceful protests” by the Mainstream Media, 76% of Blacks and 45% of Whites said that racism against Blacks was a very big problem, literally tripling the percentages from 2008 [27][28]. No hate crime surges supported this perception, just the media lies from Putin’s Russian Troll Farm and the Democrats (DOJ: ~6,000 annually, 2008-2016) [16].

The Mainstream Media is made up of 93% reporters that were not registered as a Republican back in 2014, and they just repeated anything the Russian Troll Farm said [15].

So in 2014 when the grand jury decided that Michael Brown had in fact assaulted Officer Darren Wilson, had grabbed his gun (DNA on weapon), and was in the process of beating Office Wilson in the face with his own radio when he was shot, he was not an “unarmed Black man” [16][17]. But Putin’s Russian Troll Farm said that Brown was an unarmed Black man and U.S. Mainstream Media repeated the Russian lies, which created riots starting in Ferguson that then spread to over 25 other cities including Los Angeles [18][19], all based on the Putin encouraged lie that America fails black people, and that Michael Brown was an “unarmed black man” killed by a white police officer.

With that sentiment in the air in the spring of 2015 the Williams v. Gaye trial (which should have been dismissed as a frivolous lawsuit) resulted in the absolute death of musical creativity. Only 50-60% of people in Los Angeles that start Kindergarten graduate high school on time, so the unsophisticated L.A. jury bought lawyer Richard Busch’s claim that “Blurred Lines” stole Marvin Gaye’s “vibe,” with Pharrell’s cowbell as the key [3][20]. If the song had only used a falsetto and a 110 bpm it probably wouldn’t have even become a lawsuit, but to make it a hit they followed the advice of Christopher Walken from the Saturday Night Live sketch and used a cowbell. The loss ended up banning cowbells, falsetto, possibly 110 to 130 beats per minute, and anything based on Soul, R&B, Funk, or Motown, and that is some of the best music ever created in America. If you can't even reference those things as an homage, or create any Soul or R&B music ever again, then all music is dead.

In 2016 Justin Timberlake's “Can't Stop The Feeling” came out prior to the release of the movie Trolls, and that was nearly the last time we ever heard a new '70s retro themed song. For some reason it apparently didn't cross any of the lines, but regardless of how many other Trolls movies or straight to video movies and TV shows came out, and regardless of people on Reddit begging for an entire disco album from Justin Timberlake, we got nothing after that.

Miley Cyrus covered some retro songs and had one throwback song after that that paid homage to a living artist, but that's it, the 70s are dead musically, and since all music is supposed to be referential, that means all music is now dead. By banning cowbells, falsetto, 110 - 130 BPM, R&B, Soul, Funk, and Motown, the Williams v Gaye case killed music. Now no one will even write songs in any of those genres for fear of being sued by a litigious estate like Marvin Gaye’s [4][5].

2016-2021: Sheeran’s Victory

Post-2016 and Trump’s win, all U.S. media turned 99% anti-Trump and continued the narrative that America was racist to Black Americans [21], and in the wake of the win for the Marvin Gaye estate that has just happened in 2015 a copycat lawsuit was filed against Ed Sheeran in 2016 by a cowriter of another Marvin Gaye song (Griffin v. Sheeran, Southern District of New York, case 1:16-cv-05309) for allegedly copying Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” in Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” (2014).

Seven years later in 2023 Sheeran was finally victorious, which freed chord progressions and accompanying baselines only, enabling some semblance of music to continue in the form of Ed Sheeran’s modern ballads [22][23]. In court not only did Ed Sheeran play his specific chord progression and a half dozen other songs that used the exact same chords, but they also submitted as testimony the Axis of Awesome 2009 or 2011 performance of their Four Chords Song, in which they blend together around 50 popular songs all based around the exact same four chords. However, Ed Sheeran's victory does not in any way overturn the Williams vs Gaye case, both cases establish legal precedent. The case against Ed Sheeran failed because you cannot copyright chord progressions or interweaving bass lines, but you still can't use any elements that could possibly be considered R&B, soul or Motown, and you can't use 110 BPM, Falsetto, or the cowbell.

KATSEYE: ABBA for the 2020s

Immediately after Ed Sheeran's victory a Korean and American international girl group was formed through a show called the Dream Academy and KATSEYE was the result, crafted by committee using AI algorithms based on TikTok clicks KATSEYE delivers short tracks that borrow ’90s-2020s phrases, echoing ABBA’s hook-driven early computer algorithms. Always sounding familiar, or like a mashup you hated in one of the Pitch Perfect movies. So only catchy pop is safe in a post-Sheeran world where chords are safe, ballads are safe, but R&B, Soul, Funk and Motown remain blacklisted genres forever [24], and of course you can no longer use a falsetto, and for God’s sake never use a cowbell.

Cultural Casualties

The impact of Putin’s IRA propaganda killed more than just African American music, and music in general, it also killed:

1. Race Relations: Perceptions of racism against Blacks tripled among all groups [26][27].

2. American History: Both Washington and Lincoln statues were toppled, and their names were removed from schools (300+ attacks, 2020) [16].

3. Patriotism: even mild patriotism was framed as being white supremacy, and lots of flags were burned in the summer of 2020 [16].

4. Sports: Logos were changed like the Redskins to the Commanders in 2022 [29], and Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the National Anthem in 2016 encouraging other Black players to take a knee.

5. Education: Teachers told students that America is still racist against African Americans, reflecting the tripled false perception of racism against African Americans. And DEI in schools and colleges expanded Affirmative Action, discriminating against White and Asian students until Trump’s Conservative Supreme Court ended Affirmative Action in college admissions (SCOTUS: Harvard, 2023) [30].

6. Free Speech: Cancel culture, fact checks, and websites like politifact all suppressed free speech by presenting partisan Democrat lies as facts, and it is still an issue for Trump supporters to simply wear a Trump hat in many Democrat leaning areas (100+ cases, 2022) [16].

By tripling the perceptions of racism in just 13 years and enabling a woke jury in Los Angeles, Putin’s IRA destroyed music’s soul, erasing multiple forms of African American music that are beloved the world over, and he turned Democrats against Republicans, Blacks against Whites, and made every election contentious ever since he started targeting politically naive Americans. His plan is to divide and conquer through claims of illegitimate presidents, and of America being racist specifically to African Americans, and in this he has been very successful.

References

1. NBC Archives, Saturday Night Live, “More Cowbell” sketch, April 8, 2000.

2. Billboard, “Blurred Lines” release, March 26, 2013.

3. Billboard, “Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke Lose ‘Blurred Lines’ Lawsuit,” March 10, 2015.

4. ASCAP, “Blurred Lines” royalty data, 2015.

5. Williams v. Gaye, case 2:13-cv-06004, Ninth Circuit, March 2015, upheld 2018.

6. Variety, “Pharrell Williams on ‘Blurred Lines’ Lawsuit,” November 12, 2019.

7. Forbes, “Pharrell Williams Named Louis Vuitton Men’s Creative Director,” February 14, 2023.

8. Rolling Stone, “Robin Thicke on ‘Blurred Lines’ Lawsuit,” August 15, 2018.

9. Billboard, “Robin Thicke’s ‘Paula’ Sales,” July 16, 2014.

10. Kremlin Records, Vladimir Putin presidency, May 7, 2000.

11. White House Archives, U.S. presidential terms, 2000-2025.

12. Mueller Report, DOJ, Volume 1, April 18, 2019.

13. Senate Intelligence Committee, Vol. 2, “Russian Active Measures,” October 8, 2019.

14. White House, Exit Polls, November 4, 2008.

15. Indiana University, “American National Election Studies,” 2014.

16. DOJ, “Hate Crime Statistics, 2008-2016”; “2020 Protest-Related Incidents,” 2021.

17. DOJ, “Ferguson Grand Jury Decision,” November 24, 2014.

18. LAPD, “Ferguson Protest Arrests,” November 25, 2014.

19. DOJ, “Ferguson Riot Reports,” 2015.

20. LAUSD, “Graduation Rates,” 2019.

21. Media Research Center, “Media Bias in 2016 Election,” December 2017.

22. Griffin v. Sheeran, case 1:16-cv-05309, Southern District of New York, May 4, 2023.

23. Billboard, “Ed Sheeran Wins ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Lawsuit,” May 4, 2023.

24. SIS, KATSEYE, release date June 28, 2024; Beautiful Chaos, announced 2025.

25. Pew Research, “Racial Attitudes in America,” June 2008.

26. Pew Research, “On Views of Race and Inequality,” September 2016.

27. Pew Research, “Black Americans’ Views of Racial Inequality,” October 2021.

28. Axios, “George Floyd Protests: $1-2 Billion in Damages,” September 16, 2020.

29. Washington Post, “Redskins Name Change to Commanders,” February 2, 2022.

30. SCOTUS, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, June 29, 2023.