Pharrell Williams: He's Happy

[SnarkGhost]

Happy to see you over here, Viajero

 

Pharell officially annouced as Cee-lo's replacement.  I can live with that.

[picklesprite]

 

Pharell officially annouced as Cee-lo's replacement.  I can live with that.

I'm delighted to learn this. I love Pharrell and think he has great instincts and attitude. I'm not sorry to see Cee-lo go. Last season, the first I'd one I'd seen with him, his comments to some of the women/girls left me feeling very uncomfortable.

Edited April 1, 2014 by picklesprite

[SnarkyTart]

I'm so glad that Pharrell was availble to replace Cee Lo - love him!   He knows his stuff and will do a great job. 

Cee Lo's trial date hasn't been set yet, but it should be pretty soon.  The charge was reduced to furnishing a controlled substance (ecstasy) because the prosecutor said there wasn't enough evidence for a felony rape charge.  Cee Lo has always made my skin crawl.

[Katiepenn]

Pharrell did a great job last year as an advisor for Usher - I'm sure I'll like him better than CeeLo - skeevy is absolutely the perfect word for him.

[photo fox]

Let me know if you have a topic title, and I'll edit.

[Lily Adler]

Pharrell Williams: He's Happy

[Lily Adler]

Good lord! What was he wearing during that Gwen Stefani performance?!?! Mickey Mouse sweater with an Amish hat. If he's competing for ugliest sense of style, I think he's a close second to Bjork.

[Kromm]

Good lord! What was he wearing during that Gwen Stefani performance?!?! Mickey Mouse sweater with an Amish hat. If he's competing for ugliest sense of style, I think he's a close second to Bjork.

This is the first time you're noticing his hat "thing"?

 

Grammys:

 

Walking down a random street:

 

MTV Music Awards

[Lily Adler]

I guess I didn't pay attention to him that much. =p

[Kromm]

Not really Pharrell or his actual hat, but makes hay from it. 

 

 

Does feature the real Joan Rivers though, even if not the real Pharrell.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Or we could go for his actual real recent video:

 

 

Although oddly enough that's not the song he chose to do on The Voice.

[Ohwell]

I don't mind Pharrell as judge, he'll probably be good at it.  However, I'm amazed at how I've done a complete 180 on him from just a year ago.  I used to think he was hot, and people commented on how young he looked for his age.  Now, he just looks and acts like a weird old man to me.  The stupid hats and shorts don't help.  I hate that song "Happy" because he sounds creepy on it and the song is just stupid.  However, as much as CeeLo is regarded as creepy, I think he would have sung the song much better and I might even have liked it. 

[pivot]

So, does Pharrell dance? Every time I've seen her perform he just walks around by people dance around him. It's actually pretty boring. I do think he is going to be better than Gwen just based on their answers on Monday night. Gwen talked 100% about herself when discussing what it meant to her to join The Voice. Pharrell actually talked about how much he looked forward to mentoring, etc. He may have been lying but at least he didn't sound like a selfish asshole like Gwen did.

[Mattipoo]

Isn't Pharrell, like, a male style icon? I think I saw him as a guest judge on "Project Runway" once where he was introduced as a musician and fashion designer. His fashion is certainly "unique".

[Kromm]

Isn't Pharrell, like, a male style icon? I think I saw him as a guest judge on "Project Runway" once where he was introduced as a musician and fashion designer. His fashion is certainly "unique".

He's a "male style icon" as proclaimed by someone on a show who wanted to justify his guest appearance, sure.

 

It's kind of like if some celeb went on a reality show about cars, and they proclaimed them a "racing enthusiast" or a "gearhead".  You are what they say you are in the moment (which is usually what either your own agenda, and/or some P.R. flack wants said).

[kj4ever]

He's a "male style icon" as proclaimed by someone on a show who wanted to justify his guest appearance, sure.

 

It's kind of like if some celeb went on a reality show about cars, and they proclaimed them a "racing enthusiast" or a "gearhead".  You are what they say you are in the moment (which is usually what either your own agenda, and/or some P.R. flack wants said).

 

He actually owns several brands and is big in fashion....

[Ohwell]

...if by "big" you mean those damn hats.

[Dots And Stripes]

This thread needs a bump. Pharrell has impressed me in his first two episodes. I think he's got a lot of depth too. I expect him to have more than just a few tricks. 

[DeLurker]

You mean "more than just a few hat tricks"?

Wonder who will be his guest mentor?

[magpye29]

Every time my husband hears "Happy," he says, "A room without a roof is a courtyard!"  Every. Time.

[pivot]

I still want to know if the guy can actually dance or not. His performances weird me out with his just standing around and strutting. But, I've loved him as a coach on The Voice so far.

[LostWithSawyer]

I don't know what is going on, but Pharrell is slowly wooing me. I think I am falling in love. He is just so. freaking. cool. I could watch an entire show just of him!

[DownTheShore]

I am really getting a kick out of watching Pharrell as a coach because he's managing to give all of those contestants an ego boost while giving them constructive criticism, which takes skill.  He's also holding his own with Blake and Adam. He seems to be really enjoying himself on that show and looking forward to actually working with those singers, rather than just acting as an advisor to another coach.  He seems to be a good match with the other three.

[tmelange]

Pharrell is very quick witted and well spoken. It makes it easier for him to duke it out with Adam.

[buttersister]

Pharrell's producer side comes out every time he tells a contestant how much he wants to help shape them/work with them. Really looking forward to watching him with his team. Won't surprise me if he takes it (albeit there are too many contestants for me to pick one or which team they're on).

[tmelange]

I think Pharrell is really getting a kick out of this gig. I bet he's the reason why the mentors came back for a second round of cameos during Usher's first season. I suspect he was still around with Usher, and to make it fair, the show producers filmed additional time with the other two mentors. Anyway, I'm going to love seeing him and Alicia doing their mentoring thing. I'm hoping we get some interesting arrangements, or at least hoping the battle rounds are less of a mess.

[Tonnetta Compton]

Think Pharrell is a great addition to The Voice and would love to know where he I can get a fabulous sweater like he wore last week with the blues white trimmed in red and burgandy or brown color.

[Cramps]

Agreed! That sweater and hat combo from the battles is killer!

[hincandenza]

I'd mentioned this in the first battle thread, but I really like how Pharrell structured his songs in the battles to be one person for an extended period- verse and chorus- and then the other, and then finish with both voices at once.  I feel it gives the artists more time to shine and showcase their own thing, as we saw so well in that Griffin & Luke battle with "Maybe I'm Amazed".  Has any coach done that before, at least as a consistent choice?

[Noreaster]

I'd mentioned this in the first battle thread, but I really like how Pharrell structured his songs in the battles to be one person for an extended period- verse and chorus- and then the other, and then finish with both voices at once.  I feel it gives the artists more time to shine and showcase their own thing, as we saw so well in that Griffin & Luke battle with "Maybe I'm Amazed".  Has any coach done that before, at least as a consistent choice?

I don't recall other battles like that.  I actually had a different reaction than you.  The Griffin/Luke battle made me think that those two just couldn't find a way to perform well together and it was a lame way out to avoid a disastrous battle.  I thought the same for the Brittany/Ricky battle.  But maybe, as you suggest, these were deliberate upfront choices by Pharrell.  

[ToxicUnicorn]

The Griffin/Luke battle really worked for me.  The Brittany/Ricky battle, however, might be my least favorite ever.  I had the same impression as Noreaster did: it seemed like they just gave up trying to fit them together.

[gibasi]

Uh oh.  Parrell and Thicke lost the lawsuit that the Marvin Gaye family brought against them for copyright infringement with Blurred Lines.  Personally I like Pharrell a lot.  It might have been better to pull a Sam Smith and apologize and say it was unintentional.

[tobeannounced]

Yeah, I've lost some respect for Pharrell over this.  I don't think he's the Zen master he portrays.  A real man would have just copped to it and eaten some humble pie. The first time I heard Blurred Lines, I thought it was cool that they sampled Get on the Floor because I love that song.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Just admit it, reimburse the family, and move  on, but no.  Now his lawyer is saying this is going to put a chilling effect on artists and creativity or some BS.  Shut up.  You're just making it worse.

[Cramps]

They'll appeal this.

[ennui]

Uh oh.  Parrell and Thicke lost the lawsuit that the Marvin Gaye family brought against them for copyright infringement with Blurred Lines.  Personally I like Pharrell a lot.  It might have been better to pull a Sam Smith and apologize and say it was unintentional.

It sounds to me like Pharrell did say it was unintentional, but he's not the only one named in the lawsuit. I get the impression that Robin Thicke is the one putting up the big fight. From the article I read, Thicke and the Gaye children have had disagreements before.

[ljp]

I don't think it was a great verdict to be honest. I do agree with the chilling effect and there are differences. Lots of song sort of sound like other songs. If thicke hadn't shot his mouth off about it it might have been a different verdic.

[dizzyizzy01]

I hadn't paid a whole lot of attention to the lawsuit, but after the verdict came out, I decided to look up the compositions of the two songs.  I think the jury pretty clearly got it wrong.  Blurred Lines is clearly reminiscent of Got to Give it Up, but the melody is different, the baseline is different, the lyrics are different.  I mean it's just a different song.  There are certainly aspects of the BL that seems inspired by Gaye, but I don't think there's any legal grounds for copyright infringement.  The production of the songs and maybe some of the instrumentation cause the final recordings to kind of sound similar, but you can't copyright that stuff.  Seriously, copyrighting the use of a cowbell?  Does that mean if I use a guitar to play a certain riff that isn't even the same as another song, but that song came before mine, that's copyright infringement?  It's seems like such an overreach to me.

 

Man, Pharrell must not have had a very good lawyer.  Anyway, there will be an appeal, and hopefully it'll be overturned.

[gunderda]

I agree dizzy.  And I'm just not sure I believe Pharrell is stupid enough to think he could get away with blatant plagerism. I'm sure he's probably got a nice big ego but one would think he wouldnt make a obvious mistake and risk potentially losing a lot of money. 

 

As a creative person you usually know how to toe the line and not get in trouble. 

[ennui]

The article I read today said that the Gaye children seem to imply that Marvin owns soul music. That they're trying to control a genre.

 

It's an interesting case, but the article also said that the appeals process will take years. Once again, the only ones making money will be the lawyers.

 

I gather that the Gaye kids are now going after Happy -- "Pharrell Williams’ lawyer has fired back at Marvin Gaye’s relatives for suggesting the superproducer’s Oscar-nominated song Happy sounds like another of the soul legend’s old hits following the conclusion of the Blurred Lines plagiarism trial. Williams and Thicke are planning to appeal the ruling, but now questions have been raised over another of Pharrell’s creations, amid claims Happy bears striking similarities to Gaye’s 1965 tune Ain’t That Peculiar."

[Cramps]

Oh please. Ain't that Peculiar is my favorite Marvin Gaye song. And the "striking similarities" are not not 7 million dollarsly striking.

[DownTheShore]

Gaye's children are getting greedy; Daddy's back catalog must not be selling as well as it once did.

[Ohwell]

It's funny, but I used to think Pharrell was hot, but now he just looks like a creepy old man to me. 

[dcinmb]

Aside from his use of the word 'iteration' when addressing a group of 7 - 8 year olds, this is pretty cute:

[Mystical chick]

This is the first time I'm watching with Pharrell as one of the mentors and I like him so far. Someone upthread mentioned his ability to give constructive criticism while lifting the contestant up and I've seen that several times. It's a super quality to have. It will be interesting for me to see him in the competition since I didn't watch the last time he was on.

[viajero]

I bet he's really happy now since he helped produce Adele's upcoming new album.  The first single hit No. 1 within hours and the music video broke records by going over 20 million views in less than 24 hours.

[Latsmile]

Pharrell signed "Deaf" as he said it. Interesting!