Throughout his career Robin Thicke has been more recognized for his R&B ballads like “Lost With Out You,” his breakout hit from his second studio album, The Evolution Of Robin Thicke, than for major pop hits.
And even though that song put him on the map, Thicke has never had a real breakout pop single until now. “Blurred Lines,” the title track from his upcoming album has been a huge success for the R&B singer, spending a record seven straight weeks on top of the billboard Hot 100 chart.
Thicke’s label Interscope also announced on Friday that “Blurred Lines” has also broken the record for largest radio audience ever.
According to the press release from the label “Blurred Lines” has “broken the record for the highest radio audience ever recorded. As of this week, the track has reached more than 242.65 million listeners”
That’s a big deal for Thicke and the success of the song is not just on the radio. The accompanying music video is also one of Robin’s most viewed, due in part to the controversy surrounding the nudity and the claims of exploitation of women, which subsequently caused it to be banned on YouTube.
But the YouTube ban only seemed to provide more buzz for the song. As the saying goes, “There’s no such thing as bad press.”
“Blurred Lines” is the title track and lead single of Thicke’s sixth studio album.
He spoke of yearning for a hit song this time around: “I’d be lying to myself if, going into this record, I said I didn’t want to have a hit.” he told latimes.com.
He also described what it felt like to have such a popular song and appeal to a wider audience:
“It used to be kind of a centered audience that knew me,” he said in an interview at a restaurant near his home in West Hollywood, a few weeks after the YouTube taping. “But now it’s young girls, it’s old people, it’s people from India and Germany. It’s a whole other level, which is very exciting, I can’t deny it.”
Hopefully, this hit song will translate into big sales for Robin. “Blurred Lines” is scheduled to be released on July 30.
