Ke$ha: Classic or Dud?

maybe I'm just swayed by that influences list that annoyed Alex, but the visual stuff in her SNL performance just looked to me like a grab-bag of stuff you might get from, like, MGMT, Sia, Flaming Lips, old Daft Punk videos, etc.

(The performance struck me as terrible -- I like "Tik Tok" okay, I guess, and it just seemed like one of those moments where the pop star comes out seeming lifeless and silly and going-through-the-motions, totally unable to back up whatever feeling the recording created. Which is kinda embarrassing, since you could probably find someone in any given karaoke bar who could pull that song off better.)

It wasn't avant garde.. it was embarrassing. I felt bad for her. It looked like she was making a joke out of herself. Very awkward and uncomfortable.

Re: the Kesha music influences list.

It really isn't too surprising when you consider (and this culled from good friend Wikipedia) a) her parents are/were in the music business b) she's from L.A., specifically the Valley c) her family wasn't wealthy d) she was actually pretty studious and academic in high school

It really isn't too different from the filmmakers who grew up in the Valley, watched every movie at their local video store, and then later went on to have success as a director (Burton, P.T. Anderson, to name two)

Tik-Tok was straight-up Jean-Michel Jarre Rendez-Vous Houston steez, from the astronauts to the laser-harp. I dig Ke$ha - it's like Rayanne Graff being voted prom queen.

I mentioned "her family wasn't wealthy" because kids don't care to consume all that much from pop and entertainment's past i.e. do their homework, when they come from a wealthy entertainment background. xpost

Her music sounds like Uffie for people who shop at Walmart.

i really think you're on to something!

Beatweek readers are still offering widely split opinions on what to make of Kesha’s recent avant garde Saturday Night Live performance of Tik Tok and Your Love Is My Drug – but the sales charts say she’s doing just fine. Her debut album Animal, which was released in January and debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Ten chart, has been catapulted back up into the top top, currently at #8. http://www.beatweek.com/news/4598-kesha-helped-on-charts-by-snl-performance/

Her metallic outfit and cape for "Tik Tok" and her black body suit covered in florescent paint for "Your Love" I guess constitutes avante-garde. Or maybe she's just going for a more MOR Lady Gaga approach.

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, April 21, 2010 4:16 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sure is amazing how her SNL performances boosted her sales for the week that ended right before the performance. it was just that good!

lots of people also like heroin.

Ke$ha reminds me of myself at age 8 wrapping a towel around my back and talking about martians on Saturday Night Live.

I dig Ke$ha - it's like Rayanne Graff being voted prom queen.

― solid yet bouncy (herb albert), Wednesday, April 21, 2010 7:23 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yea i wouldn't give her that much credit

i saw her on snl and there were aspects that reminded me of Avenue D and others that were GaGa, but she was like a cheaper, less confident version of each and I don't like those people to begin with.

I knew a kid who came to the high school talent show in Adam Ant make-up and sang a karaoke version of a pink song. Some people called him fag, most just felt embarrassed for even being in the same room. That's about how I felt on Saturday.

i just thought it was retarded and funny.

ugh i haven't seen this shit, do i have to

the "tik tok" performance is honestly sad -- not sure how anyone could think otherwise -- it's not even self-conscious enough -- middle school talent show is about right...

the second performance is whatever

she was like a cheaper, less confident version of each

that's pretty much it right there

oh LOL it's not THAT bad, it's just like, hi it's me in a cape singing my ok song (!!)

the chorus is functional but not as ecstatic as it was probably intended to be, imho

― la senora (surm), Wednesday, April 21, 2010 1:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

goes pretty big on "blow my speakers up tonight," no? the rest of the album suffers from this, though. it's sad, you can hear them trying to pull of these blasting pop chorus but it never really gets there.

ramzi :D

the chorus is functional but not as ecstatic as it was probably intended to be, imho

― la senora (surm), Wednesday, April 21, 2010 1:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

if this is about "your love is my drug" it's otm -- i was definitely thinking... "this is trying to be massive... it feels massive... but it's just kind of flat..."

i hated that song the first time i heard it, and yeah, it is kind of tepid, but i like it

it's about Tik Tok, xp. i just don't want to listen to it as much as it seems to want me to.

bonus points for the seemingly random "i like your beard!"

"blah blah blah" is way better -- i was disappointed that she didn't do that

really???

for me it's "Tik ToK" > "Your Love Is My Drug" > "Blah Blah Blah"

yeah -- the "your love is my drug" hook is so conventional -- it's like bad natasha beningfield or something

at least "blah blah blah" shoves its wretched twat in your face with no remorse

i'm telling you u should listen to leighton meester's "your love's a drug"

http://www.apuritansmind.com/images/MiscImages/hell2.jpg

Nicely done.

there's a lot of animosity towards Kesha, not just here, I kinda get it and I kinda don't. Musically she's a lot like Katy Perry who hasn't been on the receiving end of nearly as much haterade so I assume most of it comes from the fact that she dresses like a homeless 90s club kid that makes people hate her so much. [...]

― musically, Wednesday, April 14, 2010 8:48 PM Bookmark

I sorta think this is basically accurate (the vexation heaped on "homeless 90s club kid" look-and-feel) but to be fair, Katy Perry got/gets plenty of haterade on ILM! It's been a while but I seem to recall the original I Kissed A Girl thread throwing down some real negativity.

I think Ke$ha's problems boil down to, the songs are pretty good but the persona is galling. Right? Like, I want my dumb party pop songs to come from people who sound like you'd actually want to party with them. Except to the extent that Ke$ha is constantly promising casual sex in the near future, I can't imagine wanting to hang out with her - - - she comes off as loud, brassy in a bad way, full of herself, convinced she's funnier than she is, etc.... I mean these are basically the reasons I'm not so drawn to hang out with most 20-year-olds these days but really, her self-builtbrand is "sleazy, drunken moron." Sidekick version of Fergie on "London Bridge." Is it really surprising that there are people that this doesn't appeal to?

Also, I mean, the "$."

(This is all just going on the songs/videos - haven't seen any interviews or anything like that.)

http://imgur.com/FBjfV.jpg

blitzkreig tok?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg1qkChBCM

Example's cover of Tik Tok

:-(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg1qkChBCMc

oh LOL it's not THAT bad, it's just like, hi it's me in a cape singing my ok song (!!)

― la senora (surm), Thursday, April 22, 2010 12:18 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

new cape of good hope board description

still don't know how/why these exist, but the cooly g and untold remixes of "tik tok" lift the original out of "unlistenable garbage" into "interesting curio" territory (if not "actually amazing") - both are prob on autopilot-for-pay but it just shows how far you can go after a) removing some of the unnecessary autotune b) an actually interesting beat rather than rudimentary electrocrap c) treating ke$ha's vocals so that they're actually ON the beat rather than lurching around it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeQbV48gwTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqH8KiD8hjk

god the wolf howls annoy the fuck out of me though

that example cover is terrible but actually better than the original

what's frustrating is that i genuinely think there's an effective, fun club banger hiding inside that song - it just needs to be played totally straight and robo-diva-voiced. where are the PCDs when you need 'em.

Predicting you will have done a complete volte-face on Ke$ha in 12 months' time.

that will be up to her innit. 100% sure i won't have done a volte-face on anything she's released to date - nothing even has the earworm factor that eg "poker face" did when i still hated it

Predicting you will have done a complete volte-face on Ke$ha in 12 months' time.

― Matt DC, Friday, April 23, 2010 11:20 AM Bookmark

for a second read this as some sexual euphemism i wasn't familiar with

Xpost the literal middle school talent show video of Kesha singing "Karma Police" is actually less awkward than "Tik Tok" on SNL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIHDGDzVwK4

cracked up at the pronunciation of "keh dollar sign ha" on SNL last night

I've been laying low cause I figured I wore out my Ke$ha-love welcome on the "worth it" thread, but she is SO CLASSIC. Here's my recent review at Burnside Writers' Collective. I quoted Lex and ILXOR! Also agree with Doctor Casino above, "I can't imagine wanting to hang out with her." And yet...

i get this weird canadian vibe from her

is it shaped like a maple leaf?

the johnny rotten and guns'n'roses comparisons make so much sense to me. they fucking suck too, and in similar ways.