The Ashcan

KE$HA fights pretension the only way she knows how – with more pretension

Posted on 15. Jan, 2010 by jessekg in Curiosities, Music, Pop Culture

KE$HA about to be $i¢k and spit up cheesy lyrics all over the audience

When I first heard Ke$ha’s hit song, “Tick Tock,” about a month ago on the radio I thought it was part of a big joke. Here was this girl sing-talking with a constipated valley girl accent about brushing her teeth with Jack Daniels and drinking beer in a song that’s rhyming structure was somewhere between Hop on Pop and the alphabet song, and today she is officially the first huge pop star of 2010. Is it really going to be that bad of a year?

Not only does she hold the two top spots on itunes with “Tick Tock” and “Blah blah blah,” but she was also part of that equally as bad but ridiculously ubiquitous ’09 Flo Rida track, “Right Round.” Between “Tick Tock” and “Right Round” she’s on two of best selling first week singles, but here’s the rub: not only are these tracks some of the catchiest pop songs around, but by their power combined they could take on “I gotta feeling” for most annoying thing in the history of sounds.

In a recent L.A. Times interview, the auto-tuning, laser glove wearing, garbage picking, booze drinking, leotard shredding hipster pop sensation had a lot to say about the inspiration behind her debut album, Animal. And it turns out I was right – it was all just a big joke. Thank god. Ke$ha’s whole self described “garbage can chic” aesthetic is just a big fu¢k you to pretentious hipsters everywhere.

“I think hipsters helped me do it,” she said. “I saw pretension everywhere and wanted to fight against it.”

Unfortunately, by fighting against it, she sort of, you know, become the queen of pretentious hipsters everywhere (but really, is there any other kind?)

Example

In the same interview with the L.A. Times she said that she is ”making sure people know there’s no connection between money and happiness. I remember sitting in the Gold Room with two dollars in change wearing clothes I found in the garbage, but I was surrounded by people that love me.”

What a great message, but guess what? It’s not really crystal clear when your name actually includes a dollar sign in it, not to mention one of your things is to draw even more dollar signs in magic marker on your body when on stage. Oh ya, plus you’re filthy rich.

And I get the whole making fun of shit by imitating it with a hint of irony, but you can’t forget that most shit becomes popular  because people start off making fun of it (i.e. trucker hats, revenge of the nerds glasses, Christmas sweaters, moustaches, the ’80s). That’s great she wants to make fun of pretentious hipsters by treating them with a heavy dose of irony, but when half the people don’t get the joke doesn’t that mean she is in fact propagating the very thingshe is “fighting against?” And also, isn’t that just what hipsters do anyways?

It’s all part of this whole vibe that she clearly prescribes to, even if she says she’s against it (“Giant beards — guys with giant beards are the jam!” she told Seventeen, for instance. Yet another thing made remotely cool by somewhat mocking it). And while I do enjoy a certain sense of irony when mocking people, it too can be so annoying in it’s own sense that it’s also deserving of a dose of ironic mocking. It’s a vicious cycle, or worse, like one of those pictures of a guy looking at a picture of himself looking at a picture of himself looking at a picture of himself times infinity and mounted on a velvet background and hung in a bar that only serves tall cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Help!

It’s also like saying you want to make fun of racism, and then writing a prequel to Mein Kampf, just like Batman Begins, but more racist, and saying it’s okay because it’s being ironic.

Of course her web page is framed by random animals like howling wolves, jackals, what looks like an otter and some narwhals with rainbow glowing horns - a move all too reminiscent of the three wolves, one moon t-shirt which is so wildly popular with the ironically inclined.

To top it off she lists more than 200 musical influences on her website, most of them not making any sense, or at least not having any sort of influence on her musical style. From Flock of Seagulls to the Jackson Five, Tom Jones and the Vaselines, as well as a good helping of completely random, obscure acts, it actually looks more like an alphabetical listing straight from a google search of “random important bands I should know so that I sound like a well-rounded, educated musician even though my music is shit.”

But it’s all about her message

That’s right, I’m so distracted by her whole persona that I forgot about the powerful message hidden within the song.

From the same L.A. Times piece:

There’s a song about the time Ke$ha threw up in a closet during a party at Paris Hilton’s pad (“Party at a Rich Dude’s House”), and one she says is about the time “some dumb bitch fronted like she was my friend but then secretly tried to bring me down” (“Backstabber”), and another about finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her with a famous pop starlet who shall remain nameless (“Kiss & Tell”). Oh, and the one she wrote about beginning to see the universe as a cyclical chain of connected events after meeting a guy in a club (“Chain Reaction,” which has been featured on MTV’s The Hills).

Her music, she says, is about being many things. Here’s a list:

• fun. Check
• unapologetic. Check
• rowdy. Yup
• quirky. Sure
• humorous. Definitely
• interesting. Absolutely.
• “but with substance behind it.” Wait, what?

Oh, it’s feminism

For girls, I think it’s an empowering record, it’s funny, it’s cheeky. I think people need to have fun with whatever they’re doing

This is what Ke$ha recently told Seventeen magazine, and my only question is, what are you talking about?

Sample lyric:

I’m talking about – everybody getting crunk, crunk

Boys trying to touch my junk, junk

Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk

Or try this, from Blah blah blah:

I don’t really care where you live at

Just turn around boy, let me hit that

Don’t be a little bitch with your chit chat

Just show me where your dick’s at

I guess that’s empowering if you find yourself in a number of situations, such as, one) you’re a stripper, and two) there is no two, really.

She also mentioned that she always wanted to be a performer, and painted an inspiring picture for the young girls out there, such as Noah Cyrus, who want to grow up and be famous.

“There’s video of me at age five, naked and covered in body paint, saying, ‘I’m going to be a rock star and there’s no way anyone is going to stop me!’ It’s my calling. If I don’t go for it, I’m going to feel like a tool when I’m 50.”

Awww. Cute!

Besides, she thinks girls need a better role model than the ones already out there, and she’s just the person for the job.

“I think girls need someone to look up to who’s not in high heels and a push-up bra,” she told Seventeen.

Yes, I hear you Ke$ha. I’m thinking shredded tights and I that ‘I just got the $hit fu¢ked out of me’ look is far more classy anyways.

Ke$ha plays Toronto’s Mod Club on Sunday, Jan. 17. Just follow the beams from her laser gloves. Shit, I want me some laser gloves.

Tags: Animal, blah blah blah, Flo Rida, hipster, irony, Kesha, LA, laser gloves, pop, Right Round, Tick Tock