Ke$ha's Animal is a snapshot of today's pop music
Marshall Hughes
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: A&E
Ke$ha (more formally known as Kesha Sebert)'s Animal is a snapshot of today's pop music scene. Every track is an infectious, beat-driven and frequently auto-tuned "hookfest" that gets bodies moving and opinions flaring. Her music is not for everyone, especially not in doses larger than one song at a time; the genre into which she falls is just niche enough to be associated with the disclaimer of, "if you don't like this music already, it's unlikely you will learn to in a single sitting."
The songs are heavily electronica-based, with synths replacing guitars and digital manipulation rather than overdubbing and creating harmonies. With that being said, the over-processing makes an awesome end product. Every track was written by or with Ke$ha and produced by Dr. Luke, the brain behind the music of Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne, creating a sometimes disconcertingly familiar sound.
If you've been at all in touch with Top 40 music over the last three months, you'll be familiar with "Tik Tok," the half-spoken, half-sung, newest "unofficial" official party song. The increasingly intricate arrangement of synths and beats create an interesting progression of intensities throughout the song, resulting in a final chorus that seems to come too early after a seemingly self-conscious bridge. "Stephen," a cutesy catchy one-sided love song showcases a fantastic vocoded introduction of who-knows-how-many-part harmonies would be a touching and slightly creepily obsessive track, if not for the artist's admission that the song is about a 'd-bag.' "Blah blah blah," a collaboration with the electronic-rock-shout band 3Oh!3 (of "Don't Trust Me" fame), reels from the combined energy of the rawness of involved musicians, and quickly surpassed "Tik Tok" as number one iTunes download the week of the album's release. Finally, "Take it Off," a driving, dark, intense description of "a place downtown where the freaks all come around" to dance, borrows its hook from "The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid," better known to elementary school children as "there's a place in France where the naked ladies dance."
Ke$ha's popularity is obvious, but it is not met without resistance- as with every new, wildly popular single from an unknown artist, the tolerance to "Tik Tok" directly corresponds to the exposure one has had to it. On top of that, Ke$ha herself is a polarizing character: her attitude and behavior are brash, sometimes raucous, and altogether uncouth. Her Twitter feed and Facebook updates are filled with vulgarities and links to her behaving badly, but are also teeming with love and sincere appreciation for her fans. Ultimately, that's what Ke$ha is about: her passion for making music and her love for entertaining are what drives her, and beyond the super-shiny polish of four-on-the-floor bass rhythms and synthesizer hooks, it's what speaks.
The songs are heavily electronica-based, with synths replacing guitars and digital manipulation rather than overdubbing and creating harmonies. With that being said, the over-processing makes an awesome end product. Every track was written by or with Ke$ha and produced by Dr. Luke, the brain behind the music of Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne, creating a sometimes disconcertingly familiar sound.
If you've been at all in touch with Top 40 music over the last three months, you'll be familiar with "Tik Tok," the half-spoken, half-sung, newest "unofficial" official party song. The increasingly intricate arrangement of synths and beats create an interesting progression of intensities throughout the song, resulting in a final chorus that seems to come too early after a seemingly self-conscious bridge. "Stephen," a cutesy catchy one-sided love song showcases a fantastic vocoded introduction of who-knows-how-many-part harmonies would be a touching and slightly creepily obsessive track, if not for the artist's admission that the song is about a 'd-bag.' "Blah blah blah," a collaboration with the electronic-rock-shout band 3Oh!3 (of "Don't Trust Me" fame), reels from the combined energy of the rawness of involved musicians, and quickly surpassed "Tik Tok" as number one iTunes download the week of the album's release. Finally, "Take it Off," a driving, dark, intense description of "a place downtown where the freaks all come around" to dance, borrows its hook from "The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid," better known to elementary school children as "there's a place in France where the naked ladies dance."
Ke$ha's popularity is obvious, but it is not met without resistance- as with every new, wildly popular single from an unknown artist, the tolerance to "Tik Tok" directly corresponds to the exposure one has had to it. On top of that, Ke$ha herself is a polarizing character: her attitude and behavior are brash, sometimes raucous, and altogether uncouth. Her Twitter feed and Facebook updates are filled with vulgarities and links to her behaving badly, but are also teeming with love and sincere appreciation for her fans. Ultimately, that's what Ke$ha is about: her passion for making music and her love for entertaining are what drives her, and beyond the super-shiny polish of four-on-the-floor bass rhythms and synthesizer hooks, it's what speaks.
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