Posted on Friday, 15th January 2010 by Interloper
Since it was released on January 5th, I haven’t been able to stop listening to Ke$ha’s debut album, Animal. In fact, I like it so much that less than halfway through the first month of the year, I’m prepared to claim that it could be the best debut of 2010.
You only need to glance at a recent music chart to know that pop is evolving. Whether current trends are simply a revisiting of the drug-fuelled, strobe-lit and decidedly smoky 1980’s, or a genuine attempt at futurism is difficult to say. Nevertheless, emerging artists such as Lady Gaga have worked hard to earn themselves labels like “avant-garde”.
It’s not all fake blood and hermaphrodites, though, as it also seems that a new level of self-awareness has pervaded the popular music scene. Although “ironic self-reflection” is hardly new (Barbie Girl did it last century), many of today’s pop stars seem stronger, smarter and more versatile than the doe-eyed sacrificial lambs that we once paraded before the paparazzi.
Recent commercial successes based on postmodern ideas can’t aren’t just seen within the music industry, but are also evidenced by the popularity of television programs like “Glee”, which quickly built a cult following out of its self-referential style.
In music, Jay-Z’s track, Empire State of Mind, is little more than a guided tour through many current pop culture staples, as he references everything from Afrika Bambaataa, to McDonald’s and even prescription sleeping pills. Elsewhere on the charts, Billy-Ray’s daughter squeals that “the Jay-Z song is on”, linking everything together with a level of enthusiasm that only a Miley can muster.
More than mere cross-promotional exercises, these examples provide a genuine reflection of popular culture today; a culture that is becoming increasingly aware of itself.
Ke$ha, who describes her sense of style as “garbage-chic” and insists that the dollar sign in her name is an ironic reference to being broke, is a perfect example of this. Less of a pop princess than a pop pauper (for a while she even lived in a car), most people probably won’t remember her appearance on The Simple Life; but they will remember an opening song-line as absurd as “I wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy”.
This willingness to not take herself too seriously may be Ke$ha’s greatest strength. By walking the narrow line between what could be considered novelty songs and arguably more serious tracks, Animal roots the listener in uncertainty that makes it difficult to pass judgement on Ke$ha herself—even when she’s claiming to brush her teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels.
By injecting a dose of humour into her music, Ke$ha immediately becomes less threatening: particularly amongst the same crowd who willingly purchased songs by Susan Boyle. It’s an astonishingly simple tactic that has also been masterfully employed by Katy Perry. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the pair are friends and Ke$ha even appeared in the music video for I Kissed A Girl.
Animal is the auditory equivalent of watching a drunk blonde stumble down the road and lose her Louboutin’s in the gutter. Ke$ha is unapologetically brazen as she relates segments from her own life, adopting a storytelling style that’s influenced by her self-professed love of country music.
Ke$ha co-wrote every song on her album, with the final fifteen tracks selected from a list of as many as 200 songs that she created over the past five years. Ke$ha’s mother, Pebe Sebert, once wrote songs for country artists (including Dolly Parton) and if it were not for the intervention of acclaimed producers such as Doctor Luke and Max Martin, it’s possible that Ke$ha’s debut could actually have been a country record.
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