Headscratchers / Kesha

• What's with the dollar sign?
  • Lucky Charms Title
  • Because that's the sound a cash register makes. Ke-$haaa!
  • She was "K-money" at some point.
  • Rumor has it that it's because her first major appearance, as the female voice on Flo Rida's "Right Round," was uncredited and unpaid. So, er, the dollar sign is so it doesn't happen again...?
    • She took her name off of it herself, apparently.
  • Seriously, she explains it as being a reference to when she was poor. She didn't have any real money, so she decided to at least have money in her name.
    • And now that she's richer than ever, both physically and in spirit, she dropped it.
• How do you guys know exactly what parts of the UK she's famous in? That's pretty funny.
  • ...Tropers that live in those areas?
    • No, he/she means how do they know it's just their regions, and not any other part of the country. For example, I could definitely say Northern Virginians liked Ke$ha, that they're fanatical even, but it would be strange to say "Arlington, VA residents have gone crazy for her." What makes their love of her different than other parts of the UK?
    • OP here, yes, that was what I was asking.
• What is the purpose of the "Hey what up girl" and "Let's go" at the beginning of Tik Tok?
  • They're the Boys who are Blowin' Up Her Phones later, obviously.
  • It's P. Diddy.
• What does P. Diddy feel like when he wakes up in the morning, anyway?
  • He's surrounded by beautiful, still kinda trashed women. So fairly good about himself.
  • It might be a clever way of saying she's feeling puffy. If that means anything. Swollen from a fight the previous night?
  • Lethargic?
  • It means she feels like she hasn't been noticed for five years.
  • She can't remember what her name is?
  • Remember that pee video P.Diddy did like way back? I'm guessing having to pee...
• What does her dentist think about her brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack? Heck, how does she even have any teeth remaining?
  • They were replaced with teeth she borrowed from Flavor Flav?
  • Maybe she uses the Jack instead of water/mouthwash for rinsing out her teeth? Mouthwash is really just a bunch of mint flavour and alcohol anyway i think.
  • Alcohol kills bacteria and is the main incrediant in liquid soap, so if we took that quote at face value, Jack Daniels would not be that bad for your teeth.
  • I thought she meant she takes a couple swigs of whisky before she goes.
  • It's an old trick colloquially called a "hooker's toothbrush". Take a swig of hard alcohol, swish it through your teeth, spit it into the sink. Presumably the alcohol kills all the bacteria in your mouth and also functions as the "hair of the dog" to take the edge off the hangover long enough for you to stumble back home.
• Why doesn't Kesha just admit she reads TV Tropes? There's no other possible explanation for Take it Off: Kesha'n Friends Version's utter insanity. Seriously, how else do you explain all those references or the random RPG Dance Battle with Laser Chainsaw versus Evil Sorceress Kesha?
• What the hell does "We R Who We R" have to do with gay teen suicides? I just read the lyrics, and there's nothing about gays, nothing about teens and nothing about suicides. It's just another one of her party-girl anthems.
  • Bandwagon-jumping?
  • It's about being comfortable with who you are?
  • You can be inspired by something and not directly reference it.
  • Oh, it's there. First, just understand that Ke$ha is a subtle, extraordinary lyricist, and it's easy to miss all the undercurrents flowing through her work. Let's go verse by verse:
    • "Hot and dangerous/if you're one of us then roll with us." Well, that's obvious. Ke$ha is here referencing Edmund Burke's famous line, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." She's urging that great, tolerant mass of society to get off its ass and actually help gay students who are being bullied. "Roll with us" means "join us in the struggle. The hot and dangerous portion of this verse is a reference to don't ask, don't tell specifically and the military in general.
    • "And no you don't wanna mess with us/I got Jesus on my necklace." This is a clever attempt to turn religion against the Religious Right. Ke$ha's referencing Jesus and his New Testament compassion, as opposed to the slightly more fire-and-brimstone God of Leviticus.
    • "I've got that glitter on my eyes/stockings ripped all up the sides." The stockings symbolize the famous "closet." In the same way that "stockings" trap Ke$ha's legs, the closet traps gay men and women in lies and shame. Ke$ha is ripping up the stockings, and, symbolically, demolishing the closet as well. "Glitter" means enlightenment or tolerance. Your choice.
    • The chorus, which is too long to quote at length. Ke$ha and her crew are tearing the world apart in search of the homophobes and bigots. Upon finding such villains, Ke$ha's posse will become as the Maenads of Greek mythology, eviscerating the evil men in a shower of blood and gore. They will dance as if "numb" and "dumb," because they will be both numb and dumb, the result of Bacchus' influence. The dance will be terrifying, and yea, all observers will tremble.
    • "DJ turn it up!/It's about damn time to live it up/I'm so sick of being so serious/It's making my brain delirious/I'm just talkin' truth." This is a biting commentary on the way hatred and intolerance clouds our minds. "Serious," in this case, means intolerant or something similar. Ke$ha just wants to let go of the hatred and embrace tolerance and love.
    • "I'm telling you 'bout the shit we do/We're selling our clothes, sleeping in cars/Dressin' it down, hitting on dudes (HARD)" I hope I don't have to explain that symbolism.
    • "DJ turn it up!/It's about damn time to live it up/I'm so sick of being so serious/It's making my brain delirious/I'm just talkin' truth." is equally about telling society to take a chill pill, and let people live it up how they want instead of caring what your neighbors are doing.
    • The rest is chorus or repetition, so no need to repeat myself.
    • Beyond that, of course, the song also has a lot of lyrics that are point out how ridiculous it is that our society is making such a big deal about something like sexual orientation.
    • Awesome analysis, but I call Epileptic Trees.
    • I call shenanigans on the line about being "serious". Being "serious" is in no way, shape or form a reference to being intolerant. And even if it was being used that way, it's Ke$ha who's "so sick of being so serious" which would meant that she was the one who was being intolerant.
    • It should be noted that the subtlety and extraordinariness of Ke$ha's lyrics are open to a serious YMMV debate.
• Wikipedia says she claims Beastie Boys, Velvet Underground, The Damned and Talking Heads as influences, and she claimed that Animal was "an homage to Licensed to Ill". (Beat) Where the hell are these influences in her music?
  • I can kind of see Talking Heads, actually — the deliberate weirdness, the way she takes the other side in lyrics, the prankster attitude. As for the Beastie Boys, I think that one's more direct: considering how many people missed the point of "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)" and were surprised that a group of white boys had real skill (and some progressive beats) underneath their abrasiveness, that one makes sense to me. Kesha has some strong beats in her work and the I WANT YOU TO HATE IT attitude down; whether or not she has any skill is YMMV. But I think without the Beastie Boys entering the scene and expanding the genre, there would be no Kesha.
    • Holy crap, that makes sense. Let's see if she has a Paul's Boutique in her.
  • So it's an homage to Don't Be a Fa***t- its original titles? How edgy of her!
• I don't get how "Blah Blah Blah" has unfortunate implications for spinning a known cliche around—how is that unfortunate, when "Grow a Pear" wasn't?
  • Because if a man were to do it, he would get a lot of shit thrown at him from feminists, who would call him a He-Man Woman Hater.
  • "Blah Blah Blah" was a hit single. "Grow a Pear" was not. Hit singles tend to get more heat than lesser-known songs.
• Where is the actual evidence that her music is supposed to be a parody of anything? I don't think that she is as bad as everyone says, but she always seemed like one of those lucky flash-in-the-pan pop stars who actually managed to become popular.
  • There's no measurable difference between her songs and a more serious party song pop star like say Flo Rida. Even if she is writing for the purpose of parody, the party song genre is so shallow that it's pretty much already a parody of itself and no one else can parody it without sounding like they are truly a part of it. We can't really know if she's doing parody or not and Ke$ha herself has given conflicting answers to the question of whether or not she is a parody. Sometimes she claims to be parody, other times she claims she's content to write shallow, enjoyable pop songs, which would imply that she doesn't think of them as parodies.
  • It could just be the strategy other mediums have used, write sincerely and if it's received poorly claim that it's a parody. This defense works well for Ke$ha's music because it allows her fans to like her music even more (We like it because we get the parody, you don't like it because you don't get its complexity) and detractors who could blow Ke$ha off by saying she's shallow are forced to find a new excuse for disliking her because parody implies complexity.
    • Basically, if she says she's parody people can't complain as easily and her own fans can like her even better.
  • Many of her songs are blatant parodies or at least highly sardonic jabs, such as "Paris Hilton's Closet" and "Blah Blah Blah"

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