Kesha

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/wiki/Keshacreator

"Because a girl should be able to down copious amounts of liquor and puke in the bathtub the next morning just like a guy, dammit!!"

The party don't start till I walk in... —Ke$ha, "TiK ToK"

Kesha Rose Sebert (pronounced as Kesh-uh, born March 1, 1987), known by the mononym of Ke$ha from 2009 until 2014, is a singer/songwriter, pianist, guitarist, rapper and musician. Ke$ha was born in Los Angeles, but raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Her breakthrough single came in early 2009 after appearing on Flo Rida's number one single "Right Round". She wrote songs for Miley Cyrus, The Veronicas and worked on Lace And Leather for Britney Spears before she hit the big time.

Her debut single, "TiK ToK", and album, Animal followed shortly afterwards in 2009 and 2010, respectively, then she did an EP "Cannibal" featuring successful songs like "We R Who We R", "Blow" and "Sleazy". Currently on the Sleazy tour, world wide.

Her Signature Style can be roughly summed up as Retraux-style Synth Pop with tomboyish lyrical themes and Auto-Tune up the wazoo. No, really.

Discography:

• Animal (2010)
• Cannibal (EP) (2010)
• I Am the Dance Commander + I Command You to Dance: The Remix Album (2011)
• Warrior (2012)
• Rainbow (2017)

Kesha provides examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: In "Blow."
• The Alcoholic: At least in her songs' lyrics.
• Auto-Tune: Embodies this almost as much as T-Pain.
• Be Yourself: or rather, We R Who We R.
• Blah Blah Blah: One of her songs is named this.
• Break Up Song: "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes", "Blind", "Kiss N Tell", "Hungover", "C U Next Tuesday"
• Bottle Fairy: The song "TiK ToK" is basically about waking up hung over, getting drunk, heading out to the club, and getting more drunk.
• Cameo: Ke$ha got one in "I Kissed a Girl".
• Chainsaw Good: In the second "Take It Off" video. It shoots lasers, too.
• Deadpan Snarker: She practically does this while singing.
  • From an interview with The Times: "Everyone's really offended by that. But come on, brushing your teeth with Jack Daniel's: what girl does that? People are like, 'Do you really advocate brushing your teeth with bourbon?' I'm like, 'Yes, actually, I do, every day, for everybody. Especially eight-year-olds.' I mean, what are you talking about? Of course I don't. Come on."
  • "Paris Hilton's Closet." That is all.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "Pedicure on my toes, toes." As opposed to a pedicure on, maybe, her eyeballs or something.
• Detractor Nickname: In-universe. The video for "Blow" prominently features James Van Der Beek, who she calls "James Van Der Douche"
• Dirty Old Man: Her song "Dinosaur" is about one.
• Eighties Hair: In the "We R Who We R" music video.
• Europop: Although it's often discussed on a certain group of British radio stations, your opinion will differ.
• Era Specific Personality: Before finding mainstream success with her auto-tuned party music, She was known as 'Kesha Sebert', who's music had a distinct Indie/Folksy sound. One such example of her work can be found here, as well as in The Barbie Diaries as 'Invisible'.
• Everything's Better with Princesses: "Disney's Princess Ke$ha"
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: In an Entertainment Weekly article, she professed to "the healing power of glitter" as a hangover cure.
  • Not to mention her eye makeup on the page photo.
  • The video for "Take It Off" turns into a multicolored glitterfest by the second half. It is literally just rainbow clouds of glitter flying around the screen while people dance.
  • Averted on her CD, which is mostly sparkle-free.
• Fan Service: "Take It Off", "Your Love Is My Drug".
• Gay Aesop: "We R Who We R".
• Gender Flip: "Blah Blah Blah" was written as an inversion of all the rap songs that objectify women -- the entire song is about her telling guys to shut up, strip naked and have sex with her.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: I'll C U Next Tuesday
• Green Eyes
• Guns Akimbo: In the laser gun duel in "Blow".
• Hey, Let's Put on a Show: She very sweetly decided to put on a benefit concert to help the victims of the flooding in Tennessee. This act won her a lot of good karma back in Nashville.
• Hollywood Pudgy and Hollywood Homely: Granted, she isn't in the greatest shape, but the hatedom for these November '10 pics is way, way over the top.
• The Illuminati: More subtle than Lady Gaga or Rihanna, but the symbolism is still there (eye make-up mostly).
• In Memoriam: "We R Who We R", which was a dedication to the gay teen suicides in 2010. Even more poignant in the music video, where she tosses herself off of a skyscraper.
• Israelis With Infrared Missiles: This famous clip features a squad of them dancing to her music while on a patrol.
• The Ladette: At least it's what the lyrics indicate.
• Loony Fan: Before she was famous, she found and sneaked into Prince's house and left a demo tape on his table.
• Love Is a Drug: "Your Love is My Drug".
  • Stephen

You're my object of affection My drug of choice My sick obsession

• Lucky Charms Title: Ke$ha.
• Misandry Song
• New Sound Album: In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ke$ha claims that her new album will be influenced by The Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire. Looks like MGMT may have to give up their trophy for "Most Intentionally Difficult Sophomore Album" in a few years…
  • In a newer interview, she claimed that the title is Spandex On The Distant Horizon and that "maybe it will be rock and roll or maybe it will be something else. It could end up being a spoken word record or polka death metal."
  • It's been confirmed that the album will be inspired by 70's rock.
• Noodle Incident: The video for "Blow" gives us this gem:

"So, I grabbed the bear by the throat, looked him right in the eyes, and I said 'Bear, you have 'till the count of zero to put some pants on and to apologize to the President.' And, um…that's the story of how I was elected to the Parliament of Uzbekistan."

• Non-Appearing Title: The Harold Song
• Obfuscating Stupidity: The girl was in marching band, attended Cold War history classes for fun, and had near-perfect SAT scores. There's no way this isn't an act on some level. She says herself it's fun.
• One of the Boys: Plays up to this.
• The Parody: "Your Love Is My Drug" - supposedly a Deconstructive Parody of love songs Auto-Tune.
  • "Blah Blah Blah" could be seen as a parody of the "pop princess genre", but that's another contested point -- alternatively it could be parodying the rap culture of objectifying women, or objectification in general, or...
  • Possibly her entire career.
• The Pig Pen: So much that Cracked.com wrote in its topic page about her: "She is gross, gross, gross. She is slimy, sticky, and probably gooey."
• Pretty in Mink: Briefly in "Take It Off".
• Record Producer: Dr. Luke & Benny Blanco co-wrote and produced most of her songs so far.
• Refrain From Assuming: You know, the one where she sings about "The Glitter in My Eyes"?
  • Also known as "DJ Turn it Up".
• Rock Me, Amadeus: "Take It Off" borrows from "The Streets of Cairo"

"There's a place downtown where the freaks all come around It's a hole in the wall it's a dirty free for all"

• Rummage Sale Reject: When she isn't in normal clothes, is this. ^{[dead link]} At times crossing with Impossibly Tacky Clothes.
• Running Gag: The 'bottle of Jack'. Well, it was a running gag.
  • Currently it's glitter. She obviously is aware of it.
• Refuge in Audacity: She's been described as "the degenerate Hannah Montana"; whereas other pop artists would deny their crude, party-girl image, she completely embraces it (just watch the video for "TiK ToK") in what she calls "the war on pretension".
• Self-Deprecation: Her twitter is 'keshasuxx.'
  • See also her Funny Or Die video. Part Parody, part Take That Me/Embrace The Hate.
• Smarter Than You Look: Go back into her pre-party girl days and you get a deep and incredible musician, also her idea to lampshade general party culture and still have fun with it is brilliant.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: On her performances and promotional pictures, she's always as dirty as possible. Other times, it's possible to see why Maxim put her on their "Hot 100" list.
• Shout-Out: Her signature makeup style includes dramatic mascara at only her right eye. She's confirmed this as an intentional shout out.
• Silly Love Songs: One day Ke$ha decided there just aren't enough songs that turn romance into a G-Rated Drug and the result was "Your Love Is My Drug."
  • Stephen also applies, a disturbing example of this trope.

You're my object of affection My drug of choice My sick obsession

• Stalker with a Crush: The narrator of "Stephen". Very much so.

Stephen... I'll knit you a sweater. I wanna wrap you up... in my love... forever. I would never let you go, Stephen. I'll never let go.

• Stealth Parody: Based on her website, MySpace page, intellect and public comments (she's said she doesn't take this very seriously), it's at least possible that Ke$ha's career is some kind of parody.
• Spiritual Antithesis: Out of the world outfits, ideas, and creepy videos which in some degree don't make much sense, obsessed with partying, rebellion and 'fame', with a higher message, and lampshades various pop star expectations and then uses those tropes to their highest degree (Lady Gaga)...Except she does it for fun, is out there cuz she parties and she knows it, just does her thing and has not made herself the official spokesperson for any particular social group and just wants us all to have fun and love one another. Stealth Parody elements are more within Ke$ha's choices then Gaga's too.
• Surreal Music Video: Let me count the ways.
  • For those of you who don't want to click the links, we have...
  • "Take It Off Ke$ha 'n Friends Version" which opens with a Leopard and from there turns into a neon alley way rave with furries and Evil Sorceress Ke$ha winning an RPG dance battle.
  • "Animal", which involves Ke$ha fighting backwards headed monsters in deep space and ends with a credibly impression of a Wave Motion Gun.
  • "Take It Off (Original Version)" which ends with a rave in an empty swimming pool filled with chalk dust. And that chalk dust used to be people.
  • "Your Love Is My Drug" which turns into an animated acid trip by the end.
  • "Blow", which starts with the line "So I grabbed the bear by the throat, looked him right in the eye, and told him 'you have until the count of zero to put some pants on and apologize to the president'. And that's the story of how I was elected to the Parliament of Uzbekistan." which Ke$ha tells to a pair of unicorns while drinking champagne. It then evolves into a club full of unicorn people and a laser gun fight with James Van Der Beek where the unicorn people bleed rainbows when hit with the lasers.
• Take That: If you know anything about her history, it's hard to to see some songs like "Stuck Up" as anything but a Take That at Paris. More generally, a good third of her songs are Take That at either various stereotypes or her detractors.
• Teacher-Student Romance: Hot for teacher variety in "Mr. Watson" to the Nth Degree. "Mr. Watson I want to get with you. I won't tell a soul what we're gunna do. Wanna get my hands in your khaki pants, teacher teacher whatcha gunna do, cause I am coming on to you."
• Three Minutes of Writhing: "Blow," "Your Love is My Drug"
• The Something Song: "The Harold Song" on her Cannibal EP.
• Title-Only Chorus: Your Love Is My Drug
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: "We R Who We R".
• Valley Girl: Her musical persona comes off as this.
• Unkempt Beauty
• Your Cheating Heart: "Kiss N Tell" is one example.
• Wave Motion Gun: Although perhaps not necessarily a real example, when seen with the explosion at the start or the Magic Missile Beam Spam earlier in the official video for Animal, it's hard not to see this towards the end when she lobs a giant pillar of light into the sky.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The American flag t-shirt, as well as a sparkly cape with an American flag design on the inside she wore for a Saturday Night Live performance.
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Subverted as this is her music and why it's done, to be played at parties and drug filled gatherings, at least in the Animal and Cannibal eras.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: "We R Who We R".
• Yandere: "Stephen"