Ke$ha and the Death of One Hit Wonders

A single statement has prompted me writing this:

'Ke$ha's new song just debuted at number one. I just feel hopeless.'

The above statement was written by a friend on Facebook referencing the new single from the musical cockroach known as Ke$ha.

Being that I have been listening to a glut of sports radio in my daily automobile time, I couldn't say that I had heard the new song, entitled "We R Who We R" and after seeking a listen I wish I hadn't for a few reasons - Lyrically it is pretty par for the course for appealing to Ke$ha's audience, and since I'm not a club kid or a 14 year old girl with ambitions of prostitution, it's safe to say that contextually this song wasn't intended for me - or was it?

"I was really affected by the suicides that have been happening, having been subject to very public hatred [myself]. I have absolutely no idea how these kids felt. What I'm going through is nothing compared to what they had to go through. Just know things do get better and you need to celebrate who you are. Every weird thing about you is beautiful and makes life interesting. Hopefully the song really captures that emotion of celebrating who you are."

The above quote was taken from a Rolling Stone Interview with the star explaining the motivations and lyrical musings of the new single.

Lets take a look at the lyrics shall we?

The Chorus, probably the portion she felt 'captures that emotion of celebrating who you are' - mainly because it is literal in it's execution -

Tonight we're going hard

Just like the world is ours

We're tearin' it apart

You know we're superstars

We are who we are

So not the most intelligent thing I have ever read or heard, nor the worst, but I think coming out and stating that she was affected by the recent string of teen suicides, and dedicating this song to them feels shallow and cheap. Lets now take a look at some of the verses:

Hot and dangerous
If you’re one of us, then roll with us
‘Cause we make the hipsters fall in love
And we’ve got hot-pants on enough
And yes of course we does we’re running this town just like a club
And no, you don’t wanna mess with us
Got Jesus on my necklace

I’ve got that glitter on my eyes
Stockings ripped all up the side
Looking sick and sexy-fied

So let’s go-o-o (Let’s go!)

Hmmmm, what part of that is meant to make me celebrate who I am, as opposed to who Ke$ha is? At least with the terribly bad Tik Tok, Ke$ha wasn't trying to sell it is a piece speaking out against a war or human trafficking or one of the other numerous societal problems in the world today.

Musically it is pretty boring, the singular drum beat and synth sample will get your toe tapping and provide the top 40 appeal, but beyond that it is becoming apparent that ghostwriters seem to be phoning it in at this point.

Why hasn't Ke$ha disappeared?!?!

Simple, The music industry has killed one hit wonders.

While it has always been around, it has become increasingly more apparent that the industry is run with spreadsheets as opposed to the artists and talent (or lack thereof). Hits seem no longer like they can be earned simply through fan support, but instead act like a commoditized item, bought and sold no differently then any other consumer product.

Producer groups have become so numerous (Stargate, The Neptunes etc) that each song produced is bet on like the stock market in hopes of scoring a number one hit, which usually ends up being the case. Growing an artist to have mass appeal isn't something new, but with these producer groups, keeping a star relevant for far longer has become as simple as writing a check. If you know me and my taste in music it will become clear that I like a number of producers, but in becoming crutches for the industry they have outgrown their welcome.

If 'We R Who We R' has proved anything to me, it's that Ke$ha needs to stop getting bailed out like an entity deemed 'too big to fail' by the government.

Getting Excited

I'm heading to the Minneapolis Asian Film Festival on Saturday for a showing of what looks to be an incredible piece of animation, Redline. Anyone else want to go? The ever great Andrew Carlson is accompanying me in the festivities.

Shut My Bad Chick Down (Mr. Chop + Ludacris & Nicki Minaj)

An Animation Round Up + A Few Thoughts

Alright so I spread the word about Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt about a month ago and after watching the first 4 episodes I feel like I am able to give a bit more insight about the show for the 0 people out there that are curious on the subject. P&S notably goes beyond just the aesthetic similarities by actually adopting many of the tropes often associated with american cartoons. For one, each episode is split into 2 distinct and separate stories, similar to Sponge Bob, Power Puff Girls, Dexter's Lab etc.. and in classic cartoon fashion has really bad puns for titles, I mean really bad (High School Nudical, Vomiting Point, Catfight Club - All which feature matching title cards).

One thing Panty and Stocking has going for it? Nineteen Thousand different animation styles.

Strictly from an animation perspective, P&S manages to go beyond my lofty expectations by creating pretty slick fight scenes and fluid hand drawn visuals (3D is becoming ever more prevalent throughout most japanese and american animation), but everything else is a complete and utter mess. The writing is crass without a purpose, and every episode seems to get lost as it stumbles through it's loosely defined narrative. Character development is non-existent to this point that calling them one dimensional seems generous (Panty - Likes Sex, Stocking - Likes Cake, Garterbelt - Has an afro and likes dudes) and makes Garfield seem like a Shakespearean character.

Sound design is alright, but the music is pretty hit or miss. Fight scenes are punctuated with driving electronica, but everything else has an odd sheen to it, lessening the impact of some of the well drawn visuals. The voice acting is serviceable, but it would have been much more bold to just go all the way and hire American voice actors for the parts - Sam Jackson will do anything... just sayin. It'll be interesting to see if P&S ever makes it to the states in a dubbed form and the changes that are made for an American audience. I'm not a huge fan of censorship, but I would have to think that certain aspects that will be altered for the localization may end up benefitting the product as a whole.

P&S showed a lot of promise, and still manages to shine in certain spots, but it has a ton of problems. All GAINEX shows have had issues, but P&S's may prove to be too glaring for most people.

On the other hand we have Sym-Bionic Titan, the latest show from Dexter's Lab/PowerPuff Girls/Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky. Anyone familiar with Samurai Jack or the Clone Wars shorts will recognize the animation style, with notable use of 3D modeling in the rendering of the title giant mecha robot dubbed Titan. Following the exploits of a Princess and her assigned bodyguard (as well as a robot companion for good measure) as they escape their besieged home planet to take refuge on Earth, Titan relies on a number of tried and true sci-fi devices in the telling of it's story, but still offers a significant amount of room to play around with (There has already been an episode featuring street racing).

If Titan has one strength it is it's expertly designed direction. Titan carries on Jack's tradition of superb story-boarding that makes every single second feel deliberate and planned. The voice acting is pretty top notch and notably features Brian Posehn as the Robot AI, and John DiMaggio as an ever present Army General.

In contrast to P&S, Titan shows that if you want to make an American cartoon styled like a Tartakovsky creation, look no further then Tartakovsky himself. Also the Wonder Twins homage is appreciated.


Alright enough about that, now for a few music picks since I haven't kept to my goal of a mixtape every month (I'm trying to do some mixing and picking the right stuff is taking a tad more time then I would have liked, but maybe that'll happen? Who Knows.
1. Maki Nomiya and Fernanda Takai: Maki-Takai No Jetlag
Great mini album from Pizzicato 5 singer Maki Nomiya and Brazillian Singer Fernanda Takai (Singer in the somewhat known Pato Fu). Not too much of a departure for either but an interesting and fun collab nonetheless.
2. Sam Prekop - Old Punch Card
A lot of elctronic noises that somehow manage to come together into something that shouldn't be good, but is.
3. Royksopp - Junior
Senior was a bit of a disappointment, but Junior? Still Good.
4. Robyn - Body Talk(s)
I can not wait to see her live, should be an insane show.
5. GO!GO!7188 - Go!!GO!GO!Go!!
GO!
I watched a preair of AMC's new Zombie Apocalypse drama 'The Walking Dead' and all I can say is that AMC continues to pick incredible projects.
Also here is me with a puppy to up the cute factor of this post:

Ask and ye shall receive /adv

Sorry I haven't updated, have this as consolation: