I demand a critical reappraisal of Kesha’s brilliant, brilliant music – Salon

Kesha is one of the great musical artists of our era.

Not only has her music inspired me for years, observed from a certain perspective it can be compared favorably to the works ofMozart and Michael Jackson.

Although Keshas reputation among music snobs hasnever been particularly high, its not like her initial work was overwhelminglypanned by critics.On Metacritic,Animal has decisively mixed reviews with a 54 rating while Warrior ranks only slightly better with generally favorable results and a 71 rating. Still, this is insufficient compared to what she offers.

A wanderer passing through those aggregators would walk away with the impression that she was mediocre, like most of the pop stars who briefly light up the musical firmament before evaporating from memory.

Animal teems with choruses that stick with the listener for days, from the blissful Your Love Is My Drug to the catty Backstabber. Equally prevalent, however, are heavily processed vocals, which make it hard to tell whether the California cutie can actually sing, wrote Billboard about Animal.

Too many cooks in the kitchen notwithstanding, it amounts to 12 songs here with some 40 perfectly crafted hooks, wrote the Boston Globe aboutWarrior.

Allfail to give a great artist her due.

Of course, Keshas recent single Prayingoff of her forthcoming Rainbowreceived critical acclaim, and rightly so. Its a beautiful and haunting ballad about depression and personal resilience, one that is inextricably linked to her struggle against a powerful music producerwho she accused of rape and was forced to work with anyway by both Sonyand the court system(the judge described locking her into the contract as the commercially reasonable thing to do).

Yet, while Praying is likely to be remembered as the moment when Ke$ha became Kesha that is, when heroverproduced image of a party girl transformed into that of asoulful artist this does a terrible injustice to her pre-Prayingoeuvre. I can attest first-hand that her early work does indeed provide an inspiring background soundtrack to my own artistic efforts as a writer.

Im not sure which musicians other writers like to use as a score their creative process, but Im pretty sure most will not proclaim (at least openly) that the individual is Kesha. Acknowledging this here is likely to earn me open scorn by some, derisive snorts from others. Yet they are wrong, critically and objectively.

AsI explained to my longtime friend Sean Davis a PhD student in Music Studiesat Temple UniversitysBoyer College of Music and Dance, where he has also taughtMusic Theory Keshas music is very energetic and has a certain ironic cheekiness to it in terms of its vulgarity and hedonism. Naturally its lively feeland clever wordplay makes for mental fuel when in the thick of my own creative endeavors. That alone could justifymy appreciation for the artist Kesha, bornKesha Rose Sebert. I could let the matter rest there.

But I wont.

There aredeeper ways inwhich toabsorb her brilliance,one also summed up by an aspect of my conversation with Davis. In discussing the remarkable biographical similarities between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Michael Jackson, both of whom were child music prodigies who suffered from serious emotional issues as adults due to the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of the entertainment industry (and their parents) as young people, Keshas name arose.

While Kesha is perhaps not a musical prodigy like those individuals (Im going to omit the controversy over her IQ scores), she undeniably became very successful at a young age and (if you believe her accusations against Dr. Luke, which I do) was heinously exploited by the music industry. Although onecouldnt have known the latter when first hearing the scintillating Tik Tok or Die Young upon release, one must admit that there is a certain canny self-aware effortlessness to her performances that comes across. In balance, it is starkly reminiscent ofboth Jackson and Mozart.

Its hard to explain how to distinguish between artistswho seem to sweat and groan and labor mightily to produce their work and those for whom it comes with a gracefuljoie de vivre. You cant dissect it, but you know it when you see it.

When listening to Keshas earlier work, just as when one listens to Prayer, the palpable sensethat her musical performancesare both fun and natural is simply unavoidable so much so that the transcendent ease of her artistrybecomesinfectious, invigorating, galvanizing. While some might toil away in their studios to The Goldberg Variations, those with true ears and open minds find better inspiration in Kesha. Certainly, it is the case for me in my own work.

Yes, its easy to notethat, for many, Kesha representsa guilty pleasure. This is reductive. A true intellect will find that there is nothing to feel guilty about. Shame me all you want for loving Kesha. I have none.

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I demand a critical reappraisal of Kesha's brilliant, brilliant music - Salon