January 18, 2013
-
Thoughts on Tik Tok by Ke$ha
I love my Analyzing Contemporary Pop Culture class. I don’t think most people know why I’m so interested in pop culture. I grew up in the 90′s without having much of any access to learning about pop culture. For example, I was allowed to listen to nothing but classical music until I was almost out of elementary school. I would secretly listen to the radio at night… which ended up in my discovery of the show Loveline, of which I’m still a huge fan of today. Anyhow, I digress.
I was supposed to do a quick analysis of Tik Tok for class discussion tomorrow… this is what I came up with. Excuse the roughness, it’s made to be conversation/discussion fodder rather than a final draft.
“I found that there are many symbols significant to what i consider party culture in Kesha’s Tik Tok music video. However, instead of obliviously reveling in excess, Kesha’s music video shows itself to be a self-aware satire/parody of what can be considered to be house party culture. Jack Daniels, a dim house with colored flashing lights blaring music, the air filled with hands red Solo cups, these are all significant and undeniably recognizable parts of party culture in the United States. Having Kesha living out of bathtub(s?) is a playful jab at the way sometimes unfamiliar people can end up passed out in strange places at big house parties.
The lyrics and the video both poke fun at the widespread and generally accepted sexist and offensive objectification of females in hip hop culture (esp. music videos) by having Kesha reverse the roles, talking about how she has the interest of multiple men and only picks ones she finds visually appealing (By her standard, they have to “look like mick jagger”). She also parodies the rap music video trope of showing off her bling and fancy ride with a golden tricycle. I believe she is very aware of all of these things in her video, and is probably laughing all the way to the bank.”
I didn’t even know I saw all those things in that music video until I really watched it and thought about it. Way to cash in, Ke$ha.
-b.
