If you were a 33 year old artist, looking back upon a fifteen year musical career, how would you feel? Suppose those years included numerous awards and accolades. Also including over 70 million records sold in the US and almost 150 records sold worldwide. No worries? Guess again. What I have described is the career of singer/songwriter/actress Ke$ha. This week Weekly Music Commentary will discuss her career, life and problems that should provide food for thought for the aspiring young artist. Let’s start at the beginning.
Kesha Rose Sebert was born in Los Angeles, California on March 1, 1987. Her mother, Rosemary Patricia “Pebe” Sebert, is a singer-songwriter who co-wrote the 1978 single “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You” with Hugh Moffatt for Joe Sun, made popular by country music artist Dolly Parton on her 1980 album Dolly, Dolly, Dolly. Pebe, a single mother, struggled financially while supporting herself, Kesha, and Kesha’s older brother Lagan; they relied on welfare payments and food stamps to get by. When Kesha was an infant, Pebe would often have to look after her onstage while performing. Certainly the child was a show business baby, born and raised on the musical stage.
Pebe moved the family to Nashville, Tennessee in 1991 after securing a new publishing deal for her songwriting. Pebe frequently brought Kesha and her brothers along to recording studios and encouraged Kesha to sing when she noticed Kesha’s vocal talent. Kesha attended Franklin High School and Brentwood High School, but claimed that she did not fit in, explaining that her unconventional style did not endear her to other students. She played the trumpet and later the saxophone in the marching band in school, and described herself in an interview with NPR as being a diligent student. After attaining a near-perfect score on her SATs, she was accepted to Barnard College, an affiliate college of Columbia University, but instead chose to drop out after three months to pursue her music career.
Ke$ha’s story is very interesting at this point because her family is very supportive of her decision to pursue a musical career. Not just supportive though, I would call it very helpful. Many artists tell of their families discouraging them from a musical career or not being happy with their decisions. However, even those understanding parents sometimes are not in a position to provide true assistance.
In addition to taking songwriting classes, Kesha was also taught how to write songs by Pebe, and they would often write together when she returned home from high school. Kesha began recording demos, which Pebe would give to people she knew in the music business. Kesha was also in a band with Lagan. Kesha and Pebe co-wrote the song “Stephen” together when Kesha was 16. Kesha then tracked down David Gamson, a producer that she admired from Scritti Politti, who agreed to produce the song. She dropped out of school at 17, after being convinced by Max Martin to return to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, and earned her GED after. Around this time, Pebe answered an ad from the American reality TV series The Simple Life, looking for an “eccentric” family to host Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The episode featuring the Sebert family aired in 2005. Martin had received one of Kesha’s demos from Samantha Cox, senior director of writer/publisher relations at Broadcast Music Incorporated, and were impressed. Two of the demos were described in a cover story for Billboard, the first “a gorgeously sung, self-penned country ballad” and the second “a gobsmackingly awful trip-hop track” where Kesha raps ad lib for a minute when she runs out of lyrics near the end. It was the latter track that attracted attention.
As her career started to take shape, her cautionary tale began as well. In 2005, at 18, Kesha was signed to the label, Kemosabe Records, and the music publishing company, Prescription Songs. Kesha then signed with David Sonenberg’s management company, DAS Communications Inc., in 2006. DAS was tasked with obtaining a major label record deal for Kesha in a year’s time in exchange for 20 percent of her music income, with her having the option of ending the relationship if they failed. While furthering her career in studio, Kesha earned her living as a waitress. While struggling to get by, she began stylizing her name as ‘Ke$ha’, explaining the dollar sign as an ironic gesture.
Kesha spoke about those lean times where she was working, but not making much money at all. She eventually terminated her contract with DAS. Kesha then gained exposure in the mainstream media in early 2009 after appearing on rapper Flo Rida’s number-one single “Right Round”. The collaboration happened by accident; she had walked into a recording session for the song with Flo Rida. Flo Rida wanted a female voice for the song. Flo Rida liked the end result so much that he did one more track with Kesha. However, she is not credited for her feature on the United States release of “Right Round” and did not collect any money for the part.
I remember that song was a fairly big hit. I heard it all the time. In fact, Kesha said that she heard the song just about everywhere she went. However, she was never compensated for her work. This is the type of experience that breaks up and coming talent. Nevertheless, Kesha would persevere and take advantage of future opportunities.
After failing to negotiate with Lava Records and Atlantic Records in 2009, Kesha signed a multi-album deal with RCA Records. Having spent the previous six years working on material for her debut album, she began putting finishing touches to the album. For the album, she wrote approximately 200 songs. It was certified Platinum in the United States and had sold two million albums worldwide by September of that year. The album’s lead single, “Tik Tok”, broke the record in the United States for the highest sales week for a single, with 610,000 digital downloads sold in a single week, the highest ever by a female artist since digital download tracking began in 2003. It spent nine weeks at number one in the country and became the longest running number-one by a female artist on her debut single since Debby Boone and “You Light Up My Life” in 1977.
In May 2010, Kesha’s former managers from DAS Communications Inc. filed a lawsuit against her, seeking $14 million from her for commissions on her RCA Records deal, alleging that she had extended the deadline for them to get her a major record label contract and squeezed them out of her career. Kesha launched her own lawsuit in October, citing the California-exclusive Talent Agencies Act and asking the California Labor Commissioner to declare her contract with DAS void because it had acted as an unlicensed talent agent while procuring work for her in California, where only licensed agents can do so. The case was settled in 2012 before the release of her second album.
A friend in the music industry once told me that once you have a hit, everything changes. “Tik Tok” was a huge hit, and of course the lawsuit soon followed the success. This would not be her last court appearance.
In October 2014, Kesha sued producer Dr. Luke for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, gender violence, emotional abuse, and violation of California business practices which had occurred over 10 years working together. The lawsuit went on for about a year before Kesha sought a preliminary injunction to release her from Kemosabe Records. On February 19, 2016, New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled against this request. On April 6, 2016, Kornreich dismissed the case, saying that even if the allegations of sexual assault were accepted as true, the five-year statute of limitations had run out on the two most specific rape allegations, one occurring in 2005 and the other in 2008.
Through the lawsuits and assault allegations, Kesha continued to make music. She also continued to gain in popularity while finding her true voice musically. She released her fourth studio album to positive reviews. The A.V. Club‘s Annie Zaleski praised the album for its musical diversity and lyrical and emotional depth. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic particularly praised “My Own Dance”, calling it a “defiant rallying call that pivots upon her dismissing being pigeonholed by labels: ‘you’re the party girl/you’re the tragedy/but the funny thing/Im f*****g everything.'”
I think that it’s a safe bet Kesha delivers more very good albums in the future. She has been through a lot, and has lived to tell everyone who would listen, via interview or song.