Ke$ha just wants to have fun.

A recent addition to the pop music scene, Ke$ha has undergone criticism ranging from her alleged advocation of underage drinking to her also alleged "ripping off" of Lady Gaga's image and musical style. I can't say I like her music. I mean it's fun to make fun of, but that's really all. I can say that anyone who takes her lyrics seriously probably doesn't know how to have a good time.

The criticisms dealing with her advocation of underage drinking stem from one like of lyrics from her single "Tik Tok": "Before I leave, [I] my teeth with a bottle of Jack." She's since said that people have asked her if she actually partakes in this disgusting evening ritual, to which she says she replies sarcastically something to the tune of, "Oh, of course, doesn't everybody?" The lyric is clearly representative of, perhaps even a criticism itself of, the modern young person's tendency to "clean up" their lives by ignoring their issues and just having fun.

As far as I'm concerned, Ke$ha deserves as much artistic respect as does any other musician who writes his or her own music. (That's really where I draw the line; if a professional musician doesn't write his or her own music I wouldn't really give them the title "artist." So people like Kelly Clarkson and NSYNC don't make the cut.) Her music is laced with lyrics ripe enough to analyze.

Her lyrics are strongly feminist, maybe even misandrist. She portrays men as objects for her own pleasure in response to decades of pop music degrading women and respecting them in direct proportion to their beauty or chest and butt sizes. "The dudes are lining up, 'cause they hear we got swagger, but we kick 'em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger."

Some other controversy surrounding Ke$ha:

• She's criticized artists for lip-syncing at concerts. She said she'd rather be winded and genuine that on-key and artificial.


• A recording of her singing the lyrics "In ten years, Britney Spears... Britney who?" recently leaked and sparked some heat between the two pop divas. Ke$ha has since clarified that she was fifteen years old at the time of that recording and did not write the piece she was singing. She stated that she has "mad respect" for Spears.


• She called 16-year-old heartthrob Justin Bieber a "little baby" and said something about wanting to push him around in a stroller on stage? Whatever, I don't really care if he gets mad about that. I'm pretty much agreed with her on that one.