Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Leave a good-looking corpse

Looks like Ke$ha, or at least the director of the video for "Die Young", has taken the bull by the horns and placed a whammy on the "pop-occulture", "Illuminati-in-pop-music" crowd by making a video so over the top it borders on parody. Yet it will still guarantee to offend.  In one scene she and her dancers burst into a what appears to me to be a church and start smashing things up, standing on the dais in front of a pentacle, engaging in sexual debauchery etc.  Triangles fade in, a flashing inverted cross appears as it fades out; Ke$ha herself flashes a ring with an eye in it.  She looks through her fingers splayed in a "V", making an eye in a triangle.  A skull and bones flashes in and out.  Etc.  **Video at the tend of this post**

Actually, this Illuminati-in-the-music business is an old (and obvious) meme and it's obvious why the media would be an obvious player in any well-constructed conspiracy theory.  Especially one involving indoctrinating the masses.  I've long read such theories regarding the music industry, media in general, really.  One actually good but disingenuous writer I refuse to link to is obsessed with the Illuminati symbolism in Lady Gaga videos.  Another (not so good a writer) sees the all-seeing eye in improbable hand configurations, including looking through the "ok" sign.  Hate to learn what he thinks of "got yer nose".  Hip-Hop is suspect (maybe for all the gesticulation) especially Jay-Z and Kanye West.  This other guy seems to have a lot of answers:

The general opinion regarding musicians and their “induction” into the Illuminati is tragically incorrect. These artists themselves aren’t actually IN the Illuminati, they are merely pawns FOR them. The deal is that they sign over particular creative rights in exchange for the publicity and access required to become a sensational star. They sign up with the Illuminati to become famous quickly, because Illuminati members have infiltrated and remain a ubiquitous force in the entertainment industry.

The author seems to think this is all a by-product of Saturn worship.  In his explanation he also manages to implicate the north and south poles, as well as the cube, in this infiltration of Saturn-worshipping Illuminists into all the higher echelons of society.  It reads as though he's grabbed a few half-digested internet conspiracy memes and sort of (barely) lashed them together in a tour de force of syllogism and unsupported statement.  Which is sadly effective, judging from the sheer number of similar websites. 

Personally, I think this video is taking a poke at these theories, all the while going for the easy and obvious provocation.  The dollar sign in Ke$ha's name seems especially apt in this context.  People are still going to take the bait, though.  It's very blatancy will be taken as an even more arrogant ratcheting up of that nebulous "revelation of the method."  She's certainly made the symbology crowd of Illuminati-watchers' work easy for 'em.  Just take the Saturn-worship guy, whose blog, erm, "Illuminati Watcher" makes that very point.    Ke$ha's going to town with the Illuminati thing; the photo stills from a performance of the song on Australia's X Factor are pretty eye-popping:  Weishaupt at Las Vegas.  More like backdrops to a Muppet Show number than ritual props in an alchymical mind-fuck.

She may even take Lady Gaga's place as Illuminati Marionette N° 1 at this rate.

Anyway, echoing Beyoncé's police state chic, this video of Ke$ha and her band of dancing Illuminists, who adore Ke$ha as if she were a saint, are all gunned down in the end by the police.  Shades of Waco.  As all those Davidians might have figgered out between the time the real police machinery launched a gas canister at their home and the fiery death that canister would lead to, we all "die young."

So here's the video.

11 comments:

  1. General consensus seems to be that teens/YAs are crazy because they feel immortal.

    I suspect, however, that teens/YAs are crazy because they feel spectacularly *mortal*. They taste death keenly and expect to die young. So why not go crazy?

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  2. Weird how that fits in with the recent spate of shootings, murder-suicides by young people....

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  3. Good points made.

    After watching the video (and your post was the first time I'd ever seen it, although I've heard the song as background music plenty of times) I'm struck by how overtly religious it is. Nevermind that the religion depicted is not one of the major 3, but we're talking about a song that's currently #3 on the Top 100, and which also ranked #1 on the pop charts. Had the video included the same degree of imagery relating to Christianity, Islam or Judaism, that would have been news covered by major media outlets. A major artist like Kesha going Church, Mosque or Temple would have been a big deal. But this one isn't discussed at all, at least not to my knowledge - except on fringe internet sites. Sociologically speaking, that's interesting to me.

    It wasn't that long ago that MTV wouldn't even play Danzig's "Mother" video except on Saturday nights at 1AM. Remember that one had ol' Glen standing in the middle of an inverted pentagram prior to a chicken sacrifice at the very end. The profile of this imagery has certainly come a long way in that time.

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  4. Yes, I'm kind of surprised there isn't more controversy. The way she's veiled and carried around like a saint's icon could be interpreted as a mockery of religion. I guess since it's not overtly catholic, it passes. Remeber madonna's "Like a Prayer" video? A black saint comes to life and she makes out with him. Quite the controversy; And recently she was "crucified" on stage, yet again drawing fire for blasphemy. Kesha is playing with this a bit, but only so far. I think she's just poking fun at the websites who posit conspiracy theories, to generate buzz and get a lot of people watching her video.

    As for the pentagram, etc., I totally agree with you. These "transgressive" images are completely absorbed by the mainstream. I remember when the skull and crossbones was a metal or punk thing, but a few years ago it was all the rage as a chic fashion motif. My 9-year-old son has some shorts with skulls all over them. Pretty much neutred and banal at this point as a symbol of menace or rebellion.

    Maybe in another decade or so they'll be using the swastika. Marilyn Manson has used full-on fascist imagery, perhaps taking a cue from Boyd Rice. Maybe next we'll see J. Lo in an SS uniform.

    Why do you think Kesha chose this theme?

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    Replies
    1. "Why do you think Kesha chose this theme?"

      Imperial (monarch) conditioning, bro.

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  5. Perhaps not much controversy as videos don't push music as heavily as they used to - as in the Madonna case. MTV barely shows them anymore and I'm guessing most fans watch them online. Maybe due to the lag in viewership, more freedom is taken with themes. Certainly provocation will inspire more views, even if they are just "hatin'".

    As for why Kesha chose this particular theme, I'd say just another adventure in projections of power. She and her corporate team (her producers are no strangers to accusations of plagiarism) probably collaborate on these projects, so who has the loudest voice? Is it Kesha, or someone else? Regardless, the products are always very Nietzsche-inspired.

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  6. "Regardless, the products are always very Nietzsche-inspired."

    Seems like David Bowie was one of the first to explore the link between fascism and the rock star....the blind emotion, getting lost in mass hysteria, the cult of personality, etc. What you term "projections of power" (great phrase) seems to be what it's all about these dies. Not ironic at all, just glorying in the "demigod" status of the rich and powerful. Rap seems especially prone to this, where it's all about power: over women, money ("making it rain") etc. Gangsta rap is (was?) a thoroughly Nietzschean worldwiew of will to power.

    I'm not articulating this very well, but it seems pop music once ironically or "intellectually" explored their own power, whereas today it's more like glorifying it without qualms.

    "Certainly provocation will inspire more views, even if they are just "hatin'"."

    Yet if you type "Kesha Illuminati" into Google, people have really taken the bait....

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  7. Kesha and crew are probably checking the analytics on those types of searches right now.

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    Replies
    1. I would be doing that too. It's more about marketing than music anyway.

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    2. What are they marketing, exactly?

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