Last night, this mysterious entity known as Ke$ha p€rform€d on American Idol, which is a popular thunderdome program about trilling. What is Ke$ha? She is the reverse of that high-pitched ringtone that adults can't hear—only people under 20 can't hear the horrible noises she makes.
Ke$ha (the dollar sign is silent) does not trill, but she is a musician of sorts. Based on the following video of her performance last night and nothing else, here's a short list of who (or what) Ke$ha's influences clearly are:
—The set design of a high-school production of Cats.
—A Casio keyboard set to "Rhumba" and boiling in a Fry Daddy
—LFO
—An LFO tribute band called LFAlsO
—A talking Jem doll undergoing a lobotomy inside a pinball machine
—N'SYNC's stirring, TV-heads rendition of "Bye Bye Bye" at the 2000 VMAs.
—The whine of a thousand mechanical mosquitos
—Dante
—Teddy Ruxpin drowning in a vat of NyQuil
—NyQuil in general
—Landfills
—The Indian from The Village People