At the end of last year, a new voice emerged to half-rap its way to the first #1 single of the new decade: that voice belonged to Ke$ha. Having first appeared on Flo-Rida's Dead or Alive-sampling "Right Round" last year, the 22-year old Ke$ha's rise has since been meteoric. Today, she will officially topple Susan Boyle, taking her debut album Animal to the top of the Billboard 200. But for all the fuss that's been made about the girl who brushes her teeth with a bottle of Jack, how well does Ke$ha hold up as the first post-Gaga pop sensation? Is her record Bacchanalian pop genius or overproduced floss? Can you safely ignore her, or is she here to stay? BlackBook Features Editor Willa Paskin and Blogger Rohin Guha, with an assist from Assistant Editor Foster Kamer, debate these heady questions.

Willa: So, to declare my bias, I love this record. When I listen to it on the subway, it makes me smile at strangers. Rohin: I think Ke$ha's trying too hard. Willa: I’m not sure that bothers me. What does bother me is the $ in her name. I’m not typing it. My big question: is Kesha a Lady Gaga disciple or just a Lady Gaga knockoff? Is Kesha bringing something new, or is she just cashing in? “Just Dance” is the lodestar of this record-- a really catchy pop song about getting too drunk and making out. Rohin: I think musically, she and Gaga are pretty much equals. They both make very unremarkable--for the most part--pop music. But the difference is that Kesha's whole "Look at me, I don't give a shit" song and dance doesn't translate into stage charisma. Whereas Gaga, from day one, has always compensated in her brilliant stage shows. Willa: Really? I thought “Just Dance” was by the Pussycat Dolls the first 100 times I heard it. Rohin: Ugh, I did too. I guess I only got into Gaga when I found out she was a piano wiz. And that was when “Paparazzi” was a big single. I just feel like Gaga’s in on the joke. Willa: Basically, you find Gaga authentic and Kesha not, which is both true and totally absurd. Rohin: Exactly, because they're both totally super-constructed creatures. But… Gaga's artifice is authentic. Willa: Please elaborate, keeping in mind I don’t want to have to read Sincerity and Authenticity again. Rohin: I'd buy this record if it were Lindsay Lohan. Willa: Woah. I would NOT buy this album if it were Lilo. Rohin: Well, LiLo is just such a mess that I want her to make a pop record about being a mess because the last thing any of us would expect from her is self-awareness. What's a carefully constructed image for Ke$ha is like autobiography for LiLo. Willa: But can you really hold a “carefully constructed” image against a pop singer? That’s what the game is. You get an image and try to make a record with some really catchy songs on. Kesha did that. Rohin: I'm not sold on that. My love for "Tik Tok" was like a really short relationship. I hated it. Then I fell in love with it. And now I can't stand to listen to it anymore. Willa: Overdose. Here’s what I like about Kesha, her album is hilarious. That’s the best thing about it. Like, the lyrics on “Dinosaur”-- “Not long til' your a senior citizen/ And you can strut around with that sexy tank of oxygen /Get up and go bro!/ Oh wait your fossilized HA!” Rohin: I do love "Dinosaur.” Willa: I also like how it’s a rebuke to the whole Cougar thing. Like, while we've been consumed by cougars, DINOSAURS, creepy old men hitting on girls their daughter's age, have continued to letch, as they have for all time. Rohin: It's always been dinosaurs. Willa: Why have we forgotten? Rohin: ADD. But the album is so lacking “Dinosaur”'s brilliant moments and instead has too much trash. I guess she's like Canned Peaches in a way. Instead of "Fuck the Pain Away" she's "Fudge the Pain Away." Willa: She doesn’t feel pain! She's drunk. That’s her charm. No self pity! Rohin: Alcoholism as a pop plot point. It gets tired after a while. This is where I think Ke$ha's big problem is the lack of aesthetics, really. She's going for this "sloppy drunk slut" look, but it just seems so calculated and contrived. From the carefully disheveled hair to the pantslessness. I need something else as a gimmick to buy her as a singer. Willa: Ok, let me try to defend her. Take the song “Stephen.” It sounds pretty terrible at first. Disposable, lovesick song. It’s as close as she comes to a ballad, and she can’t sing ballads. Rohin: It’s like a dance ballad with that Imogen Heap thing at the beginning. Willa: Right. But it’s actually a joke at, like, Hilary Duff's expense. It’s an entirely tongue in check take on a teeny-bop track about being in love. Rohin: Elaborate. Willa: Well, just for starters, the song is about how she’s in love with this guy Stephen, and Stephen is the least sexy name ever. It’s like Sheldon. Then the chorus, it’s all about how pathetic and lame the singer is: “Stephen /Why won't you call me? /I'm feeling pathetic /I can't take rejection/ Why won't you call me?/You might think I'm /Crazy/ Is that why you won't /Call me/ Don't you think I'm/ Pretty/ Do you not/ Love me/ Is that why you won't call me?” Willa: So it sounds like Jessica Simpson’s “With You,” but it’s really about a loser, semi-stalker. It sounds like teeny bop, but it’s a joke, about how pathetic girls who sing songs like that are. Really, it’s a joke about how pathetic songs like that are. I hope it’s a single! Rohin: Okay--I think I can see your point with that. Willa: At the end she says, “Stephen, I’ll knit you a sweater.” Ke$ha is not knitting anyone a sweater! Rohin: She's totally taking the piss out of pop princesses. I like that take of it. I think that kind of demonstrates what makes me not like the album so much: A lot of wasted potential. She has some really good moments. But it gets drowned out by her whiny nasalness. Willa: She is really nasal. Wait, Foster’s gonna jump in for a second, because I have to run into a meeting. He hates her too. Foster: Rohin? So I h8 Ke$ha, too. But I'm not sure why. I just know that retarded dance she does makes me feel retarded. Why do people like her? What's the appeal? She writes songs with her mom?

Rohin: The only reason I think people like her is because she uses video game sounds in her music. And sings about being a drunk girl with "loose morals." None of that is new. But maybe everyone's sick of Susan Boyle. So obviously, they're going to defect to the thing that's least like Susan Boyle. Foster: I mean, Susan Boyle has loose morals, too. Rohin: OMG. You would know, wouldn't you? Foster: … Rohin: But Susan Boyle only wears a muumuu. Foster: It's like, okay, you're embracing sluthood. Great. But give me something more than just sluthood. Like, sing about having the clap. Rohin: Like if you're going to do the "slut thing," go all the way. The whole Ke$ha project is so cynical. And that's just so depressing. Even Gaga takes her cynical view of pop and makes it quite fun. She wears frilly hats and weird things that cover her face. Foster: I think Lady Dingdong is self aware. Rohin: Oh totally. Foster: Which Ke$ha isn't. Rohin: I think Ke$ha wants us to think she is. Ke$ha makes me feel very old. Maybe that's why I resent her. Foster: Well, she just makes me feel retarded. Which is why I choose to ignore her. Because there's enough in the world that makes me feel retarded. Willa: I'm back to interrupt the hate fest. I feel bad leaving Kesha alone in a room with the two of you, retarded or otherwise. Rohin: Don’t. So about the title track, “Animal”---does it sound a little Arcade Fire to you too? Willa: A very little “Wake Up,” but without being threatening or interesting, but mostly J-Lo’s “Waiting for Tonight.” This song sucks. Rohin: Lord, this song is so EMO.I want to see where she ends up with album number two. The same way I want to see where Gaga ends up on her next album. Willa: Certainly. But Gaga is much further advanced and has a brain and maybe Kesha doesn’t. But she has a sense of humor. Rohin: Her sense of humor is great...but gets lost in the bloated production. The one thing I do like about Ke$ha is that she's part of this huge revival in pop where pop's finally fun again. Most of that credit goes to Gaga. Willa; You don’t mean the music, you mean the spectacle. Rohin: yes. Like, that grandeur. Willa: The silliness. Rohin: YES. precisely. Willa: I think the record is fun. There are easily four singles on it. But she may not have it. Also, bad rapping in concert is... bad. Rohin: I'm afraid of what this means for the rest of this year. If Ke$ha is a dumbed down Gaga, that means we're going to see a rolling out of vaguely-disguised dumbed down Ke$has. Willa: That’s just double watered down Gaga. Could be worse. Rohin: Could be better.