We all know that celebrities face many
lawsuits all the time, but some situations are more serious then the public
actually understands. A few days ago it
was announced that singer/performer Kesha is trying to get out of her contract
with producer Dr. Luke because of alleged allegations of rape and abuse. People
in the music industry are under a lot of pressure because they are held to the
highest expectations possible. On the other hand, you’re only hearing one side
of this story about Dr. Luke. You’re not hearing the other side of the story as
to whether Kesha did anything to cause any problems in the first place. So the
two sides went to court and Kesha was claiming that she was drugged and abused
physically and mentally. Of course Dr. Luke is denying all claims (shocker).
When you’re in a fight that involves personal issues and a lot of money these
battles can get really ugly and can take a lot of evidence to prove what the actual
truth is.
Kesha is fighting to be released from
her contract with Dr. Luke so she no longer has to put up with the alleged
abuse. I don’t see why this is an issue…
if you are having personal problems then you should just both get out of the
contract. Why would you want to work with somebody who treats you horribly
physically and mentally? It would be really hard to work under those
conditions. On the other hand, sometimes contracts are written so you can’t
break the contract and if you try to it makes your situation much worse. In the
end the judge ruled against Kesha and wouldn’t break the contract. Kesha who has been fighting this issue for a
while spoke out in August about her issues saying, “Dr. Luke
has been tyrannical and abusive since our relationship began.” Kesha explained
in the affidavit about going to a party with the producer when she was 18 and
being given what he called a “sober pill.” “I had only had a few drinks but
after I had taken this ‘sober pill’ I blacked out,” she said. “Then came Dr.
Luke’s threats. I specifically remember him telling me that if I ever tried to
get away from him for any reason that he would tie me up in litigation until my
career was over.” No one should be treated this way regardless of how famous they
are or not. Kesha ended up developing severe problems including suicidal
thoughts and a major eating disorder. These are serious allegations and it is
going to have to be looked at very seriously.
There
are always two sides to every case. Of course you’re going to have Dr. Luke
defending his side now saying he didn’t do any of the alleged things that Kesha
is accusing him of doing. We don’t know what to believe at this point in the
case, but in December he made a strong statement saying, "All of the horrific
allegations of abuse, threats and other purported misconduct by me against
Kesha are completely untrue and deeply hurtful”. Also, his lawyers said, “he
wants his name restored”. This is what you typically hear in a high profile
case where the person accused comes out and takes a stand and wants their name
cleared.
Being in the music industry can be both a
positive and negative experience. It can be great from the standpoint that you
get all the positive media attention (your music becomes popular, your songs
climb to the top of the charts, you sell lots of CD’s and you tour all over the
world). The bad part is that your life becomes an open book to the public and the
media can give you a bad reputation (if something happens and you get into a
legal battle, your career and your life will become public to everybody). Dr. Luke is now fighting back (with his lawyers
from Sony Music) because with Kesha not recording, she is violating her
agreement with the company. I know that business is business and everything
doesn’t stop just for you, but when issues come up you need to fix them as
quickly as possible so things can go back to “normal”.
There is one famous
celebrity who is coming to Kesha’s aid and that is Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift
agreed to donate $250,000 to help Kesha with her legal fees. I think that this
is really nice of Swift to help out a fellow artist get through tough times.
Apparently Demi Lovato had a problem with Taylor Swift by throwing nasty
comments at her but they might have been misunderstood. So I guess the “Swifties”
got to Demi about her comments and she clarified she was trying to raise
awareness for women’s rights. Demi said, “As most people know,
I tend to get fired up about the things I believe in, and although my heart and
intentions are always in the right place, unfortunately sometimes my passion
gets the best of me and causes me to say things that I probably shouldn't say.
And when doing so it takes away from the real reason I am speaking up in the
first place. Our focus should be on the topic of victims of sexual and physical
abuse being afraid to come forward with their stories. They're more likely to
face retaliation and harassment than to see justice being served. Especially
women. It baffles me that when it comes to serious issues like equality and
abuse, too often women are not taken as seriously as men. All I want to see is
women coming together and actually making a difference. A real change and shift
in society. Everyone has their own way of giving support to others, and at the
end of the day, helping victims is all that matters. Ultimately, the message I
want people to hear is it's okay to come forward with your abuse and if you do
decide to take action, you are not alone." I think Demi is coming from a
positive place and I think she meant well but sometimes, “you can’t judge a
book by its cover”. Haven’t we heard that cliché over and over again? In the
long run, Taylor and Demi are there to support Kesha and there are so many
others that are stepping up to help. That is great to see the positive part of
the music industry (being there for each other), trying to help her get her
back to where she should be.
When something bad
happens just pick yourself back up and work harder to accomplish what you want
to do. Kesha, you need to keep making music, or else people are going to forget who you
are. The last time you made an album was 2012… 4 years ago… this seems like an
eternity in the music industry. According to lawyers for Dr. Luke and
Sony they said, “she doesn’t have to work with him personally, though he has
the rights to produce at least six songs on each of her albums and could pursue
damages if he doesn’t.” We are all rooting for you Kesha (to get back to
normal and produce music again), you deserve to be happy.
I
give credit to EW.com’s Eric Renner Brown, Jennifer Peltz from the Associated
Press and popsugar.com’s Caitlin Hacker for talking about the issues in this
story. They really showed you that even high profiled people in the music
industry can face serious issues and they have to fight hard to get back their
reputation and stay strong.
Here are the links to the three stories if you want
even more analysis from their full points of view:
Check
out my podcast, “Behind The Mic With Nick Morgasen” on I-Tunes and Youtube.
There are some great interviews with: Adam Carolla, Jack Hanna, Cesar Millan,
Jackie Mason, Neil Sedaka, Peter Noone and many more…
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