“Die Young” by Ke$ha

song info

    “Die Young” by Ke$ha (official video) is a pop dance song.

    
    U.S. Billboard Hot 100: #6 (six), down from last week #4 (four), down from previous week #3 (three), previous week #3 (three), down from previous week #2 (two) with a bullet, up from #3 (three), 13 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Pop: #5 (five), down from last week #2 (two), down from previous week #1 (one), previous week #1 (one), previous week #1 (one), up from #2 (two), 13 weeks on chart, peak #1 (one)
    Dance/Club Play: #14, down from last week #10 (ten), down from previous week #8 (eight), previous week #8 (eight), previous week #8 (eight), up from #11 (eleven), 11 weeks on chart, peak #8 (eight)
    Adult Pop: #25, down from last week #15, down from previous week #14, up from previous week #18, 12 weeks on chart, peak #14
    Radio Songs: #7 (seven), down from last week #5 (five), down from previous week #3 (three), up from previous week #4 (four), down from last week #3 (three), up from #5 (five), 13 weeks on chart, peak #3 (three)
    Digital Songs: #12 (twelve), down from last week #10 (ten), previous week #10 (ten), down from previous week #7 (seven), down from last week #4 (four), 13 weeks on chart, peak #3 (three)
    On-Demand Songs: #5 (five), last week #5 (five), down from previous week #2 (two), up from previous week #4 (four), 11 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
    Latin Airplay: #36, up from last week #37, down from previous week #32, up from previous week #39, down from last week #32, down from #31, 8 weeks on chart, peak #31
    Latin Pop: #24, up from last week #26, up from previous week #29, up from previous week #34, 9 weeks on chart, peak #20
    Japan: #32, up from last week #66, down from previous week #31, up from previous week #38, 11 weeks on chart, peak #31
    United Kingdom: #7 (seven) [22 Dec 2012], up from previous week #10 (ten) [debut - 15 Dec 2012], 2 weeks on chart, peak #7 (seven)
    Canadian Hot 100: #12 (twelve), down from last week #7 (seven), down from previous week #4 (four), previous week #4 (four), up from previous week #5 (five), up from #6 (six), 13 weeks on chart, peak #4 (four)
    YouTube: #19, up from last week #21, down from previous week #18, up from previous week #24, 6 weeks on chart, peak #14
    MySpace: #3 (three), down from last week #2 (two), previous week #2 (two), previous week #2 (two), 11 weeks on chart, peak #2 (two)
     Billboard information for the week of Jan 5, 2013
     Billboard chart listings courtesy of Billboard Magazine

    Billboard Magazine & Wikipedia falsely claim that Ke$ha’s music video for “Die Young” uses Satanic imagery. She actually uses magickal images.

link to the static song information page for this song:
http://www.thissideofsanity.com/music/songs/di/dieyoung.php

    Summary quotation from Wikipedia:

    “Die Young” is a song by American recording artist Ke$ha. It was released on September 25, 2012 as the lead single from her second studio album, Warrior. The electropop song was written by Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco, Cirkut, and fun. singer Nate Ruess. Two teaser trailers were posted prior to the single’s official release. A lyric video for the song was published to YouTube. Contemporary critics gave mixed reviews of the song; MTV, Seventeen, and Rolling Stone were disappointed with it, reflecting on its sameness with Kesha’s other songs, while others praised it. The production has been likened to work by The Cars, Flo Rida, Jessie J, and Katy Perry. “Die Young” charted in multiple countries, debuting at 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In its third week, “Die Young” broke into the top-ten, making it Kesha’s eighth top-ten hit since her debut on the chart in 2010 with “Tik Tok”. The song has also reached the top ten in Canada and Australia. The official music video for “Die Young” was also made available for download. In it, she plays the role of a cultist, leading her disciples in a sex ritual. Music magazine Billboard reported on the symbolism used in the video, documenting synergy with it and the Illuminati conspiracy theory.

Background and composition

    Produced primarily by Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco, Ke$ha worked with the lead singer of fun., Nate Ruess, to write “Die Young”. Co-producer Blanco called the song “old hippie rock.” The song was written in 2011, after Kesha traveled the world. Before working on her second studio album, she went on a spiritual journey. Recalling experiences of feeding baby lions and swimming with great white sharks, Kesha said, “I got hypnotized, and I just really wanted this record to be really positive, really raw, really vulnerable and about the magic of life.” She intends for the song to show her vulnerable side, saying, “I have a lot of growing and evolving to do. I’m definitely not a one-trick pony and I think people are starting to see that more and more.”

    About the song, she told Carson Daly on 97.1 AMP Radio:

    “It’s kind of an anthem. It’s a celebration song, which I’m obviously known for writing those, but this one, the concept of it was to live each and every single day like it’s your last and to always remain having a youthful spirit no matter how old I get…I can sing like a motherfucker! You’re going to hear that because I’m also doing this acoustic EP for my fans. Some of the old songs and the new songs.”

    Genre-wise, the song employs Ke$ha’s trademark electropop sounds. “Die Young” spreads acoustic guitar strums, in the progression of C#m/B/E/A, over an uptempo dance beat, while Kesha belts her half-rapped, half-sung vocals on the verses, where she says, “I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums.” Over throbbing percussion, she continues: “Oh what a shame that you came here with someone / So while you’re here in my arms / Let’s make the most of the night like we’re gonna die young.” “Die Young” features synth rifts in the New Wave style, reminiscent of The Cars and other music in the 1980s. Towards the end of the song, a choir of backing vocals chimes the chorus over a glam rock drum beat. The track leaked online one day before its official release. On November 14, 2012, the official remix for “Die Young” featuring Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa, & Becky G was released via Dr. Luke’s SoundCloud account.

Music videos

    A human eye within a triangle and lines radiating from its sides.
    The Eye of Providence (pictured) is a symbol typically associated with the Illuminati and appears numerous times throughout the video.

Background and release

    The video was directed by Darren Craig. To promote the single, two teaser trailers were released online. The first showed a waffle waitress holding a slip of paper inscribed with a capital “R”, thought to resemble the official logo of Rihanna. This led to speculation about the singer possibly making a guest feature on the record. The second video appeared online, after the singer tweeted, “Wanna hint?”. It displayed Ke$ha in the Tokyo Metro, singing the chorus of “Die Young” An official lyric video was posted to Kesha’s VEVO account the day of the single’s release. On 24 September 2012, celebrity makeup artist and blogger for People Scott Barnes wrote that he was working with Kesha on the music video for “Die Young”. On the video itself and the makeup artistry behind it, he said:

    “… I like to blow people’s expectations away, and that means creating something they’ve never seen before — so stay tuned to see what we come up with.”

    Photographs of Ke$ha on-set for the filming of the music video leaked online. Jenna Hally Rubenstein of MTV commented: “…Kesha [is] into wearing basically nothing these days…and it’s looking like that no-clothes theme has continued.” She compared the leaked photographs and the cover art for the single, further comparing it to Cher’s body rope, certain professional wrestlers, and Amazon princesses. Kesha announced that the video would be released the following day on 7 November.

Concept and synopsis

    Playing the role of a cult leader, Ke$ha and her fictitious disciples raid a hamlet in rural Mexico, engaging in various forms of sexual debauchery. According to Billboard, the video is a shout-out to the Illuminati. Occult symbols ubiquitously associated with the secret society such as the the all-seeing eye of Horus, inverted crosses, and triangles pervade the video. Calling the imagery “blatant”, Billboard reviewed the video as “tak[ing] the singer’s button-pushing ability to dizzying new heights.” Sending text messages to her “Animals” (an affection title bestowed on her fans) in the video, Kesha writes: “We made it… SOUTH OF THE BORDER… they’ll never find us here”. The scene was later removed due to product placement.

    Despite the overt amounts of sexual content and satanic imagery, the video receives a TV-PG rating from networks such as MTV and VH1 with no editing.

—from Wikipedia (the Wikipedia:Text of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License applies to Wikipedia’s block of text and possible accompanying picture, along with any alterations, transformations, and/or building upon Wikipedia’s original text that ThisSideofSanity.com applied to this block of text)

Proverb:

The only thing that is humiliating is helplessness. —Proverb of the Outer Temple of ancient Egypt