I’m not saying it’s not horrible, but I don’t think the gender aspects of it have anything to do with the decision. Male musicians have been abused and locked into contracts, also. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them were subject to sexual coercion as well.
Yeah, a contract per se could be enforceable even if the circumstances are appalling.
Initially I wondered if Kesha couldn’t just pull a Neil Young on Sony and just put forward 6 albums of symphonic punk klezmer Tibetan chant. But he way things seem to be turning out however suggests that she has big fat zero clout to try even that, that if she did then Sony could just sue her and still prevent her from working anywhere else.
As it is her career is screwed no matter what. Let her be a horrible cautionary tale to tell up and coming performers.
Awful for Kesha if her allegations are true. I disagree with the Jezebel article about how the system failed considering that the allegations have yet to be proven. It would seem to me that that the actual signed contract holds more weight than unproven allegations of whatever nature.
This just goes to show that you can’t fight the big guy. 
I don’t plan on buying any more music until Kesha is free again. If this means that I never buy another album, download another song, or attend another concert, then so be it. I sure as hell will not support an industry that allows this to happen.
That is just adorable.
Sounds like a great rationalization to illegally download music, though. “I didn’t want to download these albums but, you know, Free Kesha!”
That article was pretty cringe-worthy, it was just a bunch of feminism talking points inserted where they frankly don’t apply.
Ponch8, I can picture how one would expect in this day and age that an allegation like the one involved here would provoke Sony Records to consider whether the avoidance of adverse public opinion was worth more than whatever additional Kesha sales may come from 6 phoned-in contractually obligated albums and would it be easier to just cut her loose with the proverbial “you’ll never work in this town again”.
But this particular situation, you may have noticed, had so far not evolved into a major public opinion scandal after 16 months. The segment of the public out there that iis aware of it and stands with you in considering him an abuser with whom nobody should want anything to do, is not affecting sales. We’ll see if the aftermath of this decision changes that but I would not hold my breath.
(That recording indistry entertainer contracts are stupidly one-sided unless you are an already-established Global Mega Star, is common knowledge and doesn’t seem to itself scandalize more people now than it did 50 years ago.)
Now Dr. Luke’s lawyers are saying Kesha is doing a smear campaign against him:
And actually, Kesha has not tweeted anything since the ruling, she’s wrote one tweet thanking fans for support. There are a lot of people attacking Dr. Luke and Sony, but that’s because pretty much everyone is disgusted with them, not because of some nefarious behavior Kesha is engaging in.
Also, it’s pretty gross that they say she is “free to record with Luke or any other Sony producer”. It’s either the biggest case of missing the point, or a case of rubbing it in to Kesha.
I think it was just a bad way to put “you don’t have to work with Dr Luke to fulfill your contract”.
Can she not just change her performing name and record on her own? Isn’t that what Prince did?
I know that restarting her career from scratch is shitty, but they can’t seriously enforce a contract that says she can’t perform or create music ever again unless it’s for this particular clown. Right?
Is she really prohibited from playing in bars and clubs around the country, self-publishing and producing her own stuff, and building a whole new brand without Sony, assuming she uses a different name?
I’ve heard of “360” contracts, but this just seems unreasonably extreme, and I’m not sure how it is enforceable.
From what I understand, she could work with a different producer, but only in the section of Sony that is headed by Dr. Luke. Like a label within a label type thing. So even if she didn’t have to see his face everyday while she’s working on an album, he’d still be in charge of her music and career. I can see why she’d be upset by that.
I read in comments on some page about this that she has been doing some small shows with a band she’s made, and so her name isn’t on the advertisements or anything.
I know relatively little about the legal matters, but I think she could break her contract and go to another label and release an album with the new label. But then Sony could sue her and maybe sue the new label. And I’m not sure if any new label would be willing to pick her up knowing that Sony would likely sue. So it wouldn’t be impossible for her to move forward for her career but it would be extremely difficult.
I’ve seen Here Come The Mummies a few times.
If she went that route, yet it was an open-secret that it was her under the bandages, maybe even doing recognizable vocals, but using the name Cleopatra Mummy, what would happen in court?
No, Prince did his own-style (of course) version of a Modified Neil Young and changed his name to the glyph while still having a long way to go on his Warner contract, then when it became clear that they would not let him go quietly he began to crank out his remaining contractually-obligated albums rapid-fire and idiosyncratically (including the shelving-release-recall of the “Black Album”), performing with “slave” written on his face and and otherwise doing all in his power to say to the Suits at Warner, “oh so I have to do XYZ more work for you yet? fine, here it is, suck on it, I hope you’re satisfied”.
But the difference is, that was Prince. HE was the songwriter, arranger, producer; the records and videos were sold by Warner but created at Paisley Park, he owned the IP rights for the actual music. He was also a well-established writer or producer of chart hits for other stars (Nothing Compares 2 U, Manic Monday, Sugar Walls, Stand Back, I Feel For You, etc.) and mentor for upcoming performers. He could afford to act up and make the Suits squirm, because where else were they going to find another Prince?
ISTM that the problem from the perspective of the producers is that the performers and the public don’t see the big picture.
The big picture is that the odds of any unknown performer making it big is very small, no matter how much talent they actually have. There’s no way to predict this. So a producer who takes a chance on promoting an unknown is likely to lose whatever they’ve invested in that performer. The only way it works is if the producer gets to make an outsize return on the few who do make it. On average, if they’re good, they can do well. If not - or if they just have bad luck - they can lose a lot.
The problem is that if you then look at it solely from the perspective of that one performer, it looks like the producer is getting the better of the deal and getting exhorbitant returns. And it’s natural for the performer to look at it from the perspective of themselves, and the public too will tend to focus on the one celebrity, whose ascendancy and stardom seem natural and inevitable in retrospect, and not see the bigger picture.
This is not unique to producers and celebrity promoters, but is a feature of venture capitalism generally.
Let’s just put it on the table that he’s a verbally abusive, manipulative, controlling asshole… just like a lot of other successful producers. He was mean and nasty to her and her contract is not looking as good as it did when she was an unknown. All granted and all still par for the rocky road to music stardom. He is not a nice man.
The difference here is that she is saying he raped her.
The elephant in the room here is that she testified under oath 10 years ago that none of this kind of stuff happened. Then later in rehab she said that testimony was a lie and it did happen. At what point do you decide this is for real or this is a manufactured put up job to punch your way out of a contract? You can’t keep going back to the well if you’ve put a lid on it.
He may be an asshole but is he raping asshole? I think we need to let the court case play out before pinning him to the wall. Her attorney claims tons of evidence but nothing specific or concrete evidence-wise has been detailed so far re what’s been reported.
It is heartening to see so many major stars (mostly female) speaking up in support of Kesha. The list includes Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Lena Dunham, Kelly Clarkson, and now Adele. These performers are not exactly lightweights, yet they are willing to put their own reputations on the line to support her. It makes me think Kesha’s situation isn’t quite as hopeless as I thought last Friday. Taylor Swift even donated a bunch of money to help Kesha cover her lawyer fees.
I would say the exact opposite. The fact that so many major stars (mostly female) are willing to publically take a stand on something they know absolutely nothing about, solely because it’s someone of the same gender as themselves making an accusation they identify with, is a huge negative aspect of the current mindset about sex abuse accusations.
I read in one of the stories that he had pressured her about lying under oath and saying he’d never done anything. If he was abusing her and in control of her career then, it’s not implausible that he could pressure or threaten her into lying under oath, and then only later she’s able to admit what really happened.
Dr. Luke is a huge music producer, many of the pop stars who have spoken out have worked with him. Here’s an article summing up what some pop stars who have worked with him have said. Several have spoken out in support of Kesha, some have declined to comment, but I haven’t heard any of his collaborators speaking out in support of him, which is not a good point to him. This isn’t Kesha accusing her old music teacher from high school of sexual abuse, and everyone is taking her side against some unknown guy. This is a producer that many people have worked with, or met with, or at least know of. Taylor Swift donated $250,000 to Kesha to help with her legal defense, and while that is still not a huge amount to her, it’d be a big amount of money to just throw around if you thought the allegations were baseless.
You do realize that most of them have worked extensively with Dr. Luke, yes?
You could say they know exactly what they are talking about.