Ke$ha channels a number of pop divas in her music video for “Die Young,” but none so closely as “Slave 4 U”-era Britney Spears. Sex and death have always been bedfellows, but the arcing, aching, sumptuous, dirty eventualities of a video like this seem to be nodding at that youthful peak era, where something so ridiculously indulgent and over-the-top proved to be the norm and nasty.
However, the chasm between the fun-bop of the song and the So Serious nature of the debauched clip that can’t quite bridge. Ke$ha’s mug flashes in tasteful black-and-white, then in early-’90s neon and in the leathery sepia tones of her semi-religious desert sex compound (a girl can dream); she’s carried in as a idolatrous prop (a la Gaga), contorting in tribal furs (Shakira), introducing anarchy to a place of religious worship (Madonna) in a sea of triagles (Geometry 101). All together, this video and the Ke$ha brand hasn’t a clue what it is, beyond blipping animal rule into a big pile of gropers till the world ends…
…Which, were that the only thing contained in “Die Young,” would be pretty funny. That would fit the single, that successfully rhymes “taking shots” with “dirty socks.”
The dance-pop tune leads Ke$ha’s next album, “Warrior,” due Dec. 4. She’ll likely be performing “Die Young” at the American Music Awards on Nov. 18, sharing the stage with Justin Bieber, Pink, Taylor Swift and others.