#FreeKesha
Topic:
- Recently, the twitter hashtag #FreeKesha has gone viral after the public learned that famous, pop singer, Kesha is trapped in a recording contract with Sony. Last week, the judge denied Kesha’s release from the recording company, even though Kesha wants to end her contract with Sony Music Entertainment because she claims her producers have sexually abused her for years.
- For this project, I would like to investigate her trial, how society is reacting to her decisions, why artists have a hard time withdrawing from a contract, and when Kesha will be allowed to record new music or if she can even record in the future.
Purpose:
- To learn more about the recording industry and the unethical side of these recording companies. Also to get the public aware of the idea of “the fine print” of these contracts and how it can harm the artist and/or company.
Research strategies:
- Learn more about how Kesha’s fans and popular celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Kelly Clarkson have voiced their support on social media sites.
- Learn more about why the judge declined Kesha’s freedom from Sony Music Entertainment.
- Learn more about the next steps in Kesha’s trial.
- Learn more about the affects of Kesha’s trial and how it can impact the music industry and future recording deals.
Multimodal texts:
- https://www.instagram.com/p/BCGSTu6H9Hb/?taken-by=mtv
- MTV showed their support of Kesha by posting a photo of the artist with the caption “We stand with kesha” and using the hashtag #FreeKesha.
- Modes- This multimodal text uses the linguistic and visual modes by showing a black and white photo of Kesha with a few parts of the photo in color, including her signature eye makeup look and the phrase “free Kesha.” By only including a few words on the photo, it really allows the headshot of Kesha and the hashtag to be the main focus of the photo.
- Design- This multimodal text uses specific design choices, including contrast, which is the difference between elements so one element can stand out from another, and proximity which is how close elements are placed to each other.
- http://www.lennyletter.com/politics/a275/why-keshas-case-is-about-more-than-kesha/
- Celebrity, Lena Dunham, used her blog to write an article about her response to the Kesha trial. Her well-written article showed her fans that Lena supports Kesha and is advocating for a positive change in the recording industry.
- Modes- This multimodal text uses the linguistic, visual, and spatial modes. Lena’s layout of her blog post reads and is laid out like a newspaper article, relying heavy on words, little color, and only a few photos. Her word choice and delivery of her written text emphasizes her support for Kesha.
- Design- This multimodal text uses specific design choices, including emphasis, organization and alignment. The written words are arranged and aligned in a certain way for the readers’ eyes to move in a certain direction so they can follow along with the story and be able to click on any additional links to find out more information.
- http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/entertainment/dr-luke-twitter-kesha/
- Modes- This multimodal text uses the aural, gestural, visual, and linguistic mode. Since it is a video, it uses sounds, tone of voice, volume of sound, body language, and facial expressions to educate the readers on the #FreeKesha movement.
- Design- This multimodal text uses specific design choices, including emphasis, organization, and proximity to provide the audience with the facts surrounding Kesha’s court appearance.
- http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/23/entertainment/dr-luke-twitter-kesha/
- Modes- This multimodal text uses the aural, gestural, visual, and linguistic mode. Since it is a video, it really focuses on Kesha’s beautiful singing voice and her choice of song so her fans will be inspired to fight with her.
- Design- This multimodal text uses specific design choices, including color, proximity, and contrast. By Kesha recording a very up close video of her singing, she connects with her audience and wants them to feel her pain.
- http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/2016/media/229227/_original/1456177687/1035×689-GettyImages-511278148.jpg
- Kesha’s fans are pictured protesting Sony Music Entertainment outside of the New York State Supreme Court
- Modes- This multimodal text uses the visual and gestural mode. Since this is a visual photo, it shows Kesha’s fans holding up signs and expressing their frustrations throughout their facial expressions and body gestures.
- Design- This multimodal text uses specific design choices, including contrast, color and proximity. The fans are photographed in a way that their faces, bodies, and posters can be seen. Also the variety of colors, can tell the audience that most of Kesha’s fans are creative and colorful, just like her personality.
Olivia DiTomaso 
Like you stated, you should definitely focus on the context and audience. Discuss the legal system and how it would work in a case like this. Look into the logistics of her exact case. And more importantly, discuss the outcome (reactions, decisions, future).
The Instagram uses color effectively as a bright peach is used for the hashtag and to cover Kesha’s eye. Other than the hashtag and color however, there are probably better texts out there as this one does not go into depth on the topic.
The Free Kesha article is a great mode to focus on because it lays out the entire story. Its framing is done well (basic black on white) and it is not too long where the audience would lose interest.
The CNN article is even better than the previous one because it uses elements such as screen shots of tweets from Kesha’s producer.
Finally, the Rolling Stones picture is very powerful. The image of fans holding signs in support of Kesha shows how this topic is effecting others.
One aspect of the rhetorical situation that I have noticed is that not much color is used. For example, I am focusing on the new Barbies and it is a positive thing so vibrant colors are used. Colors are most likely not used for your topic because it is a melancholy topic.
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1. I think you should pay specific attention to the issues of purpose in this rhetorical situation.
2. For the first text the rhetorical strategy of color stood out to me. For the second text, the rhetorical strategy of emphasis on an artist’s image of Kesha. The third text uses the rhetorical strategy of aural mode. The fourth text uses the rhetorical stratgey of aural mode. Lastly, the fifth text uses the gestural mode.
3. One similarity I noticed throughout the five multimodal texts was the way the ‘authors’ used, sometimes different modes, to emphasized on Kesha.
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This is extremely well thought out and well organized. Something that is so new and so fresh like this will be an excellent topic to explore-especially because it’s still developing each and every day. As you said, the business side of the music industry is something which is often times overlooked. Since this is something that is growing it would be interesting to see if we start to see more ads on TV or if protests break out anywhere. Audience, purpose, and context are extremely important in this type of story. What audience is this #freekesha campaign reaching out to is it just her fans or is it reaching out to those even who don’t like her music/don’t listen to her. You mentioned in your research methods that you want to explore more as to what exactly is going on, why can’t artists get out of contracts and I think even in your research you might find some cool videos people have put together regarding this topic or ads that people have made. It’s a great idea and it has a lot of potential! Something that people are passionate about will get people to use/do just about anything to get the message out-which is great for this project.
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