Ke$ha ft. 3OH!3 - "Blah Blah Blah" (Music Video Review)

Holy new music videos, Batman! Over the past week or so, a sizable crop of America's favorite style of short-form film-making from some of the biggest acts currently working new material has enhanced what for a while now has been a stagnant pool of new music videos. Like the film industry, the early months of the year have a tendency to be all but devoid of exciting new launches (which I believe provides more explanation for the nine weeks and counting Ke$ha's fun but hardly legendary debut single "TiK ToK" has spent atop the Hot 100 singles chart than anything else). So imagine my surprise and delight as I watched a veritable pupu platter of new music videos roll out over the past week...and imagine, if you dare, my further ecstatic shock to discover that a few of them are actually *gasp* good.

Ke$ha vs. the Sophomore Single Slump

In order to help you wade through the tidal wave of new video material, I hereby offer you a quick rundown of Vertigo Shtick's inaugural music video reviews. Of course, I'll embed or link to them all as well, so as Levar Burton so famously used to say on the late Reading Rainbow, "Don't take my word for it!"

“Blah Blah Blah” - Ke$ha (feat. 3OH!3)

Remember when Lady Gaga's “Poker Face” video landed, and how blatant the uptick in production values was over her first videos (that is, if you'd even seen them)? It was obvious that a smash hit from a previously unknown (and therefore budget-limited) artist was the key to a sophomore video effort that could easily compete with the big boys and girls, and money had obviously blown Gaga's way for the filming of the high-def ultra-glam (if choreographically and trichologically misguided) visual aid to what would become Gaga's second number one single, and it paved the way for the high-concept “Paparazzi” (and its upcoming sequel, “Telephone"), and the Coup de Gaga “Bad Romance.”

So too is the effect of a wildly popular debut (and the money and big-name involvement that follow) apparent in the new video for Ke$ha's “Blah Blah Blah,” a thematically apt if questionably worthy followup to the aforementioned debut single that has sat atop the singles chart for nearly ten weeks. Whereas the video for “TiK ToK” is almost charmingly low-rent (and uncomfortably reminiscent of Gaga's “Just Dance”), “Blah Blah Blah” pulls out the widescreen, high-def, immaculately filmed big guns (plus a bit of amusingly pointless acrobatics) in a fast-paced, altogether enjoyable interpretation of the boozy starlet's sassy zinger of a single. As in the song, the new-ish duo 3OH!3 (the hooligans best known for asking noisy ladies to “do the Helen Keller”) makes an appropriate but ultimately pointless cameo, and the superfluousness of their appearance is highlighted by their brief and inconsequential visit in the video.

Ke$ha, though, has never looked better – although come to think of it, she really doesn't have much of a recognizable public image yet, so how would most people know? As an introduction to the visual side of pop music it is therefore a well-designed debut, and as a bonus, viewers who catch the new video on Vevo have the opportunity to stick around for a brief behind-the-scenes chat with the record-breaking new star that has the odd effect of revealing a bit of the thoughtful, clever musician and young woman underneath the Auto-Tune, glitter and bad press (which is only really bad because there isn't all that much for tabloids to grab hold of). Be not fooled, for Ke$ha is far more than her underdeveloped public image – and her first two singles, in my opinion among the weakest on her surprisingly strong debut album Animal – may so far suggest.

"Blah Blah Blah" (Ke$ha feat. 3OH!3):  B