I love Ke$ha. Go ahead – judge me.

When did it become so shameful to embrace pop culture? It’s completely okay to like Top 40 songs and read Perez Hilton and follow Britney Spears on Twitter. It doesn’t make you a tasteless, mindless robot of the marketing gods with no concept of art and music.

Liberating, isn’t it? When people catch you singing “White and Purple” under your breath, you don’t have to pretend to be “ironic,” blame it on the jungle juice, or immediately justify yourself by proclaiming your loyalty to classic rock and indie pop. You’re allowed.

Loving Ke$ha and loving The Beatles, Brahms, Battles, or Ben Folds is not mutually exclusive. It is, in fact, possible to both have knowledge of music and artistic ideals and happen to want to have a slumber party in Ke$ha’s basement.

Ke$ha’s lyrics have a spirited honesty that I have to admire. Brushing your teeth with Jack Daniels isn’t classy, but there’s something very human and very real about Ke$ha that glassy-eyed Lady Gaga and the ambiguous lyrics of Vampire Weekend just don’t deliver. It’s that kind of honesty that (I’m ready to be burned at the stake for saying this) made Queen the voice of the ‘70s and Blink-182 and Green Day the anthem of our middle school days.

Admittedly, many of her lyrics will (hopefully) never apply directly to my life, but she captures the infectious grit and delirium of a night of young and stupid in a way that makes her songs stick. I don’t see the shame in dancing like we’re dumb, dumb, d-d-d-dumb. Sometimes being dumb is exactly what I want to be.

And maybe Ke$ha can’t sing. I’m not going to argue that she can. But as a self-proclaimed “dance commander,” she does one hell of a good job.

Here’s where I reach a fork in my logic. Today’s fame seems to prefer skills in branding and building catchy beats, but does that mean our generation’s culture is eroding because we value musicians with arguably little classical musical talent? Does our obsession with club songs and fun lyrics leave space for those with genuine ability? I would argue that we just demand rounded artists who can deliver solid music with a creative and marketable image.

Art and entertainment is becoming more and more closely fused. Lady Gaga’s meat dress is as much a part of her music as Katy Perry’s marriage and music videos are important to hers. The concept isn’t even that new. The Rolling Stones T-shirts and signature gesture are still everywhere, and David Bowie certainly had a defined image. As far as the music goes, it may not be the same type of genius as past musical legends have created, but it has its own elements of genius nonetheless.

Straying back to my original point, it is entirely respectable to have a passion for Top 40 music. It is tempting to defend myself by sharing other musicians on my Grooveshark and to give reasons explaining why I do have a decent understanding of music beyond the billboard. But alas, sometimes I do wake up feeling like P. Diddy, and it’s time I and other pop lovers realize there is no shame in love for the glitterati. To all the music snobs out there: stop t-t-talking that blah, blah, blah. Ke$ha rocks.

Karen Chen is a Medill freshman. She can be reached at [email protected].