"Rich, White, Straight Men" is a song by American singer

Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. Her first major success came in 2009 when she was featured on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round". Kesha's music and ima ...

. It was written by the artist alongside

Pebe Sebert Rosemary Patricia "Pebe" Sebert ( ; born March 17, 1956) is an American singer and songwriter from Brentwood, Tennessee, and the mother of pop singer Kesha. Sebert has co-written number-one hits for Dolly Parton, Pitbull (rapper), Pitbull, and K ...

, Wrabel, and Stuart Crichton, with production being handled by the latter. The song was surprisingly released to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on June 2, 2019, and later issued as a standalone single through Kemosabe and

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

on June 8.

Release

"Rich, White, Straight Men" was surprisingly released to

on June 2, 2019, unbeknownst to Kesha's record label

. Six days later, it impacted

online music store A digital music store is a business that sells digital audio files of music recordings over the Internet. Customers gain ownership of a license to use the files, in contrast to a music streaming service, where they listen to recordings withou ...

s and

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

platforms as a standalone single. The song's artwork consists of a blurry photograph of Kesha giving the

middle finger The middle finger, long finger, second finger, third finger, toll finger or tall man is the third digit of the human hand, typically located between the index finger and the ring finger. It is typically the longest digit. In anatomy, it is al ...

, an action she performs on loop in the accompanying video.

Composition

"Rich, White, Straight Men" is a

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

influenced pop track with a

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

-esque atmosphere that utilizes

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

, and

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

. It features the "sounds of coins hitting the ground and cashiers opening, a reference to the money-driven political climate." A "power-drunk" male voice accompanies Kesha's singing; it rebutts the lyrics' progressive statements regarding free health care,

free education Free education is education funded through government spending or charitable organizations rather than tuition funding. Primary school and other comprehensive or compulsory education is free in most countries (often not including primary textboo ...

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to human reproduction, reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights: Reproductive rights ...

open border An open border is a border that enables Freedom of movement, free movement of people and often of goods between jurisdictions with no restrictions on movement and is lacking a border control. A border may be an open border due to intentional leg ...

s, and

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. ''Bandwagon'' Valerie Yuam wrote that the song "places Kesha’s humorous side in the spotlight while still effectively delivering her core message" and is "a commentary on the current socio-political situation in the United States." "Rich, White, Straight Men" was compared to the works of

Danny Elfman Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his ...

and Brendon Urie. The

lullaby A lullaby (), or a cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies, they are used to pass down cultural knowl ...

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is an English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem written by Jane Taylor, "The Star". The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in '' Rhymes for the Nursery'', a c ...

" is invoked in the lyrics "Twinkle, twinkle little star/How I wish the world was different/Where who you love and who you are/Was nobody’s fucking business".

Critical response

Sam Van Pykeren of ''Mother Jones'' complimented the song's uniqueness and political tone, writing, "Kesha finally sheds the restraints of her recent work for the direct and literal, returning to what made her a star in the first place: excessiveness packaged in oddity." Frida Garza of

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

website ''

Jezebel Jezebel ()"Jezebel"
(US) and

'' also praised the song's lyrical and musical characteristics while affirming that "this song is unlike any other Kesha's ever released; ..This is far from the perfectly manicured pop songs that were once her calling card." At ''

Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

'', Michael Love Michael questioned the song's effectiveness against the political group it addresses, although he connected to its premise, commenting, "Toppling an oppressive and domineering patriarchy starts with that kind of rage. As it should be." ''

Hollywood Life Hollywood Life is an American digital media brand launched in 2009 by magazine editor Bonnie Fuller. The site covers celebrity, fashion, beauty, women issues, and entertainment news. It also airs award shows and other pop culture events. History ...

''s Brandy Robidoux deemed the track "controversial". Writing for the conservative website ''

Washington Examiner The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative news magazine based in Washington, D.C., consisting of a website and a weekly printed magazine. It is owned by Philip Anschutz through MediaDC, a subsidiar ...

'', Madeline Fry called the song "boring" and criticized Kesha's intention to "blame the ills of society on all white males."

Credits and personnel

Credits organized in alphabetical order by surname and adapted from Tidal. * Dale Becker – mastering * Stuart Crichton – songwriting, production, keyboards, mixing, programming * Matt Dyson – engineering * Woitek Goral –

* Tomas Jansson –

* Magnus Johansson –

* Peter Johansson –

* Kesha Sebert – lead vocals, songwriting *

– songwriting * Stephen Wrabel – songwriting, backing vocals

Release history

References

{{Kesha 2019 songs 2019 singles Kesha songs Kemosabe Records singles RCA Records singles Songs written by Kesha Songs written by Pebe Sebert Songs written by Wrabel Songs written by Stuart Crichton LGBTQ-related songs Songs against capitalism Songs with feminist themes Songs about the United States