Music

The pop singer Kesha suffered another setback this week in her long-running legal fight against Dr. Luke, her former producer, whom she accused of rape almost six years ago.The two filed dueling lawsuits on the same day in October 2014, with Kesha asking to be released from her contracts with Dr. Luke’s companies, on account of the assault she accused him of, and Dr. Luke saying that Kesha had defamed him with a “sham” allegation to escape her contractual obligations.Since that time — three years before #MeToo swept the entertainment industry — the story has been debated in public and online, and it has grinded through the courts on its way to a possible trial.So far, Kesha (born Kesha Rose Sebert) has largely prevailed in the theater of public opinion, making an emotional performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards — surrounded by fellow women in music, all in white — and releasing two new albums. Dr. Luke, on the other hand, has practically disappeared from the pop charts he once dominated.But in the courts, Dr. Luke (born Lukasz Gottwald) has been consistently winning. Kesha’s original case was dismissed, and in 2018 a New York appeals court blocked her from filing a counterclaim against Dr. Luke that would have voided their business relationship.On Thursday, the New York judge overseeing Dr. Luke’s case, over defamation and breach of contract, made a number of decisions that will make it tougher for Kesha to prevail at trial.The judge, Jennifer G. Schecter of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, decided that Dr. Luke is not well-known enough to be considered a “public figure,” which makes it easier for him to prove that he had been defamed if a jury concludes that he did not rape Kesha. The judge also ruled that Kesha could be held “vicariously liable” if a jury finds that her lawyer and public relations firm made defamatory statements on her behalf, including speaking about the case to the news media.The judge also decided that Dr. Luke had already proved that Kesha defamed him when she told Lady Gaga in a text message that he had raped Katy Perry, which Perry denied. “There is no evidence whatsoever,” the judge wrote, “that Gottwald raped Katy Perry or that Katy Perry, whose sworn testimony is unrefuted, must not be believed.” The decision means that even if Kesha prevails in the rest of the case, she could have to pay Dr. Luke for that.Still, the judge said that a number of issues remain for a jury to decide. Many of those rest on the question of whether Dr. Luke did, in fact, rape Kesha. She claims that he drugged her at a party in 2005 and then raped her later that night in his hotel room; Dr. Luke denied doing either, and said that her account is riddled with inconsistencies.Judge Schecter wrote: “This court cannot decide, as a matter of law on papers and without any assessment of credibility, who should be believed,” and whether Kesha filed her original suit “in good faith or as a sham to defame Gottwald and obtain business leverage.”“That decision is for the jury,” the judge wrote.No date has been set for a trial, and Kesha’s lawyers said in a statement that they would “immediately appeal” Judge Schecter’s ruling.Christine Lepera, a lawyer for Dr. Luke, said her client was “looking forward to the trial of his case,” which he has pursued “to seek recovery for the serious harm Kesha’s false accusations of rape have caused Dr. Luke, his family and his business.” More

The New York Times pop music team covers the full spectrum: indie rock, hip-hop, country, pure pop, Latin trap, Afrobeats and much more. But there are always questions, artists and trends left unaddressed, and Popcast listeners are excited to ask us about them.This week’s Popcast is the first of a two-episode listener mailbag.Topics covered: the recent Taylor Swift documentary “Miss Americana,” Katy Perry’s career arc, press coverage of the troubled band Pinegrove, the bedroom pop singer Clairo, the Scottish pop arriviste Lewis Capaldi, the different expectations saddled upon male and female pop stars, and whether the idea of the comeback album has been all but eradicated in the age of instant-gratification streaming.Guests:Joe Coscarelli, pop music reporterCaryn Ganz, pop music editor More

What should a portrait of Caroline Shaw look like?There’s Caroline Shaw the performer: a violinist and vocalist who grew up going to music camp and singing in choirs. There’s also the collaboratively minded composer who, at 30, became the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music. And don’t forget the artist of surprising pop culture cameos, with appearances on tracks by Kanye West and the soundtrack for the recent film “Bombshell.”That’s a lot for any one angle to capture. But, for me, what summed up these varied interests and activities was a revealing photograph of Ms. Shaw used by the Miller Theater at Columbia University to promote its Composer Portraits program of her music, performed on Thursday evening.In the photo, she appears casually dressed against a millennial-pink backdrop; her smile is not only one of happiness, but also of carefree ease and approachability. The image connects all Ms. Shaw’s projects and performances: an audaciously uninhibited approach to music-making based on joy, omnivorous curiosity and congeniality — even as her work challenges your expectations and takes you by surprise.On paper, the Miller concert looked like an incomplete portrait — just a few string quartets and a couple of works for voice and percussion — but it came as close as I could imagine to conveying the spirit of Ms. Shaw’s music.The evening opened with those string pieces, performed by the Attacca Quartet — which is quickly becoming the authoritative ensemble for chamber works by Ms. Shaw, John Adams and, recently, Gabriella Smith. Their Shaw album “Orange” was one of the finest recordings of 2019, and last week won a Grammy Award.[embedded content]Recordings are one thing, though, and live performance is another. In concert, these quartets — “Entr’acte,” “Punctum” and “Blueprint” — were even more impressive for their physicality, written as if to convey a conversation among the endearingly charismatic Attacca players.Ms. Shaw writes with an affectionate understanding of how string instruments work, and how they have been treated in the past. Her music offers glimpses of Haydn, Bach and Beethoven — but taken apart and examined, the way someone might with a clock, then transformed. Unlike those old masters, though, she is free from conventions of genre and form. Her quartets string together quotation, homage and wholly original sound in a structure that can be explained in retrospect but never predicted in the moment.What you don’t hear in these quartets is Ms. Shaw the collaborator who prefers to write for specific artists and occasions. But that came through in the second half of the program, in which she sang alongside So Percussion. After her brief cycle “Narrow Sea,” they presented selections from “Let the soil play its simple part,” a batch of 10 songs she recently wrote with the ensemble.An album of these is in the works, and perhaps it’s time to start rolling out the singles. The four songs heard on Thursday are radio-ready: infectious and inviting, but by no means facile. One, “Lay All Your Love On Me,” seems like a laugh-out-loud tribute to Abba: four lines delivered with childlike simplicity — a straightforward vocal melody accompanied by a vibraphone — that, repeated and evolving, blossom into a chorale of surprising beauty.“Let the soil play its simple part” is planned for release this year. Grammy nominators, take note.Composer Portraits: Caroline ShawPerformed on Thursday at the Miller Theater, Columbia University, Manhattan. More