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Billboard poll asks executives whether they believe allegations against Kesha or Dr. Luke

Last year, Kesha filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, in which she alleged that she suffered horrifying abuse at his hands.

Why would Billboard circulate a poll asking music industry executives whether they believe Kesha or Dr. Luke when it comes to the singer’s lawsuit against the producer?

That’s what many are puzzling over this week after the industry bible circulated a survey via Google Docs asking, among other things, for executives to choose sides in the case.

Last year, Kesha, 28, filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke, whose real name is Lukasz Gottwald, in which she alleged that she suffered horrifying abuse at his hands. Kesha accused Gottwald of drugging and sexually assaulting her and subjecting her to verbal and physical abuse.

Gottwald filed a countersuit which claims that Kesha’s lawsuit is an extortion attempt to get out of her contract early.

The allegations were especially shocking because such accusations usually remain the stuff of cautionary tales that rarely come to the fore because the victim fears retaliation could harm their career. A couple of months after Kesha filed suit against Gottwald, Lady Gaga revealed that she had been raped at 19 by a record producer 20 years older.

Kesha has endured a rocky few years. Her appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards last year was one of a select few after she receded from the public eye and checked into a rehabilitation facility last January for an eating disorder, a condition that her mother says Gottwald triggered. She was also photographed last year on red carpets for the Humane Society of the United States’ 60th Anniversary Gala at the end of March, and at the Billboard Awards last May.

In an essay for Elle UK, Kesha refuted rumors that she had entered rehab for substance abuse, a conclusion many drew thanks to her professional party girl image. (Her best-known lyric is about brushing her teeth “with a bottle of Jack.”)

“I was battling an eating disorder - but I knew people would assume I was here for other things. Sure, I’ve written songs about partying, but my dirty little secret is that I’m actually incredibly responsible. I take my music and career very seriously, and certainly didn’t land in this situation from partying. But I was cut off from the outside world and I imagined people making up stories at a time when what I really needed was support.

“… The music industry has set unrealistic expectations for what a body is supposed to look like, and I started becoming overly critical of my own body because of that. I felt like people were always lurking, trying to take pictures of me with the intention of putting them up online or printing them in magazines and making me look terrible.”

Many know Billboard as the company that tracks song popularity via its eponymous charts. Though it’s an industry magazine, its website has become increasingly geared toward attracting readers generally seeking music news, not just industry aficionados. It hasn’t just solicited thoughts on Kesha and Gottwald’s dueling lawsuits; it’s covered them.

One executive expressed horror that Kesha’s allegations would be given such cavalier treatment. The poll results are reportedly scheduled for publication in the Sept. 19 issue of the magazine.

“If Billboard wants to survey the music industry, they should ask people in the biz what they think about their publication,” Irving Azoff, chairman and chief executive of Azoff MSG Entertainment, told the New York Post. “Maybe then they’d understand how fully they’ve turned a formerly respected brand into an irrelevant joke.”

The survey included other questions such as “Who is the most overpaid executive in the music industry?,” “Who is the most devious executive in the music industry?” and “Who is the most press-hungry executive in the music industry?”

The Washington Post sent emails to Billboard seeking comment, but the magazine has not responded.



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