Katy Perry: Your Thoughts?

[Ptrope]

So, I'm surprised there wasn't a thread for this already, and I couldn't find one if there was.

How do you feel about Katy Perry of 'I Kissed a Girl' fame?

Personally, I fucking hate her.

First, she creates a song with a title that's been done before as a different song, clearly just to get attention. She's a preacher's daughter who tried doing the straight arrow Christian music thing before deciding being a 'bad girl' would be a better career move and was quoted as saying she'd do pretty much anything to get famous.

On top of that, 'I Kissed a Girl' is obnoxious and rather insulting, and if I may stand on my soapbox a moment sets a poor example for women, furthering the idea that you can be a whore to be popular. (And it's not just because girls kissing girls doesn't do anything for me, if it were boys I'd have the same issue.) I don't understand how feminists haven't assassinated her yet.

She has minimal to non-existent talent and is in summary an embodiment of what's wrong with modern music. I hope she goes away quickly, and I strongly suspect she will.

Thoughts?

Welllllllll ... I'd say the last paragraph pretty much sums it up - the rest of it was wayyy too personal an attack on someone none of us has ever probably even met. Not that I'm defending her - I'm just saying that that much emotional involvement with a stranger over her repertoire is probably not healthy .

Hey, at least we have to give her credit for recording Hot & Cold in Simlish - sure, it's commercial, but it's still kinda cool

 

[Praetor]

Hey, P, who says I'm healthy?

 

[Daneel]

Well... on a purely physical level... yeah, I'd hit it.

Her music... eh, the songs of hers that I've heard (which are about 2) are somewhat catchy, but they sound so pre-packaged and generic. Her voice is really quite average. On the whole, I don't think she has much talent -- or intelligence, for that matter. Listening to her lyrics, it sounds like these songs are written by and for drunken, club-hopping teenage girls. But hey, I guess there's a market for that.

My sister tells me that there are a number of lesbians that find her irksome at the least, and at times downright offensive. They think that she's trivializing lesbianism by making it sound trendy and casual. Plus, in this song and others (notably "U R So Gay"), some think she's making fun of homosexuality, and perhaps even coming dangerously close to suggesting that there is something "not right" about it. Personally, I think she's just trying to be funny (emphasis on the word trying) and not really thinking the whole thing through, but I can see where they're coming from.

 

[-Brett-]

I was going to vote "Who?" before I read this.

... a bad example for kids...

Anyone that's bad for children has to be okay.

 

[Aragorn]

^ Even this guy????

 

[galleywest]

What I don't like about the stupid song is that if it were a straight male singing cutely about naughtily experimenting with kissing other men, many of the guys now saying, "OMG, it's totally hawt!" would be saying how disgusting it is to be singing about [whisper]the gays[/whisper]. But girl on girl is so much less threatening, so the song content becomes a kind of socially acceptable vicarious soft-core porn. Ever notice how if it's girl-on-girl it's just "porn" but if it's dude-on-dude it's "gay porn"?

So yes, it's trivializing to lesbianism, and it's painfully obvious that she's only done it for a quick, cheap grab at fame.

Plus, the song just isn't good.

 

[Praetor]

What I don't like about the stupid song is that if it were a straight male singing cutely about naughtily experimenting with kissing other men, many of the guys now saying, "OMG, it's totally hawt!" would be saying how disgusting it is to be singing about [whisper]the gays[/whisper]. But girl on girl is so much less threatening, so the song content becomes a kind of socially acceptable vicarious soft-core porn. Ever notice how if it's girl-on-girl it's just "porn" but if it's dude-on-dude it's "gay porn"?

So yes, it's trivializing to lesbianism, and it's painfully obvious that she's only done it for a quick, cheap grab at fame.

Exactly!!

 

[Hermiod]

The only positive thing I can say about this person is that she is marginally less irritating and useless than Lily Allen. Plus she hasn't poisoned anyone or had them beaten up or thrown down any stairs in any of her music videos yet, to my knowledge.

 

[Praetor]

Good point. But give it time.

 

[little_chris]

My thoughts on Katy Perry...




Cannot be spoken about due to board policy.

 

[Praetor]

Yes, but is that a good thing or a bad thing?

 

[TS-1838-SWATH]

The only positive thing I can say about this person is that she is marginally less irritating and useless than Lily Allen. Plus she hasn't poisoned anyone or had them beaten up or thrown down any stairs in any of her music videos yet, to my knowledge.

True she's No Amy Winehouse how many people had she beaten up again?
Lily Allen I wish Elton slapped her when she was drunk @ a certian (sp) awards show in the UK

Katy Perry was also in P.O.D. Goodbye for Now Video

Check out Kathy Perry - Thinking of You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld559dZcyBk

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

What I don't like about the stupid song is that if it were a straight male singing cutely about naughtily experimenting with kissing other men, many of the guys now saying, "OMG, it's totally hawt!" would be saying how disgusting it is to be singing about [whisper]the gays[/whisper]. But girl on girl is so much less threatening, so the song content becomes a kind of socially acceptable vicarious soft-core porn. Ever notice how if it's girl-on-girl it's just "porn" but if it's dude-on-dude it's "gay porn"?

Girl on girl is only "less threatening" because it's in such greater demand. The percentage of men who want to watch women kissing is far higher than the percentage of women who want to watch men kissing. You got a problem with it, take it up with the uninterested straight women.

 

[suarezguy]

Hate's a strong term but I do strongly dislike her. The words and singing in "I Kissed a Girl" were very arrogant and "Ur so Gay" also felt mean-spirited (the fact that she bashes vegetarianism, Mozart and emoism-while complaining and asking for authenticity herself-makes this one even worse). I do like the rhythm/melody and some of the singing tone in "Hot and Cold" (I heard it a time or two before knowing it was from her ), but that also has a pretty bad message.
She reminds me a bit of Avril and Keira Knightley, who I also disliked, the former so proud of her aggressiveness and supposed realness/rebelliousness and the latter with the "where have all the good/real men gone"-like attitude.

 

[Praetor]

A very good comparison, suarezguy. She's Avril Knightley.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Yeah, the thread is 4 years old, but I saw her latest video and I liked it.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevxZvSJLk8[/yt]

Her songs are catchy and I like that she can be a little wacky.

 

[Mysterion]

Sort of attractive. Awful, awful music.

 

[Kemaiku]

Thread...need...brains....

 

[Admiral2]

She's hot. Not a great singer.

 

[gblews]

She has so far, shown herself to be a very good pop melodist with a particular talent for big anthemic hook/choruses. She is commercial as all hell. I bet her record company LOVES her. As I said in another thread, Taylor Swift should have half of Perry's pop songwriting talent.

As for "I Kissed a Girl", the song cracked me up when I first heard it. Great hook, good melody, catchy, as many have pointed out. I read an article about lesbians being upset about Perry and the song. I agree with the poster upthread who pointed out the irony in lesbians (who are usually staunch feminists), disliking a song about a woman being honest and upfront about her "romantic" intentions. Makes the lesbos sound a bit like straight dudes, doesn't it? I also thought that part of the problem was that Perry's song kind of glorifies "teasing" and plays on what a turn-on it is for lesbians to "turn out" straight girls. I got the impression that Perry was kinda being chastized for "talking out of school".

Eventually, if she really wants to be taken seriously and IF she has real talent, she is going to have to grow as a songwriter and increase the depth and complexity of her songs. She could hit pop music icon status if she manages to do this without losing her commercial appeal.

Otherwise, her store of hooks, and most importantly, pretty melodies, will dry up (as it does for most), and she'll start recycling, and the Pop Machine will eventually move on to the next big thing. We'll see.