I don’t really like Katy Perry or her music, but I have to hand it to her. She’s really carved out a niche for herself through her outsized sex kitten persona and a batch of songs that, shallow though they may be, are undeniably catchy. Delivering her sexy-but-safe pre-packaged pop, she’s a vision of lustful innocence — the prima donna and the whore.
It’s almost too good to be true that Perry was raised by a couple of pastors and began her musical career as a Christian artist. Who better to top the charts a few years later with a song about kissing a girl? The thing about that song is that, for all its bluster, it carries no sexual weight. Sure, maybe she kissed a girl, but afterward she probably turned away giggling.
Perry is all surface… nothing about her hits you in the gut. But her blandly pretty face and Jessica Rabbit body eat away at your reptilian brain, rubbing your face in her superficiality — and your own. You can’t stand looking at her but you can’t look away.
Of course all this psychosexual analysis is lost on Perry’s primary fan base of tween girls. Perhaps the best idea is to leave her to them and not cop to the fact that, despite how it’s all so transparent, it still somehow works on me.
The truth is… Katy Perry isn’t the one who’s depressingly predictable. I am.
Its all a blur last night
We need a taxi cause you’re hung-over and I’m broke
I lost my fake ID but you lost the motel key
Spare me your freakin’ dirty looks
Now don’t play me
You want to cash out and get the hell out of town
Don’t be a baby
Remember what you told me
Shut up and put your money where your mouth is
That’s what you get for waking up in Vegas
Get up and shake the glitter off your clothes, now
That’s what you get for waking up in Vegas
Why are these lights so bright
Oh, did we get hitched last night, dressed up like Elvis,
And why, why am I wearing your class ring?
Don’t call your mother
Cause now were partners in crime
Don’t be a baby
Remember what you told me
Shut up and put your money where your mouth is
That’s what you get for waking up in Vegas
Get up and shake the glitter off your clothes, now
That’s what you get for waking up in Vegas
You got me into this
Information overload, situation lost control
Send out an S.O.S.
And get some cash out
We’re gonna tear up the town
Meet Me In Montauk 
🙂 You redeemed yourself with that last line, as I was all set to go off on you. As the mother of a just past tween daughter, I’m not so keen on leaving to her (and her cohorts) that which is superficial and/or unworthy of their analysis (which they aren’t capable of doing anyway?)
Still, I kind of know what you mean 🙂
I heard this song once – on American Idol (of course), and I immediately thought – wow, this is an empty bauble and boy isn’t it catchy. 🙂
Gotta hand it to this woman, she does craft a good pop song with a come hither quality. I, like you, find myself strangely drawn to her and her music despite myself.
Amy, I’m not suggesting tween girls aren’t capable of analyzing Katy Perry or anything else… just that Katy Perry doesn’t have the effect on them that compels them to analyze her.