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.
It’s nice to see that the YouTube age has brought back the idea of comedy through song. In the early 70s you had the Smothers Brothers. The late 70s had Steve Martin. The 80s ushered in Spinal Tap and ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (both of whom continue to record today). But the 90s was a dry spell for comedy set to a tune.
I found myself with one extra song that I didn’t want to scrap, so Rufus Wainwright Week has been extended by a day. Lucky you! 🙂
Wainwright’s 5th, and most recent, studio album was Release the Stars, probably his weakest effort to date but still one of the best albums I’ve heard in the past few years. Unfortunately it’s been almost impossible to find YouTube clips from this album. I’ve previously highlighted ‘
Meet Me In Montauk 