base talk Katy Perry and Post Malone's career trajectories travel on parallel lines

[KillingYourCareer]

"Soulmates tend to find each other during their respective pursuits of their soul missions." (Japanese saying)

 

During my recreational comparative musicianship studies, I noticed something very important that few have pointed out: the staggering similarities between Katy Perry and Post Malone's career trajectories. Let's go in detail!

 

First album: One of the Boys / Stoney

A success from both, selling slowly but steadily and producing multiple hits, but nowhere near the next record's unpredictable and unprecedented success.

 

Second album: Teenage Dream / Beerbongs & Bentleys

Artists catapulted into megastardom. Multiple inescapable Diamond hits and #1's.

 

Third album: Prism / Hollywood's Bleeding

Continued success, once again multiple Diamond-certified smashes. Popularity peak around the globe.

 

Fourth album: Witness / Twelve Carat Tootache

Clear and sudden decline after a relatively long break. Despite (or due to) little changes in sound and behavior, the public got tired. Lead single goes top 10 and certifications still arrive, at least!

 

Fifth album: Smile / Austin

Their "most personal record" to date, no noise whatsoever. The lead single fails to go top 10, the following singles are all huge bombs, and the era is soon abandoned and forgotten about.

 

What's next for them? Soon we'll know. What we can say about Katy Perry and Post Malone is that they both defined an era in music and that their hits will represent a lot of people's youths and that they won't be forgotten about, even if their next records manage to do worse (if that's even possible). They can both be proud of their legendary achievements.

 

My mathematician friend and fellow ATRLer @J_Roc1042, who I thank deeply, created a graphic representation of my theory for better understanding.

 

[KatyPrismSpirit]

This is true. Chemical was his Never Really Over.

[Johnny Jacobs]

[Navyofbadgals]

Eh kinda true but Katy Perry got far more backlash and was seen as less cool.. meanwhile I wonder how many people actually know Post released an album at all recently 

[Kayseri Mantisi]

That's such a hard graphic to make so i'm glad you got a mathematician for it 

[HappierJealousy]

They’re not that similar tbh. You can clearly see the decline for Katy from TD to Prism, but in Post case HB is actually his real peak

[OnlyManInTheWorld]

Thank you for that chart drawing, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to understand this complex issue

[NEX]

A reverse Adele/Sam Smith expedition 

 

[Homebrand]

What do you think will happen if they collab? Will it finish what remains of their careers or do the opposite?

[little legend]

Is Post Malone also the new Paula Abdul? 

[KillingYourCareer]

Just now, Homebrand said:

What do you think will happen if they collab? Will it finish what remains of their careers or do the opposite?

They almost collabed... they both have a song on the Pokémon album, and of course, both were massive bombs! If they did a song together, that is a question for the stars, or the clearvoyants, and I cannot answer it. Perhaps @ToniGaga96 can tell us?

[favorite crime]

Yeah, definitely similar but not completely parallel. Prism did way worse than TD while HB is actually even bigger than Beerbongs.

 

And Post was definitely a bigger album's artist than Katy. He had great album track streams while she was struggling to sell album copies

[KillingYourCareer]

Just now, little legend said:

Is Post Malone also the new Paula Abdul? 

The real question is: was there any Paula Abdul contemporary or near-contemporary whose career was traveling on a line parallel to hers? If anyone can come up with a positive answer, then this would mean that we have two sets of parallel lines traveling on parallel lines, which would make it a reverse Warholian expedition.

[little legend]

2 minutes ago, KillingYourCareer said:

The real question is: was there any Paula Abdul contemporary or near-contemporary whose career was traveling on a line parallel to hers? If anyone can come up with a positive answer, then this would mean that we have two sets of parallel lines traveling on parallel lines, which would make it a reverse Warholian expedition.

 

[Dolce Vita]

very insightful graphic depicting their career trajectories

[vale9001]

7 minutes ago, favorite crime said:

Yeah, definitely similar but not completely parallel. Prism did way worse than TD while HB is actually even bigger than Beerbongs.

 

And Post was definitely a bigger album's artist than Katy. He had great album track streams while she was struggling to sell album copies

just because of streaming.

While during itunes era people bought for these kind of artists just the singles.

 

To say now with 6 singles THAT simultaneously very successfull Teenage dream would have been a 60-70 consecutive weeks on the top 10 record. 

Edited December 2, 2023 by vale9001

[PoisonCandy]

1 minute ago, KillingYourCareer said:

The real question is: was there any Paula Abdul contemporary or near-contemporary whose career was traveling on a line parallel to hers? If anyone can come up with a positive answer, then this would mean that we have two sets of parallel lines traveling on parallel lines, which would make it a reverse Warholian expedition.

I'm not old enough or educated enough on the history of pop music to answer this question, but I'd also like to know. I remember back in 2013 people used to say Katy was mirroring/going to mirror Madonna's career, and that Gaga would end up with a career similar to Cyndi Lauper. Neither ended up happening, obviously, so the Post Malone/Katy Perry one is probably the closest we have right now. I never realised it until now. Definitely interested in the Paula Abdul one.

[Skirt]

But Katy Perry is a household name, unlike Post.

[Peak Now]

24 minutes ago, KillingYourCareer said:

Despite (or due to) little changes in sound and behavior, the public got tired.

I think this is a huge difference IMO: for Katy the problem was that her entire image change with the pixie cut and the purposeful pop was very poorly received, while for Post Malone the problem was that his signature trap sound died off c.2020 and he didn't have anything else to follow through with, so he went from sticking to hip hop on Motley Crew (which was shipped back-- I fully believe this song severely hampered his career btw) to the bland pop on TCT (looking at you I Like You (A Happier Song)) to the guitar-driven pop on Austin. And now he's even heading towards country.

[favorite crime]

2 minutes ago, vale9001 said:

just because of streaming.

While during itunes era people bought for these kind of artists just the singles.

 

To say now with 6 singles THAT simultaneously very successfull Teenage dream would have been a 60-70 consecutive weeks on the top 10 record. 

True it would have but for example all songs on B&B are above 200mil streams (+ it did 150K pure first week in 2018). Post definitely had more album interest at his peak 

[dumbsparce]

Who is Post's Gaga though?

[samsclubPRESENTSavam]

as gene kelly watched paula abdul's sabrina the teenage witch episode he mumbled "it is done". most of the nurses thought he meant his student paula was now the teacher. atrl nurses in the know argued and drew diagrams that connected mr. kelly's passing with the last breaths of ms. abdul's career...

Edited December 2, 2023 by samsclubPRESENTSavam

[Dark Miracles]

@katykater We are in dire need of your mathematical prowess regarding the intricate graphical presentation in the OP

[Kimi]

One Of The Boys 11.7M vs Stoney 13.1M

Teenage Dream 25.6M vs Beerbongs & Bentleys 17.4M

Prism 13.8 vs Hollywoods Bledding 18.2M

Witness 2.8M vs Twelve Carat Toothache 3.3M

Smile 2.6M vs Austin 1.3M

 

Wait they are comparable 

[jdanton2]

i guess that means he will become a judge on a music competition   show like American Idol since that is what Katy does now.