celeb news Spain's biggest newspaper publishes extra shady article reflecting on Katy's downfall

[Space Cowboy]

https://elpais.com/icon/2024-07-05/por-que-el-publico-ha-dado-la-espalda-a-katy-perry-cronica-de-la-gran-caida-en-desgracia-del-pop.html

 

Translated by ChatGPT. Long read:

Spoiler

Why Has the Public Turned Its Back on Katy Perry? Chronicle of the Current Pop's Great Fall from Grace

The artist who dominated the scene 15 years ago in a much more carefree and optimistic world no longer fits today's parameters of confessional lyrics, the search for authenticity, and social cause advocacy. However, she is ready to try once more.

 

"Katy Perry is criticized for thanking Elon Musk for gifting her a cybertruck" would have been an incomprehensible headline a decade ago. Not just because of the words "Elon Musk" and "cybertruck," but because in the early 2010s, Perry was the only pop star everyone liked, seemingly invulnerable to the (few) criticisms she received. Today, her attempts to return to the top are met with mockery and disdain by a public that has decided Katy Perry is no longer cool and that nothing she does can change that. And she is trying. Perry is not the first pop star to fall out of fashion, but few have done so as abruptly and disproportionately. Why has the public turned its back on her?

 

A decade ago, everything Katy Perry did broke records: she achieved five number-one singles from a single album (California Gurls, Teenage Dream, Firework, E.T., and Last Friday Night), a feat only matched by Michael Jackson in 1987 with Bad; she headlined the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history; and she was the first person to reach 100 million followers on Twitter. Radio adored her as Firework, I Kissed A Girl, and Roar became instant wedding classics. Max Martin, the producer with the most number-one hits on the American charts, produced a third of Perry's top hits.

 

She soundtracked a socially optimistic period: Barack Obama was in the White House, the economic crisis had not yet taken its toll on the streets, and the public embraced her candy-coated universe. "She was a perfect pop star," says The Atlantic's music critic Spencer Kornhaber, who has just published the essay On Divas. "She understood that pop is essentially about indulging in an absurd high while reveling in that absurdity. She didn't get bogged down by human complexities. With Katy, there was never any tension."

 

Perry knew how to connect with millennial sensibilities. First, she pioneered the fetishization of pop nostalgia, as seen in the Last Friday Night music video featuring Corey Feldman, Kenny G, and Hanson. She also had a self-aware attitude, being both the joke and the one making it. She was sexy while parodying eroticism (like when she wore a bra that shot whipped cream while Lady Gaga's bra shot sparks), a cheerleader mocking cheerleaders, a winner behaving like a chronic loser, a canonical beauty and a caricature of a pin-up, embracing femininity clichés but claiming to be "not like other girls" (her first album was titled "One of the Boys"): she drank beer, burped, and laughed at crude jokes. In her debut single UR So Gay, she complained her boyfriend seemed effeminate. In her hit California Gurls, she sang about boys going crazy trying to look up their skirts. Katy Perry perfected pop's escapism machine: if Mariah Carey embodies Christmas in popular culture, Perry represented summer. It was as if she were always on vacation. In Katy Perry's universe, nothing was too important. Nothing was serious.

 

Her music thrived on iTunes, where the public impulsively bought her singles with a click (she is the only person with three songs exceeding six million downloads and the only woman with more than 15 million downloads for a single song, Roar). But after a four-year break, she released Witness in a world completely different from the one that had seen her rise to stardom. "Katy wanted to be everything to everyone, but streaming drives niche artists," analyzes Kornhaber. Digital sales and radio no longer determined popular songs. Streaming platforms began to dominate, changing music consumption: now songs are often background noise. This shift favored artists like Ed Sheeran, Post Malone, The Weeknd, and Drake. The algorithm benefits non-invasive songs sung with whispers and linear production, disadvantaging bombastic anthems sung at full throttle and with explosive sounds, Perry's specialty. A practical example: the two most listened-to songs worldwide right now are Please Please Please and Espresso, both by Sabrina Carpenter. Their frivolous tone and comedic attitude are reminiscent of Katy Perry, but Carpenter sings them in whispers.

 

To adapt to this new musical landscape, she released Witness, an album she described as "purposeful pop." Perry publicly supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, took the stage with her at several rallies, and even performed at some. Trump's victory led her to question pop music's role in society, resulting in Chained To The Rhythm, a critique of the compulsive escapism she had (as many critics noted) contributed to. "When I debuted in music, the social mood was different," she acknowledged in Rolling Stone. "We were intoxicated with life. We didn't suffer like now. We weren't divided. I feel like I can't release an escapist album now." Overnight, Katy Perry went from dancing with plush sharks to performing with two giant skeletons dressed as Donald Trump and Theresa May. She changed her Twitter bio to "Artist. Activist. Conscientious." "I feel very empowered," she declared in a New York Times profile titled "Katy Perry Has Woken Up and Wants You to Know."

 

To celebrate the album's release, Perry locked herself in a house with 41 cameras broadcasting her every move live for 96 hours. While her new album played non-stop, she did yoga with actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, meditated with guru Bob Roth, cooked with chef Gordon Ramsay, attended poetry readings, and conversed with racialized activists who helped her understand past cultural appropriation (she once performed dressed as a Geisha, another time wore a braided wig), and gathered various "people with discourse" for a dinner intended to "provoke conversations." Among the attendees were Caitlyn Jenner, Anna Kendrick, Dita Von Teese, and Sia. They dined on avocado toast and kale salad. The project, called Witness World Wide, was sponsored by cosmetics company CoverGirl.

 

"Everything feels too premeditated," criticized Amanda Petrusich in The New Yorker. "When these conversations are so clearly orchestrated to promote an album, they don't feel like an epiphany or an act of altruism but like calculated cynicism." "Witnessing Katy Perry's struggle to remain relevant is painful," wrote Chris DeVille in Stereogum. "She's failing so publicly that it's become a morbid fascination," noted Lindsay Zoladz in The Ringer. The controversies began to affect her like never before: her rivalry with Taylor Swift was deemed "unfeminist," a joke at Britney Spears' expense ("I'm taking care of my mental health, I haven't shaved my head yet") sparked accusations of insensitivity, and collaborating with the openly anti-LGBTQ group Migos led many to question her commitment to the community. No one talked about the songs. Everyone talked about how little they liked her short platinum blonde hair.

 

Witness was Perry's first album without Dr. Luke's production (accused of sexual abuse by singer Kesha in 2014) and her first without major hits or, at least, without the gigantic numbers of her previous successes. Dr. Luke was behind Perry's nine number-one hits in five years. Since she stopped working with him a decade ago, she has only achieved four top 50 hits. She has admitted to being obsessed with the charts, and Witness's failure led her to depression: "I depended so much on public validation that when the public didn't react as I expected, it broke my heart."

 

Her recent attempts to make a grand comeback with the single Women's World have so far been met with ridicule on social media. When she appeared at a Balenciaga show wearing torn tights, a faux fur coat with nothing underneath, and a slicked-back high ponytail (a look that would be celebrated if worn by Charli XCX), one Twitter user commented: "It's like her only creative direction is 'feed the gays,' but she doesn't have the recipe." When she posted the promotional image for the single with a cyber-2000s aesthetic, another Twitter user wrote: "This new trend of failed pop stars trying to serve contrived camp to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the gays." Both tweets have over three million views. Katy Perry has gone from making the joke to being the joke.

 

The consensus seems to be that Katy Perry is trying too hard. In a time when pop stars are laid-back and apathetic, a star as calculated and perfectionist as Perry seems like a relic of a past that no longer exists. Billie Eilish, Lorde, Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift succeed thanks to something as intangible and undeniable as authenticity. And that's exactly what Katy Perry seems to lack. "There's no science to being a pop star," opines Spencer Kornhaber. "Katy Perry and Charli XCX dress alike and make the same jokes, but the public judges whether it works or not." Kornhaber believes Perry's underground aesthetic looks like a costume on her. "Massive pop stars have always taken things from the margins and neutralized them. We didn't notice before. Now we do. If you try to force camp or underground cool, you fail."

 

In an era favoring pop stars who present themselves as losers, Perry doesn't fit because she always had a certain aura of privilege and success, even though, paradoxically, she has been losing for seven years. "She has alpha energy, is pure mainstream. And right now, that's hard to sell in pop. Katy also doesn't do confessional well. First, because she doesn't write her lyrics. Second, because no one understands what her problems are exactly," says Kornhaber. Katy Perry was so of her time that she outshone everyone but quickly became obsolete. Today, her behavior of kissing another girl for the male gaze is called queerbaiting, and jumping into a giant pot while a group of black men cooks her... well, that was already questionable in 2017. The joke simply stopped being funny.

 

"Millennials no longer lead culture as they did ten years ago," notes Kornhaber. "And Katy Perry is one of the most millennial artists there is: she tried too hard, was self-aware, knew how to sell herself, carefully curated her image, always appeared immaculate, was good at personal branding, and had vaguely progressive ideas but was ultimately an institutionalist. She operated very much within the system. Young people no longer believe that everything will be fine if you operate within the system. Among post-Covid youth, there's a super ironic and even radical nihilism. And nothing is less nihilistic than Katy Perry. She's stealing the underground kitsch aesthetic, the Berlin vibe, anti-institutional, anti-millennial. But it's not going to work for her. It's very fashionable to seem like you don't care about anything, and Katy simply isn't that person. She can't fake it. It will always show how much effort she puts into what she does."

 

All this adverse sentiment will disappear if Perry scores an undeniable hit. To ensure it, she has once again enlisted Dr. Luke for her new album. Social media has already shown its disapproval, but millions of people either don't know about the accusations against the producer or don't care. A mass of people who don't go on X or TikTok for whom music is just music and not everything has to be politicized. And, after all, that has always been Katy Perry's audience.

 

 

[MALAMENTE]

She doesn't write her lyrics? As far as I am concerned, she does

[popmusicisdead]

you didn't have to lash her that bad @Cloudy sis

[magazine]

not desgracia del pop 

[Everyperfectsummer]

Juan Sanguino spilled as always

[KatyPrismSpirit]

Such a dumb article. This literally reads like one of the OKH on atrl wrote it  

 

 

How dumb of them to include tweets that got like less than 3k likes. And "stealing" underground aesthetic where exactly? She was literally walking a runway in Paris? That Balenciaga outfit got them so pressed lol

Edited July 7 by KatyPrismSpirit

[Tistotal]

It says Dr Luke is behind her 9 #1 which is not true lol

It basically says she couldn't transition to streaming era, which is true and everybody knows it.

 

Spoiler

Me sorprende que en la nota aparezcan las palabras coño, rollo y mola 

 

[Infernal Paradise]

Dr. Luke was behind Perry's nine number-one hits in five years. Since she stopped working with him a decade ago, she has only achieved four top 50 hits.

 

Today, her behavior of kissing another girl for the male gaze is called queerbaiting, and jumping into a giant pot while a group of black men cooks her... well, that was already questionable in 2017.

 

Katy Perry has gone from making the joke to being the joke.

 

 

 

These LASHINGS

 

This era already giving Witness a run for its money, and it hasn't even started yet.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7 by Marry Illusion Glory

[ChooseyLover]

I don't think anyone believes she's trying to appear as "underground" right now, especially with her choice of producers. Some of the stats are also wrong, 1/3 of Max Martin's hits aren't Katy's. And she does write her own music.

But the analysis of her pop escapism later turned into purposeful pop and her missteps along the way was interesting. Deep within I wish she could bounce back properly but she's not on the right track at all.

[ThomasTea]

This is why Katy hate is so FORCED. People just make up their own head cannons and run with it as fact - that article is littered with inaccuracies. 

[Apolonio ₃₄]

OUCH! 
 

[Bimbo]

Oh wow they really clocked every single thing about her career

 

Who else but la Desgracia del pop

[manuelalex9810]

All those inaccuracies in that article.

That's why we don't have to take these colonizers seriously. 

[AvadaKedavra]

There's no downfall. The panorama of 2010s to 2020s is very different.
We live in fascist times where people dont care about cancellations anymore  katy will be able to survive the backlash like Doja Cat did
I can see fans lovin her and embracing her new dark-evil persona cause theyre tired of cutesy katy

If she flops with this song is cause she was stupid and released a song catering only to ladies and not all the audiences. 

Edited July 7 by AvadaKedavra

[SmittenCake]

I wish she ditched Luke coz I did enjoy Smile and bought it on Google Music. She can make good music without that man. 

 

 

Edited July 7 by SmittenCake

[glitch]

55 minutes ago, manuelalex9810 said:

All those inaccuracies in that article.

That's why we don't have to take these colonizers seriously. 

From Katy's Wikipedia page:

 

Quote

Perry has English, German, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry.

[Pendulum]

she's kinda like Rigoberta Bandini if you think about it 

 

[KillingYourCareer]

That's what we call FREE promo

[Phaunzie]

Where did the idea that a group full of black men tried to cook Katy in Bon come from? Okay, thanks I guess but some of this article are just inaccurate. 

Edited July 7 by Phaunzie

[romas_ld]

wow he really hates her

[enchanted0]

I'm more closer to hater but he missed some points here, especially this part

 

Quote

The consensus seems to be that Katy Perry is trying too hard. In a time when pop stars are laid-back and apathetic, a star as calculated and perfectionist as Perry seems like a relic of a past that no longer exists. Billie Eilish, Lorde, Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift succeed thanks to something as intangible and undeniable as authenticity. And that's exactly what Katy Perry seems to lack. "There's no science to being a pop star," opines Spencer Kornhaber. "Katy Perry and Charli XCX dress alike and make the same jokes, but the public judges whether it works or not." Kornhaber believes Perry's underground aesthetic looks like a costume on her. "Massive pop stars have always taken things from the margins and neutralized them. We didn't notice before. Now we do. If you try to force camp or underground cool, you fail."

Her "traditional" approach to the album rollout is like...literally the whole point of this era. Her fans and pop fans asked for it and she's bringing it back, whether it works or not.

Edited July 7 by enchanted0

[єѕℓαм]

Well she IS a flop and she's been flopping for almost a decade and the new single will flop too and rightfully so

why are the few katy stans acting surprised 

[Poxy]

2 hours ago, MALAMENTE said:

She doesn't write her lyrics? As far as I am concerned, she does

She self penned Thinking of God, One of the Legends and Self-Slayed from her debut alone. Article writer should respect these hymns 

[bliaz]

Her Reputation is coming 

[Tistotal]

3 hours ago, єѕℓαм said:

Well she IS a flop and she's been flopping for almost a decade and the new single will flop too and rightfully so

why are the few katy stans acting surprised 

nobody is surprised wtf

did you even read this topic before commenting