base talk Was there any way for Katy Perry to remain an A-list star à la Taylor/Adele/Beyoncé?

[Feanor]

 

In the early 2010s, there was no doubt that Katy Perry was one of the top names in music and an A-list star of pop culture.

But as everyone also knows, many of her A-list contemporaries of that time still remain A-list mega stars that the public is here for & checks out whenever they drop new projects, whereas Katy has obviously had a different path with less fruitful results for her recent outputs.

 

So my question is: Was there anything Katy Perry could've done that would have changed the trajectory of her career so that she remained one of the top names in entertainment in the 2020s like Taylor/Adele/Beyoncé etc.?

Or was she always fated to fade into the background after her time under the sun came to an end?

 

 

Edited July 18 by Feanor

[Bends]

She was the A-list TV star. She was very lucky to enter into negotiations on American Idol in early 2017 and win a check of 25 million.

Edited July 18 by Bends

[halcyonday]

No 4 years album breaks

No clowns 

No public meltdowns

 

Would've been a great start

[Everyperfectsummer]

Maybe releasing good music

[Windy Day]

no. she was never talented and versatile enough. it doesn't help that she's also insufferably cringe and out of touch. she just got lucky during the first few years of her career 

[WitnessOblivia]

Frequent releases, undeniable quality music, no drunk aunt and clown behaviour.

So..I'm leaning towards no. 

[State of Grace.]

That was never gonna happen. Even at her peak (Teenage Dream / Prism eras), she was clearly still behind them. I could literally argue that Bey during 4 (labeled as a flop in 2011) was still a bigger STAR than Katy.

 

Katy Perry is a pop star with an expiration date. She wasn't talented enough. She wasn't relatable. She never created a full body of work. Never bothered to build a fanbase/cult following. Etc. She was a mega star who created bops and had an appealing image yet safe enough for kids. Once she stopped serving both of those things and took a big break, the industry and the public moved on to fresher artists. 

 

Edited July 18 by State of Grace.

[BOOMBAYAH]

Katy is just not cool. I think having a cool factor is very important for longevity and industry dominance, and people associate Katy with corniness, artificiality, and stupidity.

[Badgalbriel]

Not really. I think people would eventually get rid of her. She was too naive to not try to build a solid fanbase and her attitude was too corny for people to continue tolerating after all those years. 

[glitch]

No she made faceless radio music and at the end of the day was just the latest in a long line of disposable pop stars. Singers like her never have a great deal of staying power.

[Monsieurgedeon]

Prism should never have been released. It was a commercially safe follow-up to *Teenage Dream* but ultimately boxed her in. She should have pursued artistic growth instead of commercial success, which merely capitalized on the achievements of the previous perfect era.

[Axolotl]

Her brand of humor did not fit into post-2016 America and it shows with her bad decisions.

[Princess Aurora]

No because she wasn't able to evolve from Teenage Dream

[SweetOreosOfHeaven]

I think there's a certain type of popstar that fits the Katy mold; they go really big but rarely last more than 4-5 years of success. It feels like they replace each other and never last long. Katy, Dua and now Sabrina fit that bill in my opinion. Ariana seemed to be going in that direction in the first half of her career but she managed to evolve and capture a fanbase. 

Edited July 18 by SweetOreosOfHeaven

[NextBish90]

No I think she just cemented her status as a clown and a looser. As I wrote in another threat she played us for years and this was the last drop.

It is what it is and she is OVER for good. 

[PrettyHurts]

She didn't evolve

[JO1s]

She's still an a-list star, just not an a-list musician.

[Johnny Jacobs]

25 minutes ago, Windy Day said:

she was never talented

Now.. Dont lie. Girl has talent. Just not on the higher level

[ugo]

3 minutes ago, JO1s said:

She's still an a-list star

she isn't though she get out liked by Gracie Abrams on instagram 

[Klein]

She really caught lightning in a bottle with Teenage Dream. But each following album showed that she actually didn't have very much to offer artistically. 

[Blade Runner]

She's always gonna be A-List. But her music career is over.

[KatyPrismSpirit]

She is still a a-list celebritiy. Just not on the level of Taylor, Adele & Beyoncé. 

 

And Katy has talent. She just creates more playful music than her peers. There should be nothing wrong with that. Imagine how tiring the industry would be if everyone tried to only make music like Adele or Taylor. Katy just embraced her position in pop and her individuality. It came to the cost of not evolving that much (and when she did attempt to evolve she got publicly ridiculed to the point she became depressed and took long breaks)

Edited July 18 by KatyPrismSpirit

[Gaia]

3 minutes ago, ugo said:

she isn't though she get out liked by Gracie Abrams on instagram 

Gosh it'd be nice if people could use some critical thinking every now and then.

 

And A-List star is essentially known by the entire GP who still has an automatic invite to every relevant event.

 

Katy flopping doesn't mean she's not a household name who can still virtually appear anywhere she wants. 
 

Is Madonna not an A-List star because she doesn't have top charts in 2024? Is Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, JLaw, etc. Not A-List stars just because their movies don't automatically gross 300M in box office anymore? Like use your brains. 

[єѕℓαм]

Honestly no 

unlike most of her peers she has no talents

[Mordecai]

She suffered the same fate as Xtina by taking too long between releases

 

I think her biggest mistake was doing the Super Bowl with no project attached to it. She should have done a Prism reissue to bridge the dry spell between it and Witness. Either that or she should have waited until a new album to perform, but I don't see how a halftime show would change the trajectory of Witness

 

Regardless of what the hate or bad press will tell you Witness is a good album and for the most part was artistic growth. Most of the songs on it definitely have a more mature sound and subject matter