Many of us have been ignoring Katy Perry for years, at least musically. I had to look up when she last released an album and how it did. Her last two studio albums performed poorly – Witness (2017) and Smile (2020) barely charted and only sold a small fraction of her previous albums, released during Katy’s heyday a decade ago or longer. It’s not that Katy disappeared – she was on American Idol for years as a judge, she got married and had a baby, and she’s spent years cozying up to the British monarchy, even performing at King Charles’s coronation concert. But yeah, people just sort of lost interest in Katy as a pop star at some point, which is weird given her ubiquity a decade ago.
Well, Katy is trying to launch a comeback and it’s not going well. Her new album is called 143, and she’s released the first single and music video. The song is called “Woman’s World” and it’s absolutely ghastly:
The song itself is just kind of stupid, and representative of the kind of frothy, irrelevant, cotton-candy fuax-feminism Katy pushed circa 2011. The music video is what makes it downright offensive though. What’s worse is the backstory – Katy has worked with producer/hitmaker Dr. Luke throughout her career, and she returned to him for “Woman’s World” and the album. In 2014-16, Kesha went to court to get out of her contract with Dr. Luke, and Kesha made credible accusations that Dr. Luke abused her, raped her and plied her with drugs and alcohol. While Kesha lost many battles, she succeeded in ensuring that anyone who works with Dr. Luke gets a massive sideeye. Singing about bubble-gum feminism while shaking your t-ts and working with a credibly accused rapist is not the way to launch a comeback.
As NBC News notes, even Katy’s true-blue fans are in turmoil about whether to support a song co-written and produced by Dr. Luke. They’re also mad that this rollout is so messy, and that their girl is being exposed as a massive hypocrite. The critical response is already savage too – you can read the Guardian’s review here, they called it “regressive, warmed-over hell.” Other critics have called it a “stale retread” and “stuck in 2016.”
“Joyride”, by independent artist Kesha, has peaked higher on US Spotify than Katy Perry and Dr. Luke’s “Woman’s World”. pic.twitter.com/bMCXewDgRH
— Mr. Pop (@MrPopOfficial) July 13, 2024
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images and screenshots from YouTube.
-
- New York, NY – Katy Perry was captured stepping out of her hotel, looking chic in a bright orange dress. Pictured: Katy Perry BACKGRID USA 28 JUNE 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2024-2025 – Balenciaga – Arrivals Featuring: Katy Perry Where: Paris, France When: 26 Jun 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2024-2025 – Balenciaga – Arrivals Featuring: Katy Perry Where: Paris, France When: 26 Jun 2024 Credit: Abaca Press/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
When I saw her stumbling and smirking around the coronation, my Meghan-hater radar went off. Maybe this is a little unfair, but Katy did crack jokes about Britney’s mental health for years. This is Karma.
1000%
This is karma coming for this horrendous individual.
Never liked her either.
What surprises me most is that she still has any fans.
You are spot on, Snaggletooth.
Kissing up to the colonizers was sickening.
Just a typical/stale look for a ‘wanna be feminist’ in 2024.
Katy has proven herself to be a grade A, tried and true male gaze chaser.
She can deny it all she wants, but her attached video is a mom who got back in great shape and ready to recapture her tassel breast cone era that brought her lots of attention.
Not at all interested in musical critical acclaim.
Just visuals.
And she does look great by the way. She has a beautiful body and she has loads of talent.
But it seems she just wants to be ‘hot’
The description of it as a cotton candy feminism lite circa 2011 is so apt for Katy. She’s either a wannabe feminism, or far worse… she thinks that this type of feminism still works and has impact in 2024. And after the hell that the world has been through and what the US continues to face with right-wing nuts, it says a lot about the kind of self-involved rich white woman view on feminism she has. Up there with goop et al
That video is… offensive.
I was cringing so hard after 5 seconds but forced myself to watch it. It was….horrible. And my second hand embarrassment is off the charts 😬😬😬
Omg, thank you so much for including that Guardian review of her album!🤣
It’s quite something isn’t it!
That guardian review…. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
And what I really like is that they included the video from Chappell Roan, who succeeded in doing a tongue in cheek “women are awesome!” song/video. It’s a good rebuttal to the (few) fans I’ve seen complaining that people “aren’t getting” that Katy’s song is satire. Well, yeah, it may have been intended to be tongue in cheek satire, but she failed miserably at it.
@HARPER I am loving Chappell Roan. I’ve been around long enough to see the rise of Britney and Lady Gaga, and I haven’t been so excited for a pop singer since. Everyone, give ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ and all of ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess’ a listen.
She looks desperate.
I saw the video, I won’t be listening to her music.. especially now after reading the backstory.
I had to turn it off it’s so bad. So basic.
And so sexist, she uses every single trope & stereotype in the first verse/chorus!
I’m glad it fell flat, she’s a pretty awful artist/singer/dancer/person.
Right! A song supposedly empowering women, so why are they peeing in urinals? It’s so much cringe
Maybe I’m too dumb to understand the nuance or irony of the gas pump in her butt cheek and pretending to pee in urinals…copying male stereotypes doesn’t make us women. Being our truest selves and forging our own path (however that looks in whatever body we have) does. …if he dreamed up this video, it checks. So. Bad.
I sort of was thinking the first section was the male gaze’s idealized womanhood, and then she was crushed under the weight of it. But then she showed up with less clothes but cyborg legs, and it didn’t get better or make any kind of sense after she reinflated herself? And I couldn’t listen to more of that sound to even finish it. Bye girl. I hate that she proved TS right for hating her (lol)
I thought that urinal shot was stupid, but was utterly repulsed by the gas nozzle in the butt. WTH was that even supposed to be????
It is like someone from Katy’s team left her and took all the talent with them. People thought it was that Luke guy, but apparently it wasn’t. I can’t believe how bad the music video and the music itself are. The lyrics trash, music trash, the messaging is all over the place. If it was actually good, the general public would still listen to it. Most people don’t follow Luke’s controversies.
Also, just to note, it wasn’t just Kesha who spoke out about this man. Multiple A-List singers commented on what a horrible guy he is. Kelly Clarkson, who minds her own business all the time, spoke out against him.
Her song “Last Friday Night” has 1.5 billion views on YouTube. I tried to explain it in my head and gave up.
That video is awful. It looks like she’s just desperate to show off her ‘post baby bod’ ( to be fair, she does look very fit, and great), BUT massive side eye to her.
She’s simply reduced women to titty-baring beings.
And, the colab with Dr Luke as a massive secondary shade.
Bad optics indeed, Katy.
That was it, an ode to her post-baby bod.
What a bizarre, cringy video. The song is mediocre at best but the video does it absolutely no favors. Oof
What did I just watch? What kind of crap video did she think she was creating? I always found Katy Perry songs either superficially cute or annoying. This one and the video are just forgettable — although the thirst is as strong as a Brad and Ines pap walk. And yeah, I’m tired of the sugary faux feminist themes that she’s pushes. Katy, you can just do your kitty kat cute pop music…no need to go any deeper than that. Being deep is not you at all.
She also voted for Rich Caruso so truly she does not have a brain. Never Really Over was a great song with a terrible video, she should have continued on in that vein. The fact that six people wrote this vague trite tired song is laughable, even sadder that four of them were men. On a song called Women’s World!!!!
Yuck. After the second very unappetizing shot of ladies wiggling their booties in front of the urinals, I stopped the video. That was 37 seconds in. Her pop career is dunzo.
this seems lazy. I’m getting vibes that she’s trying to piggyback off the Barbie movie but she’s too late in terms of the sound of the song and look of the video (which is crap as is the song). Go away.
Katycats have spent weeks saying Katy is forced to work with him because of contracts which is a lie and most of them know it too. She has a publishing deal that involves him but that does not mean she has to work with him. Katy is still big enough in the industry that the labels couldn’t force her if she wasn’t ok with it either. They are really competing for being the worst fanbase out there with making fun of victims trying to drag everyone else not to mention the threats. The album is going to tank too.
She didn’t work with him for her last 2 albums, which flopped. That is why she went back to him, not because of contractual obligations.
i saw fans try to say this was satire, which might work if 1) she wasn’t working with dr. luke and/or 2) she didn’t have a history of anti-feminism and supporting people who deny women access to basic medical care.
The video is such a cringe mess and the song feels like it was written by a combo of AI and who ever was responsible for putting “inspirational” sayings on tampon wrappers back in the day.
It’s fascinating to think that there are SO many people involved in a making a song and video and nobody apparently says “wait, this sucks, A LOT”
What?!? There was a time when there were inspirational sayings on tampon wrappers? I never heard of that before… That’s so weird!
Is there a word for when you’re trying to be satirical, but instead you end up just being the thing that you’re satirizing?
irony?
FFS, the song sounds like it was written for a preschool show, and I can’t get past the lyric “so soft, so strong”. Yes, women loved to be described with the terms used ro describe toilet paper! And the video looks ridiculous and cheap, like one of those ARK Music Factory videos for “Friday” and “I Like Chinese Food” (or whatever the hell the latter one was called.
Also, just a reminder that Katy herself was accused of sexual harassment and unwanted touching, I think by the male models who appeared in some of her earlier videos. I bring this up because NO ONE seems to remember it. With that in mind, it’s no woder that she has no issues working with Dr, Like.
Faux-feminism is exactly the word. This feels like a time capsule for the kind of feminism that made Katy Perry famous 15 years ago and at the same time like they had AI write the song based on a command to write a feminist anthem that sounds like a Katy Perry song.
She is so soft? Pictures of her implants jiggling together? This is entirely designed for the male gaze. Both Katy Perry and Dr. Luke have matured exactly zero 0% in the last decade.
The song is boring and video is cringey and corny.
Her Orlando aren’t married yet. Which is rather interesting to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they never tied the knot. She has been a hypocrite for a good long while (supporting an anti-choice candidate for LA Mayor while lambasting the overturning of Roe v Wade comes to mind). I have never liked her for that specific reason and I am glad more people are realizing that she only likes to cosplay feminism. Not actually live it.
I’m not wishing for it but I predict a split within the next 18 months. There’s an air of desperation that she didn’t used to have.
I never understood Perry and Bloom as a couple. He seems more sane and down-to-earth.
It’s very cheesy. I will die on the hill that not everything a woman does has to be a knee-jerk reaction against the male gaze, and that women are allowed to like cartoonish vulgarity too. But working with Dr.Luke on a project like that is messed up.
Either it’s Dr Luke trying to save his reputation and illustrating himself as a feminist ally either it’s Perry being contractually obliged to work with him and so trying to troll him. I’m leaning toward the former.
“Perry being contractually obliged to work with him ”
That is incorrect. There is no contractual obligation on Katy’s side.
Ok then it’s just a couple of terrible people working together and making bad music.
Lol this is exactly what you get when you have a sexual predator try to play a feminist.
I would rather watch the Shark dance than listen to that song ever again. I didn’t know a woman’s world is just walking around in a string bikini.
Did this not make the cut for the Barbie soundtrack or something?
She is the product of being raised by ultra conservative Duggar-like Christians, and not being bright. It makes for such foolishness.
Umm, this is probably why she was called the original “nothing burger”
Oooooooof. That track is a total turd.
Katy should go back to the Bettie Page cosplay. I’m not usually a fan of bangs, but they help her for whatever reason. And optics are all that she apparently has left.
Did you ever see her appearance on sesame street with Elmo circa 2011/2010? Boobs galore. She’s forever ridiculous.
1. She used every sexist trope there is. 2. She and Dr. Luke stole this sound from early Lady Gaga. It’s so derivative it’s not even funny. 3. I don’t know who is more tone deaf about the world, themselves and their audience: This dum-dum, or J-Lo.
I haven’t watched the video, and don’t need to in order to believe it’s horrible. Dr. Luke is canceled and anybody who continues to work with him doesnt support women. F***ing period, I said what I said.
This video and song are so cringe…..but I’m not surprised. Katy was an entertainer in her day but probably not a true artist.
Rose-tinted glasses feminism from the Obama era. Questionable then, outrageous today. The lyrics are meant for toddlers.
Just stay home Katy, and keep trying to make money out of your ugly shoes.
This song is terrible. Had to switch it off. Ear bleedingly bad and so fake feminist cliche.
Shame on her for working with Dr. Luke. And shame on Latto, too.