Let me just get this statement out of the way with. I AM OBSESSED WITH KATY PERRY. There. I said it. Now you know my guilty pleasure. I’m not really ashamed of it. She’s beautiful. Her voice is stunning. I love her songs. I think her music videos are really cool and sometimes thought provoking. I don’t know what it is about her but I just love her. My wife knows this about me. There are no secrets between us.
It all started back in early 2007 when I was flipping through the television stations and came across some live show. Sort of like a Jerry Springer audience setting but it wasn’t a bizarre freak show or anything. It was some kind of variety program. This tall brunette girl was bouncing around the audience with a microphone singing, “I Kissed a Girl and Liked it!” She kept repeating that line over and over again. Why was this girl singing that? Why was she running around the audience and the stage like this. Who is she? I found myself intrigued.
I’m not gonna lie, pinup art is quite glamorous and sexy. One day I am going through a newspaper and come across the same girl posing in a Betty Page sort of way. I’m thinking, “So is she really a singer or a pinup model?” Come to find out she is both. Katy loves vintage model poses and she loves to have fun with her songs. It’s bubble gum pop with a true rock and roll edge. It’s like Madonna meets Joan Jett perhaps. But it’s honestly more than just that.
As the months went by I kept hearing more of her songs on the radio. I finally picked up her debut cd “Just One of The Boys,” and I really dug it a lot. I remember listening to it in the car or even when I would be mowing the lawn. I just was mostly obsessed with the lines “cherry chapstick” in that “Kissed a Girl” song I mentioned earlier. That certainly paints quite an image. However, I didn’t give it much thought once 2008 and 2009 rolled around. Suddenly her music was on the back burner.
Then all of a sudden; in 2010, she releases an astonishing sophomore album called Teenage Dream! It was daring, bold and provocative! Her first single, “California Gurls,” was a smash hit right from the start. I mean, there’s Snoop Dog on backing vocals and a music video that is a takeoff on the board game Candy Land! Need I say more? The hits just kept on coming. This girl knows how to write songs. She’s not some pop star that just dances around and fills in for the vocals. She is very much involved in the process of choreography, lyrics, music, videos and live shows (which always sell out).
She broke a record with this album releasing like 6 top singles, I believe. My favorite ended up being the song entitled, “Firework.” This one is like a pocket symphony. It is motivational and awe inspiring. I first heard it playing in a public venue at a skating rink when my wife and I took our middle niece (Samantha) there for her birthday and as I am skating around the track I suddenly hear the lines, “Just Open Wide and Let it Shine.” I was like, “I know this song!” It was just a perfect moments with the lights, the people gliding around on their roller blades grooving to her awesome pumping music.
Now here we are in August 2013. After 3 years of touring, marriage and divorce and plenty of drama; Katy Perry is doing it again! She’s releasing a new record in October, entitled PRISM. Her first single just came out today. It’s called ROAR. She seems to be unleashing a beast of a record, again! Miss Perry is raising the bars by promoting the album via Gold Semi Truck driving around the truck with her name and album title blazed on the side of it. She’s heavily using Twitter and Facebook to get the word out there.
She’s still into fashion, because she (like Madonna) is constantly changing wardrobes and coloring her hair but she definitely is doing her own thing, “and I like it.” I cannot wait until the new record is released. Sometimes it’s hard to explain why we get so addicted to people, sounds, colors, ideas and voices. We just do.
The Music Bard 