I finally heard Katy Perry’s second top-10 single, “Hot N Cold,” while driving around Connecticut over the weekend, and this video gives me the chance to note, first, that Perry’s semi-broguey breathiness on this track makes her a dead vocal ringer for Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan–at least, until the Dr. Luke/Max Martin production comes in to clobber any eardrums in close proximity to the music. And second of all, what is up with that opening couplet? “You change your mind / Like a girl changes clothes / Yeah you, PMS / Like a bitch, I would know”? It’s like every day, she provides even more fodder for the thesis that her “conservative Lolita” schtick basically paved the way for the national debut of lipsticked reactionary Sarah Palin, although I’m sure Perry would dispute the idea that she’d ever vote for the GOP veep candidate. (After all, that PMS reference is a sign that she’s wary of ladies’ “emotions” and “menopause” and stuff.) [MySpace]
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Seriously, Why Is Katy Perry So Hung Up On Traditional Gender Roles?
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I thought I liked this for the first 45 seconds the first time I heard it. I knew who it was and everything — Z100 had front-announced it (I think it was the Top 9 At 9), so I wasn’t liking it because I thought it was somebody other than Katy Perry.
But then, like Maura says, you get to the chorus and the air is let out of the balloon — or, rather, the sledgehammer comes down. Would it have been so hard to keep the whole song in the breathy-technopop vein? It’s clearly a style for which she’s better suited.
@ITMS: Two points…
1. Glad you mentioned Kelly Clarkson, because I’m starting to think we have “Since U Been Gone” to blame for this murderous electro-stomp sound we’re enduring. What made that song deft and winning four years ago (and made Pink’s “U + Ur Hand” amusing two years later) is quickly wearing thin. Of course, Max and Luke are behind virtually all of these tracks, so I guess this is entirely their fault/problem.
2. No such luck on the one-hit-wonder thing — “Hot N Cold” leaped into the Billboard Top 10 last week and has been an iTunes best-seller for more than a month now.
Not bad, but maybe it’s because the breathy verses reminded me a bit of the chorus of Jennifer Paige’s “Crush”. Also, still not as good as her Feistified cover of “Electric Feel”.
@ITMS: . Kind of hypnotic in the “I know this is bad for me” way
Unintentional pun? Or deft repurposing of Katy’s own lyrics?
@Chris Molanphy: The electro is a slightly newer thing, to be totally fair. But I think the songs that hit the American market are probably the most boring of them all. Max & Luke can pull out some really incredible arrangements when the occasion calls, still- it’s just that they don’t become hits and so fall by the wayside. (Or, in the case of Marion Raven’s “End of Me”, they go to East Asia to become hits.)
@Nunya B: Oh, drat, “End of Me” isn’t a Dr. Luke cowrite. Call him the problem and absolve Max of the sin, then.
Okay, Chris, Maura, whoever: I’m here to defend Katy Perry and the electro-stomp as the lesser of two evils. Remember, the void in the pop vacuum could have been filled with Nickelback, Hinder, Buckcherry, Daughtry, etc.
@Rock You Like An Iracane: …and Perry’s retrograde music and hetero-normative lyrics differ from “Nickelback, Hinder, Buckcherry, Daughtry, etc.” in what meaningful ways? Weak sauce pop > weak sauce rock?
The re-evaluation of Katy Perry? Y’all Idolators never cease to amaze, and in a good way. I mean, what the hell–the country is going to hell in a handbasket, we might as well enjoy some cotton candy pop in short-shorts.
Next stop: The new Gym Class Heroes! Come on, you know you want to…
@janine: word, word, word x 1000000. i’d rather have daughtry, because at least he isn’t misunderstanding nabokov in order to seem ‘edgy.’
@janine: The idea that the same old trope of male-dominated “hetero-normative” (really, I’m as PC-friendly as everyone, but, seriously, the fact is that homosexuality, while the fact of life for 10-15% of the population, giving Kinsey’s figures a LOT of credit) would survive is better than giving us all a new bad girl pop princess with some danceable stuff?
I would personally rather have the person benefitting from exploitation of female sexuality at least be the woman throw to the wolves for the exploits; listen to “Too Drunk to Fuck” or “Lips of an Angel” and you can hear the same cock-rock principles that guided Mick back in the day. Would you rather have assholes or faux lesbians glorified?
Perry comes off as really, really processed, but so did Britney, and Mariah, and Celine; certainly, she’s nowhere near any of those levels, but she’s probably on Jessica Simpson’s, and I enjoyed some of her stuff, too, for its musical value as throwaway pop.
What, exactly, do you mean by retrograde?
@Maura Johnston: Misunderstanding Nabokov was edgy? When?
I’ll take glammed-up, trashed-out pop nine times out of ten over soulless, cookie-cutter modern rock.
I thought the Fall Out Boy video was over the top with product placement but this takes the cake.
This song always sounded like a song by The Sounds, but you know, with a way hotter singer and a video featuring a wacky inflatable arm flailing tube man. I love it!
Do kids in middle America even have the money for Diesel?
@Rock You Like An Iracane: when perry thought that it would be ‘hot’ to dress up like lolita for her album cover.
@Maura Johnston: Was that cover supposed to be edgy? I just saw a girl on a lawn chair, and I guarantee 85% of the public missed the allusion, too.
@crippledmark: As a college student from a middle class background, being around upper middle class people and seeing Prada sunglasses on a girl today, I’m going to say that the kids in the middle America Perry’s handlers are aiming for is much more like Fresno than Fargo.
@Rock You Like An Iracane: I’m not talking about “the exploitation of female sexuality.” Besides, she’s oddly sexless given the size and visibility of her tatters.
I’m just wondering if we aren’t yet past the use of gay as an epithet (Ur So Gay), and if we aren’t encouraging at least a tip o’ the hat to the bad old days by letting it pass as acceptable, especially when similar stupid shit pops up in every song whose lyrics I’ve cared to look at. That’s what I mean by hetero-normative. Granted, I’ve disliked her from the first song I heard, so I’m probably not giving this song a chance.
By her music being retrograde, I would say that her music sounds like 5 years ago, except that Dangerously in Love and Justified sound much fresher.
I can comfort myself in knowing that she will have no longevity in dance music without the gays.
@janine: …every one of her songs whose lyrics I’ve cared to look at…
@janine: You think she’s not going to have longevity in dance? Uh…
I, too, would hope we were past the “gay as synonym for stupid” stage in sociological development, but as an 18-year-old male, I can tell you it’s alive and well, along with more vulgar terms.
And, yeah, she’s almost antiseptic as far as her sexuality goes, what with the taste of cherry ChapStick probably the hottest bit of sensuality in “I Kissed a Girl,” but that doesn’t mean she isn’t playing on her sexuality by never showing up anywhere without thigh-to-toe leg or, well, this.
I’d agree with you on the retrograde thing, though; we’re in a “Since U Been Gone” stretch of what I would hope is the Kanye/Justin/Beyonce/Timbaland/Danja Era of pop, and there’s not going to be another anything on par with that wonderful, fantastic song. The best thing not named Carrie Underwood that Idol’s produced.
@Rock You Like An Iracane: she certainly thinks she is edgy. she also yells ‘PEEEENISSSS!’ during her shows.
@Maura Johnston: Either she’s just that dumb or she’s playing us all for fools and will reveal herself as one of the Michalka girls (Aly and AJ) soon enough.
I wouldn’t argue that Katy Perry’s really GOOD, sociologically or musically. But she’s not as bad as she’s sometimes demonized to be.
I can’t believe no one’s commented on the amazing picture quality of this myspace vid. This is the clearest music video I have ever seen on my computer. It’s almost TV-like quality.
@Maura Johnston: I’d like to think she says corny shit like that because she came from a strict Christian background. She’s “rebelling” at the moment, even if it is a little weird seeing a 24 year old who equates yelling “penis” with being edgy.
@Rock You Like An Iracane: See, none of those dudes act like they’re like, totally transgressive and groundbreaking. I’ve never heard any one of those acts call themselves “edgy.” Hell, Nickelback’s big hit is all about being a rock star in the most classic sense. I prefer honest out-and-out misogyny/homophobia to Katy Perry’s “I’m doing something good girls don’t do! I’m rebelling! Look at me! Look at me!” bullshit.
@Poubelle: If she’s said, “I’m edgy,” well, I’ve missed it, and that would be bullshit. If it’s the poseur act that rubs the wrong way, the fact that she’s a charlatan of a chanteuse in hot pants, well, I’m not as turned off by that as some.
Can’t…wait…till a sex tape surfaces……..
I hate to admit I find this song incredibly catchy.
I know it’s bad for me, but I can’t help myself.
@dsven: Max Martin cannot be denied, no matter how loathsome Katy Perry is. She’s the Sarah Palin of pop.
Katy Perry = autotune + hot pants.
@dsven: Me too. Don’t worry. I’ve been listening to it on and off since Popjustice told me I should earlier this year.
I also… kind of enjoyed the video. It’s nice to see some sort of synchronized dancing in videos for a change.
Are the sunglasses by Diesel; they only zoom in to show the logo a couple of times . . .
I’ve loved this song since I first heard it; it’s less stupidly strident than either “Ur So Gay” or “I Kissed a Girl,” and better-equipped with gleefully light chorus.
The video gets a solid B+, but who wears hot pants as part of a wedding gown?
@Nunya B: Wow, I’m with you on that more than I thought I’d be. That was one of the more entertaining videos I’ve seen in a while. Kind of hypnotic in the “I know this is bad for me” way, which reminds me of “Fergalicious”.
Honestly, if she hadn’t released “I Kissed A Girl”, I might admit to enjoying this song. If Kelly Clarkson pulled this shit, I’d be all over it.
I was really hoping that Katy would be a one-hit wonder. Please tell me that she’ll have a terrible, terrible sophomore slump. Please?
Very enjoyable thread all around!! Nicely done.
Only two cents I’d like to add is…why is our choice down to crappy phony-rebel bitchpop or over-the-hill blandrock? Can’t we vote both out and just move on?!
Ugh..the election is affecting my view of everything.