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.