Friday, July 23, 2010
Music For My Next Post About Katy Perry, We'll Discuss Her Recent Candy Land Phase
Posted by Mike Conklin on Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 9:40 AM
In this Lady Gaga has an unlikely analogue in Katy Perry, who spent most of her first album in coy tugs-of-war with boys and girls. “California Gurls” is the first single from her new album, “Teenage Dream” (Capitol), which is to be released this month. Its video finds Ms. Perry frolicking in a candy fantasyland, pinup-girl style. But toward the end she’s shown dancing with cupcakes on her breasts, quickly followed by a scene in which she attaches a pair of whipped cream dispensers to her bra and fires away, leveling an army of Gummi Bear rapscallions. What it means is anyone’s guess, but the license to create such absurdist, post-sexual theater feels particularly Gaga-esque.
I'm not sure we should be calling Katy Perry's recent Candy Land phase post-sexual. On the contrary, it comes off as blatant (though, admittedly, perhaps tongue-in-cheek) riffing on the well-established pop music practice of infantilizing its female stars. It's not post-sexual—it's just predictably meta, self-inflicted and completely over the top, and thus it's supposed to seem above it all—like commentary on a thing rather than just the thing itself. It's a dubious implication given how little her music supports it.
Top Commenters
