Katy's Identity Crisis

[StrawberryBlond 14,881]

It's so true. I don't think she truly knows what she's going for this era. I think it's a big mish-mash of ideas, kinda like AP, but at least that was a mish-mash of good ideas. This album has just been a mess so far. Just three songs and already we have three completely different personalities vying for our attention. CTTR - a socially aware person who wants peace. BA - a sex kitten who wants it all the time. SS - a sassy bitch. There will also be the obligatory Katy ballads that will also reveal more personalities. Which one properly represents the message of her album? What genre is it going to be? What demographic is she aiming for? Nobody knows. Just under a decade into her career, album #4 and Katy still hasn't made it clear who she truly is as an artist. It's like ToddInTheShadows once said - she has no solid personality, she just is whoever the song says she is.

1 hour ago, Slayer said:

Have to say I agree with the article. Even since the release of Katy's last album, there has been a huge shift in the pop music climate. A lot of pop artists have had to adapt. Most have become more 'authentic', but I think Katy has struggled with her reinvention because she simply doesn't have the talent. She belongs to an era of very superficial, electronic dance pop and she just hasn't got what it takes to transition into something more relatable... so she just cuts off her hair and adds a bunch of on-trend rappers to some on-trend urban-sounding songs. 

It's really no wonder she is experiencing so much backlash. The sad thing is I think she could have had a successful reinvention if she had continued with the direction of CTTR. Unfortunately she just had to go back to trashy and kitsch and "sex sells", because evidently CTTR under-performed by her standards. But clearly everybody's over her old shtick as well. So she's got nowhere left to go.

I just don't think she will last. 

I agree. It's like back in the mid 00's when popstars started going a bit more 'urban' and featuring rappers on their songs to maintain decent sales at a time when urban music was ruling the airwaves. In 2004, every single one of the 12 #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were urban tracks by black urban artists and featuring black urban artists. That put all these white popstars in a very tough place, so adapting was the order of the day. Now, that same thing is happening again. Problem is, in the current culture, we are very quick to judge these kind of things as cultural appropriation, which can lead to reduced sales because no one wants to support that. Even Miley's sales weren't as good as her video views were.

Of course she still has somewhere left to go but there's no way she's going to risk all her commercial success by doing something truly different. Deep down, she totally wants to be a ballad artist, which is evident by how many ballads she put on Prism, her most ever. If rumour is true, she was very put out by the fact that Unconditionally flopped and was immediately overshadowed by Dark Horse. Whenever she's left to completely her own devices when writing a song or just has one other person involved, she always produces a ballad or a rock-influenced tune, never a big pop banger. I think that tells you everything about who really helped make her songs hits (Luke, Bonnie, Max) and what type of music she really wants to make (ballads and pop rock).

[Debithius 5,863]

1 hour ago, Despacito said:

She was. She just doesn't hide it anymore  

Such a mess. Honestly...I thought that I was annoying but I have never found anyone more annoying than me until now. Like...it seems like she is forcing the goofy personality and it doesn't help her either.