Did 'Purposeful Pop' Kill the Witness Era?

[YeehawKylie 7,817]

I want to ramble (bare with me) about how ‘purposeful pop’ likely ruined the Witness Era for Katy Perry. Now, I have never quite enjoyed Katy Perry as an artist, but I do find myself drawn to flop albums. Whether it’s mere curiosity or the fact that I typically enjoy certain flop albums I do not know. Perry has clearly always been relatively successful, scoring at least one number one song from her first three albums and having several songs chart in the Top 10 of the Hot 100. Her singles have always been better than her albums. Now, her albums aren’t ever bad, but they’re never remarkable either. The albums she release are typically plagued by inconsistent song choices and placement and weak lyrical content. Until Witness, her single choices were quite perfect, which is one reason for her massive success in my opinion.

Now, all that being said, I would heavily argue that Witness is Perry’s best album, content-wise, while struggling with the same shortcomings of her previous albums. The difference is the more mature and experimental (for Perry-standards, at least) content. One thing that doesn’t accurately represent the album is ‘purposeful pop’. Yes, you have Chained to the Rhythm and Bigger Than Me, which, while being weak representations of ‘purposeful pop’, best describe that label more than any other songs on the album. This label and the subsequent singles really hurt the album.

You see, while I don’t think the title-track would have done any better than Chained to the Rhythm if released as the lead single, I do know it would have more accurately represented the album. Perry saying the album would be ‘purposeful pop’ really turned the album into self-mockery. Chained to the Rhythm, while fun, was lyrically on the surface and quickly became a mockery. Her view of purposeful came into question. The visuals for Chained to the Rhythm (and Bon Appetit) are the best videos she has made. They’re dark, driven, and have a distinct feeling and aesthetic. Leading with Chained to the Rhythm as her idea of purposeful was a stretch. Releasing Bon Appetite and Swish Swish next made matters worse.

Witness has some weak lyrics in songs like Hey, Hey, Hey, Bon Appetite, and Swish Swish. That being said, you have some of the strongest songs of her career such (Witness, Roulette, and Power). The album is more on point than it is off and I have found the album to get better with each listen. It’s the most cohesive album she has released and had the album been presented as a darker, more personal, and mature sound (led with Witness and Roulette as single one and two) I see the album being perceived and received much differently. There’s nothing wrong with having vapid, ‘escape songs’ like Bon Appetite and Swish, Swish on an album. The only thing wrong for Witness was that they were released as singles (primarily pre-album release) for an album being self-marketed as ‘purposeful pop’. Sexual cooking metaphors and basketball-revenge metaphors just don’t cut it. Perhaps these singles would have been successful without the need to live up to ‘purposeful pop’, as their lack of doing so was often the groan when both were released.

Aside from ‘purposeful pop’, I feel the album was well-promoted. The Witness Livestream was actually a creative and interesting concept. While not a Perry fan, I found myself sucked in sometimes while going to YouTube for other reasons. The aesthetics and artwork of the Witness Era were incredible in my opinion. Sure, the album cover could have been better (I still like it), but the artwork included in the album were amazing as were her videos (and it’s odd to see Swish Swish be a total visual departure of the aesthetic she’s created over the artwork and visuals). Despite this, the preview audiences received of the album failed to live up to the ‘purposeful’ label she gave the album that remains a punchline. Whereas, ARTPOP was easily turned into ARTFLOP by its critics, Perry herself gave her critics their most powerful ammunition in tearing her album down: Purposeful Pop.

[heda97 2,399]

Its the hair 

[xoxo lou 238]

naaahhh i think the GP simply didnt like this era or how katy is doing recently every singer has its own least selling era

[Chromatislaps 34,840]

11 minutes ago, heda97 said:

Its the hair 

nah, at least that went platinum I guess  

[Saint Hollywood 37,364]

Katy somewhat destroyed her image (by the politics, haircut, new music, etc.) and let the public get a hold of her vulnerable side. Those two reasons together made a mess of an era, even though Katy does not deserve such negativity. 

[ryanripley 86,575]

but where is the purposeful pop?  

it's just a bad album

[Gia Gunn 7,265]

I think it was a combination of a lot of things, but this point being one of the main factors. By last year, people were already waiting for something new from Katy, and they only got a promotional single which wasn't that good imo. After that, the hype was kinda killed? Plus she campaigned for Hillary, which I guess turned a part of the GP down? (Many people disliked Hillary before Trump was elected ). And after this, the purposeful pop came in, with bad single choices as you said.

If she hasn't waited this long and if she promoted it as you suggest, yes, I think Katy would be doing better. Tho her new look would still be mocked I'm sure.

[Thomas P 18,479]

She kind of did it to herself. She said things that shouldn't have been said, she damaged her brand with her new asthetic (she has that right, but it led to many short comings in the era itself), she did pretty cringey things everywhere, and overall the album kind of isn't that great at all. Single choices sucked so that didn't help. 

[FATCAT 59,992]

It was a plethora of issues, that was foreshadowed by Rise's odd rise and fall. So, a little, but not really.

[FfFfFfFF 55,680]

Bon Apetit could be seen as a having a social message too because I think that song is about how media and the public perceivs stars - ''food'' is something meaningless, unspecial, ordinary, but commonly known and present and stars are for most of the people pretty much the same. 

[Lucas 26,663]

She talked SO MUCH about poplitics and purposeful music and there are only 2 songs (Chained To The Rythm and Déja Vu) that feel like they actually talk about something that matters. Her whole woke persona feels so inauthentic.
During the promotion of CTTR she tweeted about politics every day and now she didn't tweet about that since months (and it's clearly not like there's nothing to talk about lately...)

[weed 73,718]

13 minutes ago, xoxoDerpanne said:

nah, at least that went platinum I guess  

 good one 

[TheRoof 21,600]

10 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

but where is the purposeful pop?  

it's just a bad album

THIS!

[Yuuri 21,636]

Because she finally showed her TrueColours.mp3, plus you can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.

[Chromatislaps 34,840]

if you want purposeful pop, listen to HIStory: past, present & Future, book I (disc 2, cuz Disc 1 is just a greatest hits compilation) by Michael Jackson