The song that started Katy’s decay

[Luc 4,775]

The first cracks started showing with Unconditionally. Dark Horse was too much of a monster hit, it overshadowed the rest of the era (besides Roar of course).

 

But what I think really did it was the cringey aesthetics after Dark Horse. It worked well because Youtube was at its peak back then, and youtube was mostly used by children, but the childishness of her work after Dark Horse made her lose the 'coolness' factor needed for the public that mostly uses Spotify and AM.

[KennyRichie 1,986]

For what I read on this thread, it was not a single alone, but the whole Witness album 

[Xoxo Adriana 15,040]

i remember the ariana collab rumour!! arianators were CONVINCED it was real, tbh ari would’ve been an amazing feature on that song.

i don’t get why she added Migos though. apart from being homophobic pricks, Katy herself said BA was about female sexual liberation. how the hell can migos relate to that?

[Enigma 7,182]

Not y’all caring about Katy collabing with homophobic rappers but still stanning Nicky who openly supported 3 sexual assaulters/pedophiles (her brother, husband and 6ix9ine) 

[Enigma 7,182]

4 hours ago, RAMROD said:

It was this tbh. She still had her hair too.

 

The irony of a song titled Rise being her downfall

[dzox 552]

okay but imagine if next year she's back with her long black hair, and an R&B-Pop song (something like ariana grande would sing). i honestly think her black hair would make headlines

[Zombiecat 16,672]

why do they choose the most annoying looking thumbnails for her vids 

[AmenFashyen 1]

Her downfall is a fluctuation:

1. Fashion: Her hair being blonde and cut.

2. Witness sounds mature: none of her songs being recognized by the children from my circles. The last was Rise! Witness is for the 'big' people.

3. Her wrong choices of singles since PRISM: Birthday?....

4. SMILE has no Teenage Dream and PRISM catchy vibes: some do like Smile and Cry About it Later but they just don't sound and feeling like TD and PRISM.

5. Is she failing? Obviously not. She is big no worries.... AND I love her. I don't support hate.

[mattia 1]

Birthday was the start of Katy’s decay. This Is How We Do performed slightly better ww but that song wasn’t it.

Rise performed well considering it was a standalone but only debuted and peaked at #11 on the Hot 100 and after the success Prism experienced, everyone expected at least a Top 5/10 debut.

Chained To The Rhythm wasn’t a good choice as a lead single (Roulette deserved to be the lead) and performed well on the charts just because had a good promo and the gp at the time was interested in Katy’s comeback.

Bon Appétit was ahead of its time. Period. But that’s where the gp started losing interest in Katy.

Swish Swish was a good song and I didn’t expect it to flop that hard, I thought Nicki was going to save it. Anyway.

Never Really Over could have been Katy’s biggest hit in years, even bigger than CTTR, but they didn’t promote it at all. What a shame. 

Starting from there she only released bad songs as singles (Small Talk....chile......) and the gp entirely lost interest in her music.

[Regina George 59,387]

Y’all are obsessed with this woman I swear. 

[LadyEnigma 1,190]

It's kinda sad because after she cut her hair no one really payed attention anymore  

[GAYHEMikey 8,021]

Idk but I felt CTTR was like EVERYWHERE. + the videos during Witness were so damn good I can’t believe this album flopped 

[JustJames 965]

I don’t think a case can be made for “Rise,” since it was unattached to an album or era. Not exploring new genres or sounds on her followup to TD stifled her future success. OOTB was rock-pop; if KP3 had Gospel or R&B influence, she’d have a diverse discography and ability to pivot. Remaining in the bubblegum pop lane / using blowup toys at the SB at ~30 put an expiration date on her brand. 

PRISM was more realistic of what her peak should’ve looked like vs. TD. Roar benefit from the hype post-TD, but Dark Horse was really the organic smash of that era. Birthday and TIHWD are like random album tracks we see chart now due to streams; they’re literally 100% irrelevant to the GP and casual fans.

CTTR, like NRO, got a post-hiatus “lead” boost (with diminishing success). I love that song, but it tanked despite a strong debut. Then, an artist who’d built an image as a bubblegum pop geek with a posse of rubber sharks made rude remarks about Brit shaving her head right before she chopped her own, gave awkward livestreams which showed signs of mental health issues, built a feud with a younger female artist, and released confusing collabs / visuals that clashed with TD / SB KP.

OOTB > PRISM > Witness > NRO is not an uncommon / unsuccessful run. The outlier in her career is TD, and while having 1 of the best pop eras is no small feat, it came at the expense of longevity as a bar she’d never surpass. Choosing to keep the look / sound from TD for her next, closely released, project further pigeonholed her. Between the lead of TD > final single of PRISM, it’d been ~4 yrs of nonstop exposure to *that* KP. To maintain it was not sustainable or possible as with every song and appearance, she pushed an image and genre not conducive to the late 30s/40s. 

[TEETHTEETH 1,709]

This video is still good though.. I eat it up

[Archduchess 2]

I agree