Is it fair to call Katy a “throwback”?

[ThisGuyTony 34,687]

I’ve been seeing a lot of discourse on Twitter that calling Katy a throwback might not be accurate due to these facts:

- She’s #13 on Spotify Top Artists with 91.1M monthly listeners 

- She pulls about 17-19M streams a day from her whole catalogue and ranks 22nd most streamed artist daily 

- Recent streaming resurgence of TOTGA (doing 3M streams daily), LL (1M daily), and Harley’s In Hawaii will reach 1B streams soon + Tik Tok virality

- Teenage Dream is currently charting at #33 on the Billboard 200 in its 478th week

- She still tours and her summer festivals this year have been doing well

Do you think these are impressive stats for someone called a “throwback” or what else would she have to accomplish to lose the title of “throwback act”?

[Bronco 24,195]

I mean, those song and album chart stats answer your question. 

The One That Got Away came out in 2012
Legendary Lovers came out in 2013
Harleys in Hawaii came out in 2019. 

The only songs of hers that pull good numbers are throwback hits. 
Her last new release to achieve a BB100 spot was Woman's World at #63 - 2 years ago. 
Her 3 out of 5 singles since then have only made it to Bubbling Under, 2 didn't even make that. 

She's not had a Top 10 hit since Chained to the Rhythm in 2017. Her last #1 was in 2013. 

By definition, she's a throwback/legacy act who's maintained success relies on historical releases. 

 

[Ziggy 13,935]

no she is lol the thing with being x number on spotify is you have to consider that on a platform like that, older established artists stand to benefit since they've had hits rack up over the years so people remember and have had prior time with ALL of those hits whereas newer artists basically have to compete with a lack of concerted attention and the whole library of music history. So in that regard, ofc someone like Katy Perry who is probably our most recent salient example of being a throwback artist would be something like #13. She has nostalgia hits when the nostalgia wave is presently in her favor. This doesn't mean *she is relevant, it means the era she dominated is. The fact that she's had nothing resembling a hit since 2016 is telling. 10 years? And no HIH doesn't count since that was more like a little blip of popularity amongst certain people.

Not to pit them against one another but Ga is a great example since they started the same time. Her music had a fallow period after Applause until basically Shallow, but in between that she had moments like AHS and The Sound of Music that set her up for the smash that became ASIB and Shallow, which was about as organic a hit as anything you'll see in the streaming era. It was also only 5ish years after Applause during which time she also did the Super Bowl and MR became a medium hit (A Superbowl boost giving it a higher placement doesn't count for relevance imo). After ASIB, 2 years later came Rain on Me. Then 5 years after came Abracadabra. but my point is that even between the hits themselves, which can be hard to measure legacy acts' success by, she's had major, salient pop cultural moments that someone like Katy Perry has just never had which is to say, to be a successful legacy artist, you need pop cultural moments and impact to sustain you, not your hits because you have those already. Katy has the inverse where she has only hits and absolutely zero relevance or impact. But that's kind of always been the case.

[RAMROD 116,879]

None of her new songs hits nor leaving a cultural mark, her streaming numbers mostly from that one album that is a big break for her, and people go to her shows for old hits, since they didn't know or not familiar with the new ones. You can see those fan live stream at her concerts by some people, how the audience react when teenage dreams songs were sung VS newer ones lmao.  And despite her 5 stans like to make fun of Gaga for "only having hits from collab", at least it's a hit, Katy had collabs for her past 3 flop albums singles, (Migos, Necki, Skip Marley, Doechii, Alesso) and none of them are #1 hits lmao

So yes, she is a throw back. She is not as culturally relevant anymore as you may think.

Edited 8 hours ago by RAMROD

[Lucas 30,984]

All your facts

22 minutes ago, ThisGuyTony said:

I’ve been seeing a lot of discourse on Twitter that calling Katy a throwback might not be accurate due to these facts:

- She’s #13 on Spotify Top Artists with 91.1M monthly listeners 

- She pulls about 17-19M streams a day from her whole catalogue and ranks 22nd most streamed artist daily 

- Recent streaming resurgence of TOTGA (doing 3M streams daily), LL (1M daily), and Harley’s In Hawaii will reach 1B streams soon + Tik Tok virality

- Teenage Dream is currently charting at #33 on the Billboard 200 in its 478th week

- She still tours and her summer festivals this year have been doing well

Do you think these are impressive stats for someone called a “throwback” or what else would she have to accomplish to lose the title of “throwback act”?

All of these songs/albums are like 14 years old, your answer is in your post  Except Harleys In Hawaii which is the least Katyish song she ever released but already a few years old

[River 127,011]

Can we throw her and get her back?

[Anderson123 42,583]

I wouldn’t call Katy a “throwback” artist because she’s still very present in this generation just like Gaga. But sometimes I see playlists that call Poker Face and Bad Romance “throwback hits” so maybe her hits from her first 3 albums do fit these but it’s not something I’d call them myself.

This is probably how our parents felt like when we in the 90’s used to call “oldies” the music they listened to during the 70’s and 80’s. 

[loveandpeace 1,630]

It doesn't take much analysis. Katy is a throwback act through and through.

[Ladle Ghoulash 51,719]

20 minutes ago, Anderson123 said:

I wouldn’t call Katy a “throwback” artist because she’s still very present in this generation just like Gaga. But sometimes I see playlists that call Poker Face and Bad Romance “throwback hits” so maybe her hits from her first 3 albums do fit these but it’s not something I’d call them myself.

This is probably how our parents felt like when we in the 90’s used to call “oldies” the music they listened to during the 70’s and 80’s. 

I think when they’re asking if she’s a throwback artist, they’re asking if she’s only relevant because of her older music, as opposed to making music that people actively seek out now (to which I think the answer is definitely yes)

[Ladle Ghoulash 51,719]

28 minutes ago, River said:

Can we throw her and get her back?

No, she’s not a boomerang. What are you, a moron? 

[gagzus 22,474]

Yeah she is I’m afraid statistically, culturally and societally.

She hasn’t had an actual relevant hit nor good song since the early 2010s, she only gets gigs to sing said old hits and she can’t chart or take the hint. Plus it’s part of the zeitgeist that’s she’s a flop now, even people I’ve spoken to who don’t like pop know about Dr Luke and her. Even her streams arent that great, she’s just released a new single and nothing has became of it. She didn’t even chart on the Bubbling Under. 

She needs a break and a rebrand.

[Guillaume Hamon 6,961]

Her whole aura and interest are fully linked to her work from at least a decade ago...

She definitely is.

[TheOriginalOne 11,564]

Yes, a relic of the distant early 2010s. A once-upon-a-timer, if you will.

[River 127,011]

28 minutes ago, Ladle Ghoulash said:

No, she’s not a boomerang. What are you, a moron? 

shut your mouth

read my lips

you're illiterate

[Bronco 24,195]

1 hour ago, Anderson123 said:

I wouldn’t call Katy a “throwback” artist because she’s still very present in this generation just like Gaga. But sometimes I see playlists that call Poker Face and Bad Romance “throwback hits” so maybe her hits from her first 3 albums do fit these but it’s not something I’d call them myself.

This is probably how our parents felt like when we in the 90’s used to call “oldies” the music they listened to during the 70’s and 80’s. 

I feel like there's a scale.

Like when I was growing up in the 00s.

90s was just your older siblings music.

80s was throwback

70s was retro

60s and older was "golden oldies"

And its kinda similar now, just slightly altered. Like 70s/80s/90s are all retro or classics. 00s/early 10s is throwback.