The Pop Corporation

The annoying section of music fans who insist on saying ‘album cycle’ and ‘eras’ will be having a field day today as Katy Perry has released a new song, which signifies the start of her new ‘album cycle’ or ‘era’. It’s viral marketing talk for ‘having a new record out’, and of course, when there’s big bucks and some kind of pop legacy involved, you have to make some spurious statement – it is no longer enough to just release something cool – in a post irony market, everything now has meaning, even if the meaning is no meaning at all.

Katy Perry is responsible for some enduring pop music – ‘Teenage Dream’ and ‘California Gurls’ are two all-timers, and ‘I Kissed A Girl’ is probably problematic, but the glam-stomp and gloriously mindless lyric from the usually impeccable Cathy Dennis, is still dancefloor dynamite. She came through a frankly dreadful marriage to Russell Brand, and if you saw the documentary where she had to go perform immediately after he unceremoniously dumped her, it was difficult to imagine every fully rooting against her.

However, something happened and during the ‘swish swish, bitch’ period, she fell off. The music wasn’t entirely bad, but was certainly treated as such. The appearance of the blue shark dancer had everyone worrying that maybe she was becoming some kind of pop Weezer, more meme than person. When she did a JustEat commercial, fans peevishly pointed out that it was the best song she’d done in years.

Of the pop juggernauts of her time, GaGa began to fall off too, who pivoted to acting and making Americana, proving herself to be an expert shapeshifter just like the ’70s rock and ’80s popstars she so adored. Perry however, didn’t have it in her. Maybe she didn’t have the rabid fanbase of some of her peers, and music went a little more dark and street-tough and Perry’s all-American image and sound suddenly felt a little out-of-step.

More crucially, she fell out with her co-writer Bonnie McKee and worked with Dr Luke who was becoming PR poison, thanks to a detailed and protracted row with Kesha where the pop-svengali was sued for emotional distress, sex-based hate crimes, abuse, and all manner of sincerely bleak behaviour including drugging and rape. The producer denies the allegations, but pop fans largely made their minds up that it was time to ditch any song involving him. Other artists supported Kesha throughout the legal proceedings, such as Taylor Swift, Adele, Miley Cyrus, Lady GaGa, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson, Lily Allen, Lorde, Haim and many more.

Now, in 2024, this is the big comeback for Katy Perry and… well… the landscape has changed. She’s readying a new album called ‘143’, and has a new single called ‘Woman’s World’ – an apparent anthem for all womankind and anyone still shouting ‘slay!’ three years after it became unfashionable and tired. Perry and her team clearly thought it was time for some of that good ol’ American apple pie to hit the charts again, but sadly for Perry, the immovable Taylor Swift has taken her place as Miss America.

In ‘Woman’s World’ you can hear that classic Katy Perry sound and visually, it’s camp and self-effacing and all that. Katy Perry was always a bit wacky compared to many of her peers who preferred to flirt with Indie Sleaze and nightclubs. Perry was all big hair, cleavage, knowing winks and bubblegum pop. At almost 40 years old, that can still work if you’re a lover of all things camp. We’ve seen it work in pop, movies, television and all things pop-culture, and the likes of Zac Efron have made a career out of being an elder himbo, so the feeling that this ‘cycle’ is doomed to flop can’t be that unless you’re a reductive sexist, right?

Well, like it or not, we’re in a post Me Too landscape and we can’t shy away from the fact that simply saying ‘girl power!’ isn’t enough, especially when your new song is produced by, if we’re being charitable problematic, Dr Luke.

Lyrically, it’s fine. She sings “sexy confident, so intelligent, she is heaven-sent, so soft, so strong – she’s a winner, champion, superhuman, number one. She’s a sister, she’s a mother, open your eyes, just look around and you’ll discover, you know it’s a woman’s world and you’re lucky to be livin’ in it.” No-one is looking at Katy Perry to change the world and she’s got a history of vaguely anthemic songs, such as ‘Firework’ and ‘Roar’. However, the words fall hollow when you’re produced by someone who has been accused of forcibly drugging a young woman and assaulting her in the process.

In the video, she wheels out Rosie the Riveter which isn’t exactly inspired, but largely okay as an silhouette for a pop video, but there’s a nagging feeling that an empowering anthem could well be diminished by using all the stereotypes in a sexual way that very much looks like it belongs to something from the male gaze, and no doubt, a cynical wink at the male gays. A song that could have hit home the point being made if it wasn’t for the fact that four of the six songwriters are men, produced by three men (one of whom is Dr Luke), and a video directed by a man. Imagine if she’d made it an all-woman affair or even a mostly-women affair – that would have been a surface level statement of intent, but again, an opportunity lost. That in itself, is the most Katy Perry thing she’s done in years.

And, if we’re living in a complete vacuum and not bothered about any kind of morality in our music, to court the controversy of working with someone so throughly cancelled, the song doesn’t even sound like it was worth it. If it was an undeniable banger with gigantic hooks and a chorus to die for, you might consider it somewhat worth it. However, the track is… fine? A bit boring?

If anything, that might be a thing that hurts this comeback – its that it is just so unremarkable. And such an expensive way of aiming to make a vague girl anthem, and ending up with a couple of cameos and a song that feels destined to be used in an advertisement for feminine hygiene products or a tasteless Amy Schumer movie in a couple of years time.

That’s not to say that this song won’t shift some units – a popstar of Perry’s stature will always get plays, and there’s swathes of the general public who just aren’t bothered by these things and haven’t read all the discourse – but if you’re reading a pop culture site that likes talking about these things and expecting a shrug, you’re in the wrong place. Perry still has clout, she’ll still book some arenas and put a show on, and of course, ‘California Gurls’ is still a shedload of fun – but from a place where everyone was rooting for her after the awful way she was treated by Russell Brand, to being in a position where she’s been accused of courting the alt-right, and now working with one of the most troubling men in pop, all under the thin guise of empowerment, this latest misstep is in a line of bizarre career decisions.