Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.
Beginning last year, I’d been getting pitches from a publicist dealing with online press for an artist called Katy Perry and her song “Ur So Gay.” To be completely honest, I just didn’t dig the song. But as the title might imply, I also started wondering whether or not I was right to feel a bit offended by the lyrical premise — a female telling off her H&M scarf-wearing boyfriend with the insult, “You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys,” implying that he’d rather spend time with his friends and “MySpace-ing,” etc. I basically chalked it up to me being a bit uptight, the song not being my thing, and moved on.
But the pitches kept coming. Soon Katy was signed to Capitol Records, a major label, and the press releases started mentioning Perez Hilton was touting her as a next big thing for summer 2008. In an interview with Blender, Perry, who turns out to be a pastor’s daughter, exclaims, “I’m completely outrageous and I’ll do anything for attention!”
Now the singer’s got a heavily-promoted single called “I Kissed A Girl” (not a Jill Sobule cover), though it doesn’t have a video. But rather than expound upon what I think of a seemingly heterosexual 23-year-old woman singing about her drunken female conquest, “I don’t even know your name, it doesn’t matter/You’re my experimental game,” I thought I’d turn it over to see what you, the Towleroad reader, think.
Are Katy Perry’s lyrics offensive, or are they just silly, gimmicky pop songs by a self-proclaimed attention seeker to be taken with a grain of salt? Clips of “Ur So Gay” and “I Kissed A Girl” are below.
Two things to think about: 1.) A bit of digging finds that Katy Perry released an album of Christian music a few years back under the name Katy Hudson. 2.) Would your thoughts on the level of offense, if any, be different if it were a straight male artist singing either song (particularly if the latter were “I Kissed A Boy”)?
Incidentally, Katy Perry’s album, One Of The Boys, is out in June.
Hip hop star Nas drops the original controversial title for his new album.
The Ting Tings’ debut set, We Started Nothing. The dancey pop/rock duo have the current #1 single on the U.K. chart with “That’s Not My Name,” while they’re also enjoying a sizeable stateside hit with “Shut Up And Let Me Go,” thanks to its inclusion in an Apple commercial.
Donna Summer’s Crayons, her first studio album of pop material since 1991’s Mistaken Identity.
Stop Drop And Roll from Foxboro Hottubs. The big “secret” is that it’s actually Green Day doing punk-infused, ’60s-sounding bubblegum.
Liverpool electro quartet Ladytron’s fourth LP, Velocifero.
Actress Scarlett Johansson’s album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head.
Jesse McCartney’s Departure. McCartney is currently enjoying the success of having co-written Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” with OneRepublic’s “Ryan Tedder.”
New singles from Aimee Mann (“Freeway”), Solange (“I Decided, Pt. 2”) and Judas Priest (“Visions”).