Nope. The entire Teenage Dream era was filled with sexual innuendos and prism shows a level of maturity. Her music isnt childish at all. Even if her performances (mainly during the teenage dream era) seems cartoony and adolescence, the entire album was about having fun and it was essentially a summer album so the performances she gave was the aesthetic of the album.
i think her only childish song is roar. a huge bunch of her singles are pretty cheeky, lots of XXX innuendos, being radio friendly does not make something kidz bop.
It's the imagery she pairs her music with that makes it seem childish. When you take a darker song like 'Dark Horse' and pair it with the video equivalent of a Lisa Frank notebook, people are going to group everything together and label it "childish".
P.S. Having sexual innuendos in your music doesn't mean your music's not childish.
During the Teenage Dream era I would have said no because the theme of the album was being young, carefree and in love, it was intentionally fun and nostalgic of youth. When she promised us a dark era I was very excited because she knows how to write a catchy tune and I do have faith in her as a songwriter. When her direction changed again I was slightly concerned,. When Roar came out I was full of hope, it's cheesy as hell but it is also a great pop song and I love it but when the album came out it fell flat for me, I went from using every song on her albums to like 4 from Prism. It was, sadly, an attempt at re-creating TD that fell short.
It Takes Two, Spiritual and Legendary Lovers proves that she can write more mature music that is equally catchy and it is sad that the whole album didn't take that direction. Maybe next era.
She has more Adult Contemporary #1s than any pop girl sans P!nk so if she is childish than, with all due respect, all of your faves are babyish. If adults use her that much than she's either not childish or she just appeals to everybody.
The imagery is sometimes childish. The music itself is not, with exception of a few songs.
Her songs aren't, but she marketed to the younger generation.
I don't see the problem tho. Most people who buy music legally nowadays are people under the age of 18. Therefore, her marketing plan is an excellent idea. And as far as I'm concerned, she's selling millions of records worldwide, so in the end. Katy wins.
It's her image paired with her music that many people say is childish and I won't get into that as it is out of the parameters of the thread but no her music isn't childish