Quote:
The breakup song is a rite of passage for just about every singer. Mostly, they're sad-sack anthems about moving on, but every so often, the wound is raw enough that the artist is inspired to issue their former lover a cutting message: I'm better off without you.
That's what Katy Perry seems to be doing with her new single "Part of Me," which she premiered at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. With lyrics like "Days like this I want to drive away/ Pack bags and watch your shadow fade/ You chewed me up and spit me out like I was poison in your mouth/ You took my life, you drank me down/ But that was then and this is now," it's pretty clear she is dressing down her ex, Russell Brand, and has no intention of beating around the bush.
Need less-obtuse lyrical evidence that the song is about Brand? Later, she sings, "You can keep the diamond ring, it don't mean nothing anyway/ In fact, you can keep everything, except for me." Perry has only exchanged rings with one gent, and that's Brand.
But this isn't her first kiss-off track: On Teenage Dream, Perry laments a love gone wrong on "Circle the Drain," which she reportedly penned about her relationship with Travie McCoy. It doesn't present a flattering picture of her time with the Gym Class Heroes frontman. "You fall asleep during foreplay/ 'Cause the pills you take/ Are more your forte," Perry sings. "Wanna be your lover/ Not your f---ing mother/ Can't be your savior/ I don't have the power/ I'm not gonna stay and watch you circle the drain." Ouch.
Whether "Part of Me" or "Circle the Drain" will stand the test of time to rank alongside the most-famous kiss-off songs in pop history remains to be seen, but Perry has certainly got people talking right now. From Gloria Gaynor's disco classic "I Will Survive" to George Michael's "Faith" and pretty much half the songs in Kelly Clarkson's catalog, it's a genre that could use a little fresh blood, though these five (relatively) recent additions to the cannon do a pretty solid job of holding down the jilted-and-not-having-it fort.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/167...kissoffs.jhtml
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A few other all-time great kiss-offs according to MTV?
ADELE - Rolling in the Deep
Alanis Morisette - You Oughta Know
Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Does Part of Me live up to the title?
How do you feel about them praising her new song
written about her recent break-up?
I cannot.