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Album: Katy Perry - 'Teenage Dream'
Member Since: 11/29/2006
Posts: 4,549
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Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream': Why Her Album Will Be Forever Young
Has one album been more dominant on radio in the last year than Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream? Since its release in August 2010, Katy’s sophomore album has spawned a spectacular five consecutive #1 singles -- “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “E.T.,” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).” It comes as no surprise, given that the album is an undeniable monster, crafted with the industry’s top producers -- Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Stargate, Tricky Stewart -- and devastatingly infectious, a solid-gold collection of pop smashes.
Katy was already well-established as a radio-slaying act after her 2008 debut One of the Boys went platinum and ushered in mega-hits like “I Kissed a Girl” and “Hot n Cold.” But there must be some special magic in an album like Teenage Dream which, if new single “The One That Got Away” tops the Hot 100, would break the record she currently shares with Michael Jackson for the artist with the most consecutive No. 1 hits from one album. And even if uber-producer Dr. Luke is the closest thing to a surefire hit machine that exists in the today’s music industry, even he isn’t entirely immune to the fickle conditions of the pop market. An album needs more than just catchy hooks to achieve the kind of success that Katy has with Teenage Dream -- something has to strike a singular chord with the listening public in order to reach that pinnacle of unparalleled achievement.
And clearly it has, even though Teenage Dream is a curious record, thematically. Sonically, it’s consistent -- furiously hook-driven pop-rock with a thunderous dance influence -- but lyrically, these singles cover a lot of ground. There’s the wistful jubilance of the title track, the heartrending nostalgia of “The One That Got Away,” the frivolous fun of “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” and “California Gurls,” the uncanny lust of “E.T.,” and the “It Gets Better” self-empowerment message of “Firework” -- a more diverse collection of ideas than is represented in many pop albums, to be sure. One thing is certain, though -- if there’s a unifying theme represented on Teenage Dream, it’s right there in the title. This is an album about youth: its joys, its miseries, and its tragic brevity.
This is a sentiment to which Katy herself has alluded in promoting the album, but to unpack that theme a little further, I went straight to the source: The songwriter Bonnie McKee, who co-wrote the title track on Teenage Dream, as well as “California Gurls” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).” Bonnie, it should be noted, is a supremely gifted vocalist in her own right, as well as the brilliant popsmith behind singles like Britney Spears’ “Hold It Against Me” and Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite." Bonnie’s 2004 album, Trouble, penned entirely by Bonnie herself when she was in her early teens, is an astonishingly precocious (and criminally underrated) set of soulful pop-rock gems that remains on heavy rotation for me even now, seven years after its initial release. But in recent years, Bonnie has enjoyed a career as one of mainstream pop’s most reliable songwriters, and her work on Teenage Dream is some of her finest to date.
“It was inspired by the teenage condition,” Bonnie told me of Katy’s album. “[Katy and I] both had an obsession with that time in our lives. We have a mutual fascination with the bleachers and the prom and all of the things that we never got to have.” The fact that Bonnie referenced the bleachers and the prom struck me -- those are such concrete, specific images, as are so many of the most memorable lyrics on Teenage Dream, whether it’s the tender stuff, like building a fort out of sheets in “Teenage Dream” and making out in a guy’s Mustang to Radiohead in “The One That Got Away,” or sunkissed skin and bikinis on top in “California Gurls” and pink flamingos in the pool in “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).” Whereas many lyricists rely upon abstractions, on Teenage Dream, Katy uses the highly personal and specific to access a universal narrative about being young and -- pick one! -- happy, heartbroken, drunk, angry, or in love.
But I think it's those contradictions that makes Katy’s music so relatable. “’California Gurls’ and ‘Last Friday Night’ are naughtier and more rebellious, and then ‘Teenage Dream’ and ‘The One That Got Away’ are more vulnerable,” Bonnie said. “But that’s why Katy Perry is such a huge star. She can be a vixen and put on little costumes with a wink and a smile, but she can also be so honest and vulnerable.” It’s true that there’s an honesty in a song like “Teenage Dream” that’s emotionally riveting -- the first month of its release, I would tear up almost every time I heard it (although, as my fellow Buzzworthy contributor Bradley Stern has noted before, 90 percent of my musical memories revolve around crying while listening to a particular song). But it’s also just that youth is one of those themes, like love or loss, that never goes out of style -- and so a concept album about the glorious fleetingness of youth, in all its rowdy drama and emotional complexity, is an album that’s sure to succeed.
Because between drinking to blackout and sporting Daisy Dukes with bikinis on top, there’s something complicated and substantial in these lyrics. “It’s so easy, with pop music, to be shallow,” Bonnie told me. “But Katy keeps her heart in her music.” Teenage Dream, like youth itself, is messy, outrageous, silly, and occasionally very profound — and that’s a damn good reason to keep playing it.
http://buzzworthy.mtv.com/2011/10/27...teenage-dream/
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nice article 
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Originally posted by Teen Dreamer
Not really. At this point, LFN behaved almost exactly the same.
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So it CAN go #1? 
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Member Since: 8/26/2011
Posts: 15,572
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I'm still shocked that OOTB peaked at 9 on the BB 200. I think that album coulda been a six number one album (like TD will soon be  )
IKAG, HnC, WUIV, IYCAM, SI, OOTB, then throw TOY out there just because it's amazing 
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Originally posted by Я×R
nice article |
Agreed.
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Member Since: 7/22/2010
Posts: 9,145
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Originally posted by Ramcoro
So it CAN go #1? |
I don't know  Chances looked completely slim weeks ago, but after they announced she was going to perform at the AMA's, it's not THAT unlikely anymore.
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Member Since: 5/6/2011
Posts: 26,891
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ripedie254
I'm still shocked that OOTB peaked at 9 on the BB 200. I think that album coulda been a six number one album (like TD will soon be )
IKAG, HnC, WUIV, IYCAM, SI, OOTB, then throw TOY out there just because it's amazing |
OOTB & IYCAM
Could have reached Top 10
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Member Since: 5/6/2011
Posts: 26,891
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ramcoro
So it CAN go #1? |
of course it CAN. 
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ripedie254
I'm still shocked that OOTB peaked at 9 on the BB 200. I think that album coulda been a six number one album (like TD will soon be )
IKAG, HnC, WUIV, IYCAM, SI, OOTB, then throw TOY out there just because it's amazing |
OOTB peaked at nine because it was released way to early. I Kissed A Girl was just becoming a hit, when it was released. If they would have waited a couple months when Hot N Cold was on the radio, it should have went a lot higher. Possibly #1.
That whole era was a MESS. Hot N Cold's music video was released WAY TOO SOON, Just like LFN. If they would have waited a month of two it would have went #1. TOY should not have been a single (Don't get me wrong I LOVE the song, but you don't take huge risks like that for a 3rd single of a debut album) and the promo behind it was horrible! She actually performed Waking Up In Vegas before it was released and during TOY's peak.  WUIV's music video was way too soon too! That video made that song go #6 on the digital songs, it later went #1 on the pop songs chart, while it wasn't even in the top 10 of the Hot 100. If the video was released later when it had good airplay, top 5 for sure. PLUS she only did ONE performance while it was charting. If she did more performances, had a good music video timing, and if ToY didn't kill the momentum that IKAG and HNC created, I think it would have went #1 (it did go #1 in several other countries though )
IYCAM definately should have been a single. OOTB too, I guess. But not Self Inflicted.  I can NOT see that going top 10 let alone #1.
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Member Since: 3/7/2011
Posts: 2,672
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Aight, home. Thanks for the love, CATS!! Playdate tomorrow afternoon...
Yes, Katy and those darn roots, lol. Not a picky person, but I am not a fan of roots...  But gurl has got everythign else goin' ON, so I shall forgive.
EXCLUSIVE INFO... (welcome)... Katy's second perfume "MEOW!"... comes out November 15th... that just for the USA @ Nordstroms. At this point they haven't heard anything about Katy being there for a launch...
Also, EXCLUSIVE INFO... (welcome)... altho maybe common sense since they carried "Purr"... Sears, in Canada, will sell Meow as well... and more info they confirmed for me when I inquired about it... to stay tuned for what they have planned for the launch... SO... let's NOT read TOO much into that right now. Take it as a "grain of salt" kind of thing.
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Quote:
Originally posted by Teen Dreamer
I don't know Chances looked completely slim weeks ago, but after they announced she was going to perform at the AMA's, it's not THAT unlikely anymore. |
I see you are the one that has become disillusioned. 
Quote:
Originally posted by genetic fail
of course it CAN. |
That's what I was trying to say! Anything CAN happen on the Hot 100. But noooo I get nominated for the most delusional Kat award for thinking that.
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Originally posted by genetic fail
Off:
SLY
Save:
TTWE
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You can go now Brit stan.
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Member Since: 8/26/2011
Posts: 15,572
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ramcoro
OOTB peaked at nine because it was released way to early. I Kissed A Girl was just becoming a hit, when it was released. If they would have waited a couple months when Hot N Cold was on the radio, it should have went a lot higher. Possibly #1.
That whole era was a MESS. Hot N Cold's music video was released WAY TOO SOON, Just like LFN. If they would have waited a month of two it would have went #1. TOY should not have been a single (Don't get me wrong I LOVE the song, but you don't take huge risks like that for a 3rd single of a debut album) and the promo behind it was horrible! She actually performed Waking Up In Vegas before it was released and during TOY's peak. WUIV's music video was way too soon too! That video made that song go #6 on the digital songs, it later went #1 on the pop songs chart, while it wasn't even in the top 10 of the Hot 100. If the video was released later when it had good airplay, top 5 for sure. PLUS she only did ONE performance while it was charting. If she did more performances, had a good music video timing, and if ToY didn't kill the momentum that IKAG and HNC created, I think it would have went #1 (it did go #1 in several other countries though )
IYCAM definately should have been a single. OOTB too, I guess. But not Self Inflicted. I can NOT see that going top 10 let alone #1. |
But self inflicted is amazing what do oü think fingerprints, mannequin or ur so gay could have done?
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Member Since: 5/6/2011
Posts: 26,891
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ramcoro
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What?! I'm not allowed to do that?!
I just love TTWE more than the Katy songs on that list!
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 9,504
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Quote:
Originally posted by Я×R
nice article |
Wow. that article so perfectly articulates what makes "Teenage Dream" (the album), "Teenage Dream" (the song), and Katy herself, so amazing.
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Quote:
Originally posted by genetic fail
What?! I'm not allowed to do that?!
I just love TTWE more than the Katy songs on that list!
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Of course you are allowed to, but... I just thought you were a Katy Kat all this time.
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Originally posted by Ripedie254
But self inflicted is amazing what do oü think fingerprints, mannequin or ur so gay could have done? |
It is. But Ammasingness / = / single quality.
Ur So Gay and Fingerprints probably would have done the best as singles from your list. Ur So Gay could probably get top 10 with GOOD promo. Maybe Fingerprints, but I don't think Mannequin is very radio friendly. Although, I am glad Ur So Gay wasn't an official single. Seeing how much **** it got just for being a promo single. I can't deal with the level it would get if it was actually a hit.
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Quote:
Originally posted by Space
Wow. that article so perfectly articulates what makes "Teenage Dream" (the album), "Teenage Dream" (the song), and Katy herself, so amazing.
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Now why couldn't critics agree? I really don't understand why critics rated her so lowly... 
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Member Since: 5/6/2011
Posts: 26,891
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ripedie254
But self inflicted is amazing what do oü think fingerprints, mannequin or ur so gay could have done? |
Self-Inflicted is enjoyable but not really single material...
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Member Since: 8/26/2011
Posts: 15,572
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ramcoro
Of course you are allowed to, but... I just thought you were a Katy Kat all this time.
It is. But Ammasingness / = / single quality.
Ur So Gay and Fingerprints probably would have done the best as singles from your list. Ur So Gay could probably get top 10 with GOOD promo. Maybe Fingerprints, but I don't think Mannequin is very radio friendly. Although, I am glad Ur So Gay wasn't an official single. Seeing how much **** it got just for being a promo single. I can't deal with the level it would get if it was actually a hit. |
Ur so gay was more or less the peacock of OOTB.
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Member Since: 5/6/2011
Posts: 26,891
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Quote:
Originally posted by Ramcoro
Of course you are allowed to, but... I just thought you were a Katy Kat all this time. |
I AM! I just prefer TTWE over Firework and E.T...
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Member Since: 8/29/2011
Posts: 18,282
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Quote:
Originally posted by genetic fail
Self-Inflicted is enjoyable but not really single material...
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I think Teenage Dream has a lot more single material songs than OOTB did.
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