SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING

POP STAR is a dream-vocation (for us'all).

And in this (fun) moment of young women leading POP (by miles)—Gaga, T. Swift, Be(always, since forever), K. Perry, Ms. Robyn Fenty, Milez...um, Ke$ha—women younger than us, our age, a smidge older—of our era regardless of particulars—having dreamed (and re-dreamed) up our own fantastic careers, costumes, tracks, clurrb tableauxx, videos, magazine interviews, baller boyfriends, vacations, hospitalizations/comebacks, we are critical, sometimes celebratory, sometimes disappointed, always invested. I just mean, we have and will continue to write positive and negative all over all the output of this set of ladies, because they're in transit, doing what we might have done if we could have done and it's exciting and frustrating and engrossing.

So, Katy Perry finally released another single off Teenage Dream, the title track, "Teenage Dream."

I downloaded it last Thursday after watching the Official Lyric Video (which presumably sneak peeks the for reals video) twice through, talking to Pillow about it.

I stayed up and wrote some notes* (under the influence of Jersey Shore's second season premiere). I made a playlist about/around the notes, of the notes. I felt "Teenage Dream" was...joltingly generic, off ritmo with her big-tyme publicity game, her crisp and vivid avatar, and maybe also a lie, muddy/inaccurate, a tin view of actual (morose, animal) teenage dreams.
But I did wake up humming the chorus. Catching is no trifle; creating a simple, original melody that sticks, is communion with the WHOLE HISTORY OF COMMUNE-ICATION, with a kind of miraculous set of habits, rituals, dreams.
This happens with Perry and Gaga, who I have (and I'll get to this) realized are quite similar (and, of course, dissimilar too); I become upset with their lyrical shortcomings and their inauthentic (and, of course, authentic too) surface peddling, but cannot cannot shake their choruses, bridges sometimes, little nuggets of sure POP, dance breaks, anthem pieces, good melodies (and deliveries).
The coming success of "Teenage Dream," as such, as a catchy radio item is settled (factual), thanks in part to co-writer and producer, very important person Max Martin. It's exactly him—big, clean with some rocks. Whatever criticism follows here is sort of peripheral, you know?—not wholly pertinent to the object (like, thingness) of the track, which is potent and persistent, flash, obstinate, as intended.

The lyrics are sloppy (see all previous Perry tracks).
First (first), the line "You think I'm pretty without any make-up on" lays down a grey film of common-ness.....I find that "pretty" people are "pretty" without make-up, as a rule. People who only look "pretty" with make-up on (getting dicey here) are not actually "pretty" people. Is she saying, "You think I'm pretty even though I'm not...or, even though I think I'm not unless I'm wearing make-up..."? LOL whatever. I hate the word "pretty." And the line's parallel to this numbing Youtubes entry (aria of generic-ness), which made the rickety rounds last month.

Then, "Before you met me I was alright, but things were kinda heavy./ You brought me back to life./Now, every February you'll be my valentine." She is saying absolutely NADA with "I was alright but things were kinda heavy." And because of the inexpressive thud of that line, I arrive resentful at the mentions of "lifelessness-to-life" and Valentine's Day that follow.

Then, the chorus: "Let's go all the way tonight./No regrets, just love./We can dance until we die./You and I we'll be young forever./YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I'M LIVING A TEENAGE DREAM, THE WAY YOU TURN ME ON./I CAN'T SLEEP./LET'S RUN AWAY AND DON'T EVER LOOK BACK, DON'T EVER LOOK BACK/MY HEART STOPS WHEN YOU LOOK AT ME./JUST ONE TOUCH, NOW BABY I BELIEVE THIS IS REAL./SO TAKE A CHANCE AND DON'T EVER LOOK BACK, DON'T EVER LOOK BACK."
I had a waiter at an irritating Carroll Gardens restaurant (you know the one) with tiny tables and chairs and no reservations and cash only and vodka from Long Island. He had a tattoo on his forearm that read, "NEVER EXPLAIN. NEVER APOLOGIZE." A girl at our table asked him about it; he explained that the phrases (demands?) were advice from his Grandma. And I was (am still) appalled. Everyone ought to "EXPLAIN" and "APOLOGIZE" when called upon. How else could we possibly carry on relationships, be citizens, family members? Perry's directive, "No regrets, just love." seems similar to me. How are "lacking regrets" and "loving" held as opposites? Perhaps she means to be speaking in a teen voice here, or just describing how teens haven't regrets because they haven't experience? But experience only helps to conduct one's regret-channel (the source of which runs back to first cognition). My regrets felt more fluttering and immediate when I was a teen (not long, lyrical, flattening like now). But they were constant....like weren't there always enormous missed opportunities to be hysterical about, a party you couldn't go to, an awkward encounter in the halls, a rumor, a total inability to talk to someone about something or anything, nothing. And this notion: love eating your conscience? Love displacing regret? Maybe. I don't know. In my experience, regret is perpetual. And teenage dreams and teenage loves are spun through and through with it.
Also the chant, "DON'T EVER LOOK BACK" is bad news. We need histories, Katy Perry! Explanations! (Apologies!)
Also this: "JUST ONE TOUCH, NOW BABY I BELIEVE THIS IS REAL," is disingenuous to me (to me).

Then, "We drove to Cali and got drunk on the beach./Got a motel room, and built a fort out of sheets./I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece./I'm complete."—(I have said it before and I will say it again) LOL whatever.

I like the last(ish) dance refrain, "I might get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans/be your teenage dream tonight./Let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans/be your teenage dream tonight." It addresses the demi-concept of the eponymous demi-concept album: Katy Perry on yr bedroom wall, a pin-up, all styling and permissions (YES NO YES NO). And, as a teen, my jeans were stupid tight (and flared!....whiskered!). And "put your hands on me" hints violence (an idea of violence, or violation), which is interesting. And I like the breathy delivery, some of her more strident tones withheld....in the grocery store Sunday morning, I began to wonder why I'm so down on Perry's and Gaga's lyrics, and not Britney's. Britney uses dumb words all the time, and I LOVE it. I'm not ready to sort this out; I just thought it was worth mentioning...

There's this video, an interview with Perry about the writing and recording of "Teenage Dream." Oy.
It's a surprise that the song was recorded in her hometown, Santa Barbara. It's so anonymous, ungrounded, impersonal. "Teenage Dream" is hermetically sealed, and must needs come from a vacuum (**space emergency**!). Even with the tabloid iconography—red carpet costumes and PREPARATIONS FOR BIG IMPENDING IMPORTANT FAMOUS MARRIAGE (is Rihanna really gonna be the maid of honor?), visits to the gym—and all kinds of biography, interviews (this crazy thorough Wikipedia entry)—I get no sense of who Katy Perry is (like, humanly) in any of her songs, and, because the rest is so much hype/smoke/mirrors, I continue to be perplexed and put off by her, in general. This is not a matter of the songwriting process or heavy electronics; many people who sound and work as Perry does totally inhabit their songs, never come off all replaceable like her ("way harsh Tai") on the track.

-----in a/our long-term (?) cultural trajectory (?) hipster was just the tip of the iceberg with its remove, right? with the ice cold distance and disjointedness, unREALness-----

In that Wiki (I think) she mentions swoons over Leo of Romeo+Juliet in '97 as a light reference point for "Teenage Dream," which is funny because the first song I thought of as a proper foil for "Teenage Dream," an example of a spot-on teenage dream song was the Garbage jam off that (MAJOR) soundtrack, "#1 Crush." (And "Lovefool" which is all sugar-sounding but klarly darkdarkness-----Perry mentions (in talk and print) the 70s-then-90s Swede trifecta [ABBA--Ace of Base--The Cardigans] in relation to her new album, and I hear those influences in the production, but she doesn't bring it right, doesn't churn out the cleverness +regret-pangs...)

There must be pathos in a teenage dream, right?

Just a little?

And drahmmzzzzzz, emotional violence.

K. Perry's "Teenage Dream" is more like an adolescent dream.

Okay.

I promised a million words ago that I'd talk about Gaga and Perry. I'm not of a mind to write much longer, but I have to put down how this close inspection of K. Perry's POP (and lock-you-out) has helped me appreciate Gaga much more. She's super-superior as an artist (obv she writes and sings better). When "California Gurls" came out I treated Gaga and Perry as poles. Gaga was darkness. Perry was lightness. I was opting for the lightness. And, in my way, I still am. But Gaga's brand of darkness is coming from such a teen place; it's the realest piece of her THE FAME (MONSTER) how it's teen for-us-by-us music, all angst swagger angst swagger. Perry's brand of lightness un-teens her...?**

Even when the style is spot-on (readable and great), ultimately I feel repelled by both of their avatars, their global marketing schemes that don't come from the heart (of their cities), professional obfuscation. With Gaga it's a matter of too much information—conflicting, confusing, laughing, glazed (Dada). But with Perry it's a matter of blankness; she's so boring, too boring to know, packing the tabula rasa of the uninvested hipster, the shifty irony-pitchman (such politics!). So, Gaga's approach to non-identity identity (however much it irks me, however similarly political and play dumb) is finer than Perry's (which might sorta be an accident or the product of an unconsidered pose).

***************

xo

*teen dreams were DUH GOTHIC

what about debbie harry?!--she just WORE songs, a mannequin---brilliant (gigi sequwnce)

litterally==="come on over"==childrens song====brutal, ANIMAL
wrapped in sugar
jersey shore
infinite realness (served up)
primal ron/ron ron juice-----darkness brothersjersey shore
infinite realness (served up)
primal ron/ron ron juice-----darkness brothers

battle the beat, beat up the beat------this is the dance music tip, no canned euphoria---DUH, IT'S GOTHIC IN THE CLURRRB!!!

**Back in November 2008, I wrote this about her perfecto second single off (the last album) One of the Boys, "Hot N' Cold" (which jamzz on and on):

Now, I have a lot of questions about the MySpace-y world of sexual foolery that Ms. Perry inhabits, but this is not supposed to be such a critical look at her avatar/body of work. Fact is, I'm mad about her second single, "Hot N' Cold," an utter anthem, manufactured for beachside clubs, gay bars, and gymnasiums worldwide. Though unenlightened ideas of masculine/feminine haunt some of the lyrics, the ecstatic pace simulates the giddy, sick preciousness of emotional instability, the delicious tension of opposites, the dumb rush of bad decisions, the time-honored pop musical trope of teenage love (for all ages). How can you help but be charmed by an unabashed, jittery celebration of unhealthy relationships? This must be MONSTROUS en Europa!

...Fascinating! teenage love (for all ages)-----