Logging into myspace (I know, I know...), I saw a link to a music video: "I kissed a girl" by Katy Perry.
I'd never heard of Katy Perry before, so I thought it might be a cover of that Jill Sobule song from the mid-90s, which I've always liked, so I clicked through. The Katy Perry song, though... was not a cover. It was a kind of pseudo-punk/quasi-electroclash hodgepodge of various "sexy" (with quotes) imagery of Ms. Perry herself, singing surprisingly heterosexist lyrics over unimpressive "Korg in a trash compactor" beats. To wit:
I kissed a girl and I liked it
the taste of her cherry Chapstick
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
it felt so wrong, it felt so right
don't mean I'm in love tonight
I don't even know your name
it doesn't matter
you're my experimental game
just human nature
it's not what good girls do
not how they should behave
my head gets so confused
hard to obey
(full lyrics)
Etc. The whole thing struck me as a spot-on rendition of those random straight girls who make out with other random straight girls at clubs in order to draw the attention of straight guys. It's reprehensible. I've seen it happen many times before, and my first thought is the most logical; that they're together. I wouldn't intrude on that. It always became apparent after seeing the same two girls doing this on many different club nights that they were merely playing to the male gaze/ego.
The video ends with Ms. Perry seeming to wake up from a dream while the previously mentioned boyfriend lies next to her, asleep.
Basically, the whole song and video are about everything that the LGBTQ community doesn't want to perpetuate. It takes the worst stereotypes about late teens/early twenties girls in the club scene and promotes them.
I'm all for LGBTQ-themed songs. In fact I wish there were more of them. But this... takes the whole movement back a few years. Given that it's featured on myspace, I can only assume that it's popular. What a shame.
Apparently, Katy Perry has another song out called "Ur So Gay." I can't bring myself to watch it, in light of my experience with "I kissed a girl" and because of "ur," but here's a link to it.
All this is became pretty funny when I read that she used to make contemporary christian music.
I'd never heard of Katy Perry before, so I thought it might be a cover of that Jill Sobule song from the mid-90s, which I've always liked, so I clicked through. The Katy Perry song, though... was not a cover. It was a kind of pseudo-punk/quasi-electroclash hodgepodge of various "sexy" (with quotes) imagery of Ms. Perry herself, singing surprisingly heterosexist lyrics over unimpressive "Korg in a trash compactor" beats. To wit:
I kissed a girl and I liked it
the taste of her cherry Chapstick
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it
it felt so wrong, it felt so right
don't mean I'm in love tonight
I don't even know your name
it doesn't matter
you're my experimental game
just human nature
it's not what good girls do
not how they should behave
my head gets so confused
hard to obey
(full lyrics)
Etc. The whole thing struck me as a spot-on rendition of those random straight girls who make out with other random straight girls at clubs in order to draw the attention of straight guys. It's reprehensible. I've seen it happen many times before, and my first thought is the most logical; that they're together. I wouldn't intrude on that. It always became apparent after seeing the same two girls doing this on many different club nights that they were merely playing to the male gaze/ego.
The video ends with Ms. Perry seeming to wake up from a dream while the previously mentioned boyfriend lies next to her, asleep.
Basically, the whole song and video are about everything that the LGBTQ community doesn't want to perpetuate. It takes the worst stereotypes about late teens/early twenties girls in the club scene and promotes them.
I'm all for LGBTQ-themed songs. In fact I wish there were more of them. But this... takes the whole movement back a few years. Given that it's featured on myspace, I can only assume that it's popular. What a shame.
Apparently, Katy Perry has another song out called "Ur So Gay." I can't bring myself to watch it, in light of my experience with "I kissed a girl" and because of "ur," but here's a link to it.
All this is became pretty funny when I read that she used to make contemporary christian music.