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What Makes Katy Perry Songs so Great?

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Maybe when a new Fallout game is released, and we finally see the commonwealth, you and I will be united in pleasant conversations of the atomic wastes, and robots once again, good sir.
 
I hate to be That Guy, but we need to get back to the subject of why Katy Perry's songs are so great.

I am not sure how you will discuss this, as they are awful, but I believe in you.
 
I hate to be That Guy, but we need to get back to the subject of why Katy Perry's songs are so great.

I am not sure how you will discuss this, as they are awful, but I believe in you.

She has a way with her voice and it's amazing. Although Aguilera and Clarkson are definitely better.
 
I hate to be That Guy, but we need to get back to the subject of why Katy Perry's songs are so great.

I am not sure how you will discuss this, as they are awful, but I believe in you.
It seems certain people have Broadmann area 17 and 41 mixed up and confuse her breasts for quality sound waves.
 
Nothing particularly great about her. She looks fairly attractive, makes safe, fairly catchy pop music about girls and partying and love and there's nothing about any of it that sticks out in any way. When I see a list of her 'hits' I can't remember how most of them go, despite knowing I've heard them millions of times. They get stuck in your head after one listen, but once they're off the radio they quickly leave the head never to return.

Lowest commom denominator music.
 
Whether the songs themselves are great is subjective, but as far as pop music is concerned, they are objectively the cream of the crop.

Working with the best and brightest music producers of the day, who employ extremely tight structures, clever lyrics (usually), very carefully constructed melodic lines, hypnotically cyclical chord progressions, ultra compressed so that the most enjoyable frequencies really 'pop' (hard to describe the amount of audio engineering and psychoacoustic genius involved here), blend of exciting synthetic sounds with real guitar samples, and of course, at the centre of it all, a really great RECORDING VOICE (not necessarily from a good singer).
 
Whether the songs themselves are great is subjective, but as far as pop music is concerned, they are objectively the cream of the crop.
No way dude. Robyn, Marina and The Diamonds, even some of Lady Gaga etc are better.

It's objectively the most middle-of-road pop music though. Actually I've almost never heard anyone say "this song is great!" about a Perry song. But almost no one says "this is awful!" either. It's filler. Background music. Don't-scare-anyone-away music. It achieves what it sets out to do, nothing more.
 
I dont automatically hate her songs or her.

But her firework song can go die in a fire, I've never known such an overused song that is so annoying, I was listening to the radio one day and it had to be played like once every hour or so for like a year, ergh.

She does sound awful live though, lol.
 
It's not even the nature of it being a bland pop song. It's how she basically chants/cheers over extremely simplistic synth sounds. She doesn't know how to write a song and they sound awful. More than any other single of hers, I cannot understand why so many people like Firework. She's, like, screaming at you over the ever-reliable generic synth sound present in 99.9% of her shit. It sounds really, really stupid and out of place. It's not even catchy nor does she even sound genuine in her desire for someone to really show what they're made of. It's totally fake.

But yeah, all of her songs are basically low key cheerleading mixed in with some generic vocals over bland, uninspired synth noise that tried to graduate from the 1980's but got lost along the way. Everything about her songs and style scream amateur and in the worst way possible.

It's very odd that she is so popular. To think that she would have been the first artist to get five hit singles off an album in 23 years is quite baffling. We've gone from Michael Jackson to this? Wow.

But really, when you look at all the music that's popular today, it's a reflection of how shallow society has become. Pop songs that I hated ten to fifteen years ago, I now listen to and can find some kind of appreciation for. They at least have a legitimate melody and, even if simplistic, have an actual song structure that required some kind of talent, even if minimal, to come up with. Shit, even the lyrics, however bland I may have thought, are better than what people come up with today.
 
Example of what I mean in regards to comparing generic pop from the 90's to now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k88vEZpEi3E

Apples and oranges you may say since it's a group, but the point I'm trying to make here is that it's still pop. Extremely mainstream pop, targeted at the impressionable youth demographic. But it's still better than pretty much anything you will hear on top 40 pop radio today, and that's pretty alarming. The lyrics also have a message that's not quite as generic as what you'd hear in a Katy Perry song, which is basically like "oh hay my entire song is like a really long twitter post" -- which can work sometimes, but not exclusively. This on the other hand actually tries to set up some kind of narrative/story/scenario to make you scratch beneath the surface, even if only a little bit.

Yeah, I said it. Even the Spice Girls can write a better song than Katy Perry. That's how far the mainstream has fallen. There's no real emotion, nothing to really think about... there's no soul. They don't even really sound like songs.
 
It's not even the nature of it being a bland pop song. It's how she basically chants/cheers over extremely simplistic synth sounds. She doesn't know how to write a song and they sound awful. More than any other single of hers, I cannot understand why so many people like Firework. She's, like, screaming at you over the ever-reliable generic synth sound present in 99.9% of her shit. It sounds really, really stupid and out of place. It's not even catchy nor does she even sound genuine in her desire for someone to really show what they're made of. It's totally fake.

But yeah, all of her songs are basically low key cheerleading mixed in with some generic vocals over bland, uninspired synth noise that tried to graduate from the 1980's but got lost along the way. Everything about her songs and style scream amateur and in the worst way possible.

It's very odd that she is so popular. To think that she would have been the first artist to get five hit singles off an album in 23 years is quite baffling. We've gone from Michael Jackson to this? Wow.

But really, when you look at all the music that's popular today, it's a reflection of how shallow society has become. Pop songs that I hated ten to fifteen years ago, I now listen to and can find some kind of appreciation for. They at least have a legitimate melody and, even if simplistic, have an actual song structure that required some kind of talent, even if minimal, to come up with. Shit, even the lyrics, however bland I may have thought, are better than what people come up with today.

Example of what I mean in regards to comparing generic pop from the 90's to now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k88vEZpEi3E

Apples and oranges you may say since it's a group, but the point I'm trying to make here is that it's still pop. Extremely mainstream pop, targeted at the impressionable youth demographic. But it's still better than pretty much anything you will hear on top 40 pop radio today, and that's pretty alarming. The lyrics also have a message that's not quite as generic as what you'd hear in a Katy Perry song, which is basically like "oh hay my entire song is like a really long twitter post" -- which is okay sometimes, but not exclusively. This on the other hand actually tries to set up some kind of narrative/story to make you scratch beneath the surface, even if only a little bit.

Yeah, I said it. Even the Spice Girls can write a better song than Katy Perry. That's how far the mainstream has fallen.

How old are you?
 
Her songs are great because some people have horrible taste.
I think it has more to do with a demographic that ranges from something like mid-teens to early twenties that doesn't really know what a real pop song sounds like. That's not to say everyone that age falls under that as though it were a generalization, but it has to be a growing trend.

The 90's weren't perfect by any means, but after that the whole industry kind of hollowed out and got ultra-commercialized throughout the 2000's, and this is the result. It's all gravitating towards the same thing. You can't just write a fucking song. You know it's bad when the worst songs from 10 or 15 years ago that you don't even really like are still better than the latest Ke$ha or Katy Perry garbage.
 
Meh... have you guys never seen your gf/wife without makeup?


And this thread now is POP GAF.

Yes, everyday. Luckily I don't have to deal with drastic changes in looks. I tell her specifically not to wear a ton of makeup so I don't have to wake up in 10 years and wonder what the fuck actually happened.

This image only proves it -- every time. I'd say for a hyper-glamorized pop-star, looking like that in the morning is damn impressive.

Low bar. That picture is impressive? With all her makeup, she looks good and with those lil midgets she's hiding, I definitely wood. But, hearing how pop stars have to devote so much time to 'getting ready' is a turn off. What happens when she hits 45 and the wheels really fall off? Cat Lady 2?

I hate to be That Guy, but we need to get back to the subject of why Katy Perry's songs are so great.

I am not sure how you will discuss this, as they are awful, but I believe in you.

I will say, listening to 2 Chains makes me feel better about Katy Perry. Or, most typical southern rap music makes me really like Katy Perry's music. Does that work?

Here we go: Seeing Katy Perry cover N**gas in Paris, makes me appreciate her work. That's exactly the lyrics I would expect her to say/write.
 
She's publicly stated how self conscious she is without makeup. She has a line about it in Teenage Dream. She probably divorced Russell Brand over him tweeting that pic.....
 
Hey guys. Did I miss anything?


She's publicly stated how self conscious she is without makeup. She has a line about it in Teenage Dream. She probably divorced Russell Brand over him tweeting that pic.....
Wasn't it because he wanted to start a family, like, right now, even though she was on tour?
 
I have a guilty pleasure and it involves Katy Perry and her beautiful melodic talent. Wide Awake, California Gurls, Hummingbird Heartbeat, Firework. They're all fucking great and fun songs, but they are also pretty silly. What makes them so good?

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'Katy Perry' 'beautiful melodic talent'? Please.

The love for GODBYN right now in this thread

peerless

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Gerl after all the stick we get from basic bitches over our love for SUPERIOR GODBYN in Pop GAF it is so refreshing to see people who recognise a superior artist when they see one.

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her songs are catchy, digestible fluff. Which is all i basically expect from a popette. So shes good in my book.

My beef is with people like Beyonce and others who have great powerful vocals, and waste it.
Whitney didn't break records prancing around the stage, she did it on her cords alone. As did Adele this past year.
So it can be done in 2012 as it was in the 80s and 90s.
And imo, Beyonce, Christina have better voices than Adele.
Leave the extra stuff(dancing, gyrating etc) for those who can't blow ala Britney and Rihanna and yes, Katy Perry.
 
her songs are catchy, digestible fluff. Which is all i basically expect from a popette. So shes good in my book.

My beef is with people like Beyonce and others who have great powerful vocals, and waste it.
Whitney didn't break records prancing around the stage, she did it on her cords alone. As did Adele this past year.
So it can be done in 2012 as it was in the 80s and 90s.
And imo, Beyonce, Christina have better voices than Adele.
Leave the extra stuff(dancing, gyrating etc) for those who can't blow ala Britney and Rihanna and yes, Katy Perry.

If you want catchy and digestible there's about a million pop stars who put out better material than Kety Perr.

Also if you have ever seen Slayonce live I don't think you would claim that she is 'wasting' her talent. There's nobody else in the game who slays as hard as Queen B does live.
 
her songs are catchy, digestible fluff. Which is all i basically expect from a popette. So shes good in my book.

My beef is with people like Beyonce and others who have great powerful vocals, and waste it.

Huh? How does she wastes her vocals? You mean she shouldn't perform at all?
This is not how Beyonce works.

She can dance and sing. The other basics can try, but they won't touch Beyonce when it comes to performance. Bee kills it on stage.

And imo, Beyonce, Christina have better voices than Adele.

Christina and Adele have more power vocals, but Bee is technically superior, yes.
 
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