Pop Tart Spat of the Year

Okay, so, Katy Perry. Kind of hot, and not exactly shy about showing that off.

Used to be a Christian music singer. For real. But then she went mainstream, and by mainstream, we mean contrivedly provocative and slutty. As for contrived provocation, she released two singles in a row, one, "UR So Gay," derided as gay-baiting by gay-sensitive critics as she called out her ex-boyfriend for being gay ("and you don't even like boys/like penis"), and then her next single, "I Kissed a Girl," about some girl-on-girl making-out.

So, like, here's some outrage for the gays, and now, here's some outrage for the social cons.

I guess that's... okay. I don't know. Kind of attention-grabbing though. I understand that kind of shameless spotlight-whoring, mostly, but it still sort of annoys me.

Now we have Lady Gaga. Also contrivedly provocative, except, I would say, in her case, it's only 25% contrivance and 75% authentic, in as much as she's actually a mutant.

In case it matters: Not as cute as Katy Perry. Dog-face but cute butt.

Katy Perry is dissing Lady Gaga for going to the oh-my-God-so-cliched well of subverting Christian imagery for sexual/artistic outrage. "Blasphemous," she says, and "cheap," and certainly, she's right.

"Using blasphemy as entertainment is as cheap as a comedian telling a fart joke," Perry tweeted Tuesday.

"Alejandro" features Gaga in a latex nun's habit with a cross over her groin. Dressed as a stylish nun, the 24-year-old singer ingests a string of rosary beads and is stripped naked and ravaged by a group of scantily clad men.

It's no surprise that Perry could be taking issue with the video's imagery considering her strict religious upbringing.

Perry's parents are Christian pastors and she first started singing in their church. According to the "I Kissed a Girl" singer, she was not allowed to listen to secular music and grew up on gospel. for parents and grew up listening to gospel music.

Here's that video, once again shocking us with the same-old same-old, with your official moderate content warning.

On the other hand, here's Katy Perry's latest videos, in which she wears a cupcake bra with cherries for, you know, nipples.

Yeah, I don't know what the hell is going on in pop music either. We've got a Christian music singer, and I guess still a religious woman, making the proper case that the six bazillionth reiteration of Ooh-aren't-I-bad Christian bashing is "cheap."

On the other hand, she's running around in a bra made up of cupcakes, and licking lollipops, and a lot of other stuff that basically calls me to my Bunk.

Not exactly absolute moral authority. I'm kind of wondering if Katy Perry is also crazy. Something I kind of wondered from the first time I saw her.

I know people can be complex and have all sorts of contradictory impulses but this seems a little more incongruous than is typical. She's reminding me of Prince, with his alternating lyrics of Praise Christ and Do Me Baby.

I... think I'm with Katy Perry? Kind of?

Before you ask, "Why are you posting this?"

Two words: Cupcake bra. I thought that would be obvious.

Oh, Dearie: I didn't watch the end of that Cupcake Bra video.

They squirt frosting at the end.

I am baffled.

This is the woman who's, like, on our side n' stuff.

Radiohead Frontman: Music Companies "On Verge of Collapse." I'm sure few will shed tears.

The music industry was always considered sleazy and nasty and exploitative and filled with cheaters, chiselers, and thieves -- and it was considered such by the movie industry, which ought to tell you something.

A reader says that producers don't want artists, they want "spectacles," and I guess is therefore saying let the female artists off the hook a little; they're told be be slutty.

Clarification: Dave Clark, who wrote that, is a producer. He's talking about other producers, of course. Major label producers.

A Better Pop Chick: I mean, this chick from the Ting Tings is obviously pretty cute, but... you know, no cupcake bra needed to sell the song. Kind of sells itself.

And as for sex appeal: Yeah, I kind of want to hop on that. But it's not like she's really selling that. It's just... implicit. Obviously I want to hop on that. No need to really push me on that.

Katy Perry is pretty good-looking. It's not as if it would fail to occur to men that She'd probably be a pretty fun romp in the hay if she didn't say so.

Subtext. Look into it.

posted by Ace at 07:49 PM

| Access Comments