This Week On Billboard: Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl
This Week On Billboard is where I unabashedly critique the current no. 1 hit on Billboard.com, the major yardstick for what's "hot" in music today. In order to simplify the review for those who don't want to read the whole article, each song is given a "!" rating, in which the finest grabs five of them.
Weeks in No. 1: 5
Weeks in chart: 11
From the One Of The Boys LP
!!
You kissed a girl, and you liked it. So fucking what?
"I Kissed A Girl" would've been tailor-made for 1999, the year when Sarah Michelle Gellar was kissing Selma Blair in Cruel Intentions, the year when Calista Flockhart was kissing Lucy Liu in Ally McBeal, the year when kissing girls for experimental purposes used to be a shocker. Sorry, Katy Perry, but you arrived at the party a little late. However, thanks to a stint in Gossip Girl's playlist, and thanks to every drunken sorority girl who has ever gotten too friendly with the same sex proclaiming this as their song, this bi-curious jam roisters at the top of the charts in 2008.
The production itself, a trampling occasion which Goldfrapp has made famous, isn't horrible. It's even somewhat striking, as a matter of fact, and if Rihanna has used this to back-up her latest single, we'd probably be adding a couple more "!" to its rating. But the lyrics are so irksome, both in terms of structure and content, that it totally overshadows the song's glamstomp appeal. The rhyming schemes seem contrived and, more importantly, its topic is obnoxious. Perry seems way too pleased with herself in this and she ditched any form of ambiguity that made Madonna hits of the same ilk so exceptional. Perry isn't promoting homosexuality here with "I Kissed A Girl"; she is, however, promoting herself, without any form of subtlety, as a wild and experimental girl to garner the attention of her boyfriend and, subsequently, the radio-listening public. Maybe it's just me but I, myself, want my lesbian fantasies acted out more teasingly.
Weeks in No. 1: 5Weeks in chart: 11
From the One Of The Boys LP
!!
You kissed a girl, and you liked it. So fucking what?
"I Kissed A Girl" would've been tailor-made for 1999, the year when Sarah Michelle Gellar was kissing Selma Blair in Cruel Intentions, the year when Calista Flockhart was kissing Lucy Liu in Ally McBeal, the year when kissing girls for experimental purposes used to be a shocker. Sorry, Katy Perry, but you arrived at the party a little late. However, thanks to a stint in Gossip Girl's playlist, and thanks to every drunken sorority girl who has ever gotten too friendly with the same sex proclaiming this as their song, this bi-curious jam roisters at the top of the charts in 2008.
The production itself, a trampling occasion which Goldfrapp has made famous, isn't horrible. It's even somewhat striking, as a matter of fact, and if Rihanna has used this to back-up her latest single, we'd probably be adding a couple more "!" to its rating. But the lyrics are so irksome, both in terms of structure and content, that it totally overshadows the song's glamstomp appeal. The rhyming schemes seem contrived and, more importantly, its topic is obnoxious. Perry seems way too pleased with herself in this and she ditched any form of ambiguity that made Madonna hits of the same ilk so exceptional. Perry isn't promoting homosexuality here with "I Kissed A Girl"; she is, however, promoting herself, without any form of subtlety, as a wild and experimental girl to garner the attention of her boyfriend and, subsequently, the radio-listening public. Maybe it's just me but I, myself, want my lesbian fantasies acted out more teasingly.
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