September 16, 2008

Music

It's a Hit

Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl"

by Michaelangelo Matos

"I Kissed a Girl"

by Katy Perry

(Capitol)

Of course we should have seen Sarah Palin coming. All we had to do was look at the music charts. Which song dominated American radio airplay this summer? Not M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," despite the deserved critical excitement when it jumped into the top five on the back of Pineapple Express; not Miley Cyrus; not the Jonas Brothers; and not even Coldplay. It was Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," a pseudofeminist exploitation number whose cynicism has been topped this year only by the RNC.

Perry is an ex-Christian singer who has seized the main chance. "I Kissed a Girl" marries an overbearing glam-rock shuffle-stomp—think of Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll Part 2" with the beat audibly fraying at the edges, as if the producers figured the only way to reach America's heart was to pulverize—with Perry's shrill singing, which seems less rooted in a musical style than a personality type. Forget about lesbian until graduation; Perry is a lesbian until the camera switches off—the loudest girl in the Girls Gone Wild infomercial. Each to her own, but she sounds so robotic it's hard to sense much in the way of human impulse there.

The lyrics just make it worse. She kisses a girl—sure, okay. She likes it—um, and? Oh, and she hopes her boyfriend doesn't mind, because sexual autonomy is inextricable from the male gaze, and that's fucking awesome. "I Kissed a Girl" is infuriatingly ass-backward: cynical adherence to outdated values made into titillation, snide calculation dressed up as the underdog, the same old bullshit disguised as rebellion.

Those traits have dominated recent election news. Writing in Salon about why Palin gives her nightmares, Rebecca Traister could have been describing "I Kissed a Girl": "What Palin so seductively represents... is a form of feminine power that is utterly digestible to those who have no intellectual or political use for actual women. It's like some dystopian future... feminism without any feminists." What's worse is that people are falling for it, mistaking a pat on the head for progress. It takes a nation of Katy Perrys to hold us back. recommended

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Comments (17) RSS

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1
Brilliant.
Posted by adam on September 17, 2008 at 5:03 PM · Report
2
Terrific piece. But note that if Palin kissed a girl, she'd surely get booted off the ticket.
Posted by bradluen on September 17, 2008 at 5:51 PM · Report
3
Damn. Yeah. Seconded.
Posted by AG on September 17, 2008 at 6:36 PM · Report
4
I bet Bristol has kissed a girl.
Posted by Neal on September 17, 2008 at 7:23 PM · Report
5
I agree. Katy Perry has totally nailed the assholish behavior and attitude of a drunk straight girl looking for male attention.
Posted by Greg on September 18, 2008 at 9:56 AM · Report
6
I see the point, maybe don't feel the same ire. I mean, in the long run, and maybe this is because I'm just effing old, but both the Palin thing and the drunk "straight" girls kissing to turn on men thing are unmistakable marks of progress, whatever else they are: You couldn't imagine a Top 40 hit like this even 20 years ago, and as for Palin, now O'Reilly has to forever shut up about judging parents for their teens' pregnancies, Republicans have to be less overtly sexist in general (their defense of her balacing motherhood and work is a pretty epic moment), and hey, America gets to notice Alaska for a minute. I feel extremely grudging admiration for McCain's recognition that politics is popular culture to some extent. That he's working it for the Republicans, to their ends, is unsettling, but he's also helping make permanent the changing landscape he's exploiting. I don't hear the song as evil, just as opportunistic as so much other great pop.
Posted by Pete Scholtes on September 18, 2008 at 11:48 AM · Report
7
Jill Sobule did it better 10 years ago - although I guess that prooves your point since it wasn't a 'mainstream top 40' hit.

I think a lot of the success of that Katy Perry song is due to a really weak summer for catchy pop tunes. I predict "Say Hey" by Michael Franti & Spearhead will soon fill that void.
Posted by DavidC on September 18, 2008 at 10:37 PM · Report
8
Lame video also. no actual kissing, just mimed labia licking (thus "taste of her cherry" is not about chapstick). And why is this? Because, as one can see in the last shot, it was all a dream!

In this way feminism is recast in a way that is acceptable-to-the-petit bourgeoisie. Just like the choice (hah!) of Sarah Palin.

Psychoanalytically, this song is a negation.

Hi Charles.
Posted by LMSW on September 20, 2008 at 7:49 PM · Report
9
I volunteer at Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in New York, and during the "Media Awareness" workshop we discuss the song's lyrics (among other forms of non girl-friendly media) and how they play into stereotypes. The workshop leaders also asked them to compare the Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control."
Posted by Mary on September 21, 2008 at 12:53 PM · Report
10
Wonderful piece - dead on!
Posted by mm on September 21, 2008 at 4:48 PM · Report
11
I completely disagree wiith what you said. Why all the hating on Katy Perry? Yeah, it could be taken a drunk straight girl trying to get attention, OR it could be about a girl who was confused about her sexuality and alcohol gave her the courage to experiment. Even if it about a straight girl, it doesn't sound at all like she's trying to impress anyone, it sounds like she's worried about what her boyfriend- which btw is a legitimate concern. If you're in a relationship and you make out w/ someone else, your significant other might have a problem with it- it doesn't have anything to do with her sexuality being tied up in male approval, although why she waited till she was drunk to kiss a girl might have something to do w/ society's approval.
Posted by tsarmina on September 21, 2008 at 5:06 PM · Report
12
I fail to understand how in the world anyone could have missed the blatant hypocrisy, and therefore rampant opportunism, in Katy Perry's singing she kissed girl on the same album as she accuses someone of being "so gay"
Posted by Dom on September 21, 2008 at 10:09 PM · Report
13
Um, this song is awesome. Listen how the bass line just sits tight until halfway through the chorus. You're all dipshits that would rather psychoanalyze a song than actually listen to it.
Posted by joykiller on September 21, 2008 at 10:11 PM · Report
14
This is so well-written. My husband loves the song and I find it grating and mediocre and LOATH the gay for pay sentiment. It's so obviously the drunken fake bisexual ploy for male attention. Blech!
Posted by vacuumslayer on September 22, 2008 at 11:01 AM · Report
15
Amen!

Because we all know, the only thing young women need to interest us is cherry Chapstick. *gag*
Posted by Lydia on September 22, 2008 at 12:58 PM · Report
16
My thoughts exactly
Posted by yeah on September 22, 2008 at 1:13 PM · Report
17
Oh come on...isn't this deconstruction of "I Kissed a Girl" a little ridiculous? Whether you like the singer or the song (I don't care for either, personally), I for one am THRILLED that kids in middle America have made a giant hit out of a song that to them most likely means nothing more than "It's not that big a deal to kiss someone of your own gender." Lighten up, people.
Posted by chillax already on September 26, 2008 at 1:08 PM · Report

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