Music Nov 6, 2013 at 4:00 am

A Conversation About Prism and Katy Perry's Pantheistic Quest to Wear Your Skin Like a Suit

Mike Force

Comments

1
I disagree with most everything in this album review. You really don't understand Katy and her music very much. You like what you like. That's fine. Like all art, it's all in the eyes and ears of the beholder and the so called "expert reviewer" has a lot less influence over other people's opinions than they think.

Katy is evolving in her music ... trying new things like artists do. Millions and millions of other people around the world will like this new album. She's probably going to be megastar for years to come like Madonna has been since the early 80s. You'll see.

Katy is a "real deal" musician who knows her stuff. She's been in the music industry since she was about 14 or 15. She paid her dues, learned instruments and the whole nine yards as a typical struggling musician on the small venue circuit for several years ... from age 15 to 23 or so. She's no Disney kid creation. She had help from good producers along the way though.

Since she's trying new types of songs this new album likely won't be a grand slam homerun like Teenage Dream was. It would have been very hard for Katy and her collaborators to do "Teenage Dream II" and have all those smash hits again ... six Hot 100 #1 hits I think. It really IS one of the best pop albums of all time. I like nearly all the songs on Teenage Dream and a lot of the songs on her first album.

Seems like Katy has been evolving from pop/rock to pure pop and now towards inspirational "deep" pop or whatever. Who knows, maybe for the next album she will start all over and be "rock and roll Katy" again like she was on her first album tour. There's lots of Prism colors and parts to Katy like the title of her 3D movie "Part of Me" goes.
2
I have no defense for Katy Perry. But while the buffet spirituality you describe can loosely fit a secondary definition of "pantheism," it's really a shallow use of a word that refers primarily to the presumption of impersonal unity, and not personal deity, as the foundational metaphysical principle. To hear Katy Perry's acts of appropriation placed alongside the principles at the root of Taoism or the writings of Giordano Bruno and Baruch Spinoza by way of facile word usage is discouraging.

/pedantry.
3
I'm not a dick- really, I'm not- but those earlier singles of hers hurt my feelings. And by my feelings I mean my sense of aesthetics. Even though PJ Harvey's my favorite musician, I love pop music as long as it's well-crafted. But there's nothing distinct about the either the sonics or the songcraft of Perry's music- and the lyrics are excruciating: "Roar" isn't even a comment on cliched uplift, it's cliche mad lib. I'll take Gaga's sincere performance art pretensions over Perry's sincere high-fructose corn syrup any day.
4
Yeah you really need to look up the meaning of pedantic...
5
i hate myself for thinking she is so damn hot :(
6
@2,4 you are right. Sometimes I misuse words.

@5, you are also right.

@1, you are wrong. Sorry!
7
Find millionaire men or women for friendship, fun, love and romance. Welcome to___richfriends.com___the largest place for elite singles and admirers. Have a try and good luck! :)
8
Do you want to find a partner who will exceed your expectations? Try___richfriends.com___the largest community for meeting successful or attractive singles for serious relationships. Have a try and good luck! :)
9
@1

Lol you consider mass prioduced pop for the masses "Art"

Katy is pretty hot but her albums might as well be written by machine ala 1984.
10
@4 - Did my post NOT strike you as being excessively concerned with minor details and rules and/or with displaying academic learning [not that I really claim any]? Perhaps you misunderstood the way I was using the tag--I was admitting to being pedantic in raising the concern.

Though really, I was probably just being defensive because I identify as a pantheist.

@6 - You didn't really misuse the word; you just didn't use it in my preferred way. Don't mind me. :)
11
Oh, and @5 - Yes.
12
My only complaint is that when I tell people I get ready for all business meetings by kissing my pistols and listening to "eye of the tiger" on a loop they think I mean "roar" not the song by the iconic band Survivor.
13
Her perfect and discrete enunciation of every syllable, once you notice it, overwhelms everything else until you also notice there are no edges anywhere in the music. It's music made from Fisher Price plastic pieces in primary colors with soft, rounded non-threatening corners.
14
I miss Missy Elliot.
15
Hoping you two will write a review of McDonald's next.
16
Katy Perry songs are the fucking WORST. Bah! Tired cliches belted out and computerated over computer generated music-ish algorithms. Zero depth. Zero musicality. Awful stuff
17
Dear Wiccans: You are a valuable demographic, and I look forward to seeing you represented on future earnings reports.

Regards, Katy Perry


That's glorious.
18

Katy Perry is old technology.

Miley blew the doors off her and Gaga.

Gaga is pulling up on Miley by ditching the sexual ambiguity and going space tech.
19
The prime audience for Kate Pery is 10 year old girls.

It stands to figure that Ped-Fem like Madrid would be sticking her something snout in it.

20
Katy Perry is Amy Grant.

Both started in contemporary christian noise.

Both have found success in sugary sweet cotton candy pop.

Amy divorced Gary then married Gill. Now, she's all about pop-country and pop-country gospel.

So, Katy's next marriage should let us know where she goes from here...I'm betting on a TV series called "Candyland"... :)
21
The only thing I know or care about this album is that every time I'm channel-surfing the radio in the car, my two year old son flips his shit out if I move past "Roar". You owe me for the 30+ minutes of my life I've lost to it so far, Perry. That song is destined to haunt dentist offices for eternity.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.