Katy Perry has moved the date after the disastrous commercial performance of ‘Woman’s World’, releasing a second single just a month after the first. However, the initial figures for ‘Lifetimes’ are even worse than those of ‘Woman’s World’ because the release no longer comes with the “hype” of being Katy Perry’s first single in several years.
‘Lifetimes’ has entered Spotify at number 145 globally with 1,426,000 streaming plays on its first day. On the second day, it has fallen out of the top 200, scoring close to 3 million plays. A peak at number 95 in Norway is its best figure so far, as in the United States it has not gone beyond number 195 despite being its main market. ‘Lifetimes’ has also debuted at number 144 in Brazil and number 152 in Finland. Needless to say, in the official charts, the figure for ‘Lifetimes’ will not be very encouraging… and that in Spain we will not even know of its existence.
Katy Perry’s brand appears to be seriously damaged for several reasons. Most of all, Perry is being dragged down by her decision to work with Dr. Luke again on her new album, ‘143,’ despite the producer’s disastrous reputation in the industry and his legal dispute with Kesha. The irony of Dr. Luke being behind a song that proclaims itself feminist has not gone unnoticed by the public. ‘Lifetimes’ improves on ‘Woman’s World’ by not featuring embarrassing lyrics… although that has never been a problem for Katy Perry, author of ‘Firework.’
It’s also a mystery why Katy Perry has decided to work with Dr. Luke again when she hasn’t needed him in recent years. It’s true that ‘Witness’ (2017) and ‘Smile’ (2020) were both commercial failures for Katy Perry, but it’s also true that Dr. Luke wasn’t present on two of the most beloved songs that Perry has signed in the last five years. Neither ‘Never Really Over’ nor, above all, ‘Harleys in Hawaii’, which went viral two years after its release, featured him. And they were two excellent songs. In this case, it seems that “playing it safe” by working with Dr. Luke has been the biggest risk that Katy Perry could take.
But Katy Perry’s biggest enemy in this era seems to be herself. Or her quality filter. ‘Woman’s World’ is a fantastic song melodically and its chorus is a hit. However, the supposedly feminist lyrics reveal that Perry’s vision of feminism is outdated. The message “women can do anything” was already outdated and today sounds condescending and impersonal. The video for ‘Woman’s World’, on the other hand, supposedly satirizes the absurdity of patriarchy, but the satire is flawed because 1) it is not understood 2) it perpetuates the same clichés that it is supposed to criticize. ‘Chained to the Rhythm’ was a much better critique of capitalism than ‘Woman’s World’ was of feminism. ‘Lifetimes’ is fun and summery; I personally like it and I’m wearing it a lot, but in the scenario in which Perry finds herself, its success is not guaranteed. I don’t rule out that it will triumph in the long run, though.
Other factors may have dampened Katy Perry’s popularity in recent years. The public may not be forgiving of her (apparent) moral contradictions prior to ‘Woman’s World’. In 2017, she was already criticised for mocking Britney Spears’ mental health to talk about her own “breakdown” – even though the comment she made was nothing out of the ordinary (“I haven’t shaved my head yet” were her words; sorry but it’s Britney who decided to shave her head in front of the cameras). And in 2022, she suffered a minor backlash for her decision to vote for Rick Caruso, a former Republican converted to Democrat, but still with Catholic and anti-abortion leanings, for mayor of Los Angeles, instead of Democratic representative Karen Bass. Perry, who in the 2016 US presidential election had been fed up with publicly supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton, suddenly seemed like the Malú of the United States, leaning towards the centre.
It has never been so much a problem that artists get political, as when they do so in apparent conflict with their own values. And it is partly understandable: Parry comes from a Republican family and a Trump voter; everyone remembers that she started in music as a Christian pop singer. ‘Woman’s World’ and other moments – musical or not – in her career indicate, however, that Perry is a bit of a jerk when it comes to playing the progressive. The biggest hits of her career are apolitical, superficial and impersonal; ‘Chained to the Rhythm’ was a commercial flop despite its quality. She has never renounced her past, by the way; ‘Prism’ closed with a ballad called ‘By the Grace of God’. But, as Rigoberta Bandini has taught us, people on the left can also profess their faith.
Katy Perry’s case is complicated. On the one hand, it can be said that politics does not always sink careers: Kanye West, a person who has made anti-Semitic and all kinds of statements, is still a commercial powerhouse… although not at the level of his glory days. And, although it is said that Katy is not knowing how to place herself in the context of today’s pop, so different from the one that catapulted her 15 years ago, I am not so sure about that. The transparency of Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Charli xcx or Kanye West himself reigns over impersonality today, but impersonality has not ceased to be commercially viable; Katy Perry has. Kim Petras’ career – a guest artist on ‘143’ – has never taken off, but the German has generated a huge cult around her project copying Katy Perry and Britney Spears. And, although Doja Cat has been successful working with Dr. Luke, she signed with Kemosabe before Kesha’s complaint was made public. When Doja had the chance to stop working with Dr. Luke, she did. Katy Perry has since come back to claim his services. The success of ‘brat’ made it easy for Perry to plant her flag; the strategy has failed.
Even though the media suggests Katy Perry should stop exploiting the ‘Teenage Dream’ image in this new era and offer a more personal product, for example, writing about motherhood or spirituality, I don’t buy that argument either, because that’s exactly what she did in ‘Smile’ and it flopped hard. And, I don’t know about you, but I want Katy Perry to keep giving me good pop. The biggest problem with the ‘143’ era is that with ‘Woman’s World’ Perry continues to give one message and its opposite, as other times in her career. In this case, one message and its opposite.
