And so did Katy Perry. But, she wasn't always singing about kissing girls. First she sang about God. Then she kissed a girl — and she liked it (as it goes with most Christian girls. Just watch "Loving Annabelle"). Such is the contrast between Katy Hudson, Christian singer, and Katy Perry, chart-topper. Same girl, two stage names, two vastly different personas. And fans who loved the Katy who billed herself as the God-loving daughter of two pastors aren't pleased with her new image: Hip-shaking, lingerie-wearing, pseudo-lesbian pop star. But that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, WE like it!
Born Kathryn Hudson, the now name-settled Katy Perry scored the dance song of the summer with "I Kissed a Girl" — not to be confused with Jill Souble's 1995 hit of the same name — currently at No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Perry's debut album with Capitol Records, "One of the Boys," dropped June 17 to similar success.
But this isn't her first foray into music. Back in 2001, at the tender age of 16, she released "Katy Hudson" with the now-defunct Christian music label Red Hill Records. Russ Breimeier, who reviewed the album for Christian Music Today, thought she showed promise.
Instead of sticking with Him (Jesus Christ, Superstar) on the road to righteousness, the newly minted Katy Perry, 23, hopped on the highway to pop stardom (and who can blame her?). First, she took on a new stage name to avoid confusion with the other Kate Hudson of the silver screen.
Then, after picking up on mainstream music she recorded with production team The Matrix and released on her MySpace page, Blender magazine named Perry "the next big thing" in October 2004. In her interview with Blender, Perry confessed she wasn't "a typical Christian" and revealed she had done "lots of bad things" as a teenager. Finally, a Christian girl that's actually admitting to their bad-girl side. Maybe more Christians will follow suit and come out of the closet with tales of naughtiness.
And perhaps those bad things provided the inspiration for "I Kissed a Girl," which she released in April 2008 after signing with Capitol Records in early 2007. Now Katy sings:
No, I don't even know your name
It doesn't matter
You're my experimental game
Just human nature
It's not what good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to obey
I kissed a girl and I liked it
Perry's Christian fans aren't sure what to think.
According to ABC News:
"I just think it's interesting that seven years ago she had a Christian album and what she's doing now is clearly not Christian," said Joanne Brokaw, who blogs about Christian music for Beliefnet.com. "I get the sense that maybe she was engaged in rebellious behavior back then. I just wonder what the decision was — did people not really know or were they looking the other way?"
"It seems like ever since the name change, she's gotten this rep as a party girl," Breimeier added. "You can still hear some of the talent that was there before, but it just sounds like she's doing whatever she can to get noticed," he said. "And that's unfortunate. I feel bad for her folks."
Katy's publicist declined ABCNEWS.com's repeated requests for comment.
Of course, it's not unusual for musicians to start out in the Christian circuit and later flee for mainstream success. Alternative-rockers Evanescence did it; so did the band Lifehouse and, perhaps most famously, '90s pop princess Amy Grant.But while all of them maintained a straight-laced image in the music industry — at least compared to their counterparts who didn't cut their teeth in the Christian circle — Perry seems to be jumping at the chance to be a sexpot pop star, the next Britney Spears or Cristina Aguilera.
"The thing about her is that she decided to leave that scene behind," said Joe Levy,
editor in chief of Blender magazine. "I don't think she fits in with other Christian music artists who transition to pop success. She didn't transition — she stopped dead, reinvented herself, became an artist who has nothing to do with Christian music. It's a footnote in her career. It looks like who she is now is who she wants to be, slightly outrageous and very cute. And right now that's working." (ABC News)Whatever the motivation is for her transformation, she's obviously doing something right. I like the song and plan on downloading more from her new album. Plus, just watch the music video. It's hot. Even if Katy Perry is just experimenting, or even if she never comes out, she's one piece of eye-candy that I will be savoring down to the very last drop. Enjoy girls!
8 comments:
i cant for my life understand why this song is controversial, people need to chill
I wish everyone who's not really a Christian would leave the "scene". Christian music shouldn't be a scene or a way get famous, it should be about loving God.
I love the song. I can't understand why people don't allow a person to change. She is 23- she is learning and growing and trying to find out who she is...if she wants to do pop, so be it. If she wants to sing Christan Music, that's fine too. Why does she have to fit in a box?
i believe she's controversial because she has another song on her album titled "ur so gay". its about an ex boyfriend that was too "full of himself". nothing about homosexuality and instead using the word as an insult.
she's 23 and shouldn't be such an idiot.
i think the song sucks anyway. but i wish that the christian music genre wouldnt draw such a line in the sand with thier labels anyhow. its annoyed me since i was a teen and was forbidden to listen to the 'secular' radio stations, even tho the music was harmless. it wasnt violent rap, but just equated with evil cuz it was not a 'christian' station. this chick is tryin to make money, so let her. christians dont pay as well as the general population does. just ask waitresses who work sunday afternoons.
Ugh :/ I kind of hate this song. At my grad nite we had a dance floor and when they played this song all these girls were like dancing and singing along like they were sooo sexy, yet these are the same girls who call people they don't like "dyke" or "fag" and make fun of perceived homosexual behavior. I just feel like the song kind of promotes that notion that it's okay for girls to kiss each other only if they're drunk and it's to turn the guys on.
OK, a song doesn't have to mean anything! I've written love song and Im not even up to that stage yet! I'm only on here coz this post is about Katy Perry... This is my first and last post. Bye
And anyway, she might of had a Writer's Block! Plenty of people have it! That's why some of their songs aren't excellent!
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