Once one of the biggest, most successful popstars in the world, Katy Perry (born Katheryn Hudson) seemingly had her career set for her from the beginning, scoring multiple #1 hits, numerous top 10’s, tons of radio play & physical music sales, successful tours, and an iconic Super Bowl Halftime performance she did with surprise guest Missy Elliot. It seemed like nothing could stop Katy Perry from being successful, or could it?
After a string of successful albums, Katy Perry took a short break between 2014 and 2017, releasing her album “PRISM” in 2014 which included successful songs such as “Dark Horse”, and “Roar”, among others. After taking this break, Katy Perry reemerged into the limelight – releasing a string of singles in anticipation of a brand-new album, titled “WITNESS” – and this would go down to be the beginning of the end for Perry’s massive success. The singles for the album included “Chained To The Rhythm” with Skip Marley, “Swish Swish” with Nicki Minaj, and “Bon Appetit” with the rap group Migos. These singles were met with mixed reviews and much more limited radio play. One of the biggest differences when it came to these singles, and therefore also the album and the era entirely, is that the singles all relied on features from rappers, which was unusual for Perry. As rap was becoming more mainstream at the time, many saw the “WITNESS” era as a desperate ploy to appeal to the rap fanbase, which was growing strongly at the time. Another major change that Perry made during this time was her sound. She went from softer, mainstream pop music to more experimental pop music, attempting to mix it with the then-trending rap music sounds.
“WITNESS” proved to be successful within the first week, debuting atop the Billboard 200 Albums chart; however, it would prove to be an overall colossal failure for Perry. The singles did not perform as well as previous singles, the album produced no successful singles after its release, and none of the songs received much radio play at the time. It also seemed to hurt her character as a whole, as many perceived the song and video for the single “Swish Swish” featuring Nicki Minaj to be a dig at her long-time rival Taylor Swift. The two made up around 2018, even appearing together in Taylor’s music video for her 2019 single “You Need To Calm Down”, off her album “Lover.” But that wasn’t the final exchange during the feud, as Swift made her comeback to music after disappearing from the public eye with 2017’s “Look What You Made Me Do”, which served as the lead single to her comeback album “reputation” – in which, Swift made a reference to Perry when she flaunted her Grammy awards, with a similar hairstyle to Perry, in a totaled sports car. Perry has no Grammy awards, which is how fans realized that the scene was a knock at Perry for dissing her in “Swish Swish” earlier that year.
Following the massive failure of her “WITNESS” album, Perry took three years off before releasing a new album – only featuring on a couple of songs. She made her first comeback in 2019, with the lead single to her next album, titled “Never Really Over” – which took an EDM-pop turn. After releasing a couple more promotional singles, and announcing her pregnancy in a music video for the single “Never Worn White”, she released her next album “Smile” in 2020 – featuring “Never Really Over”, along with other singles including “Harleys in Hawaii” and “Daisies.” This album, just like the last, proved to be another failure for Perry. The lack of promotion, along with a heavily crowded music space at the time of her release, led to the failure of this album. While the album did debut in the top five on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, it was her first since her debut “One of The Boys” to not debut at the number one spot. The album also failed to gain traction post-release and produced no hit singles or pop culture moments to turn the negative momentum around.
Following the failure of a second album in a row, Perry took four years off before releasing any more music of her own – only featuring on a couple of songs for other artists, and making a song for the Detective Pikachu soundtrack, which failed to gain traction. Her next comeback didn’t come until 2024, when Katy Perry began teasing a new album, along with new songs. She began to tease her first single “WOMAN’S WORLD” by previewing snippets of the song, going on Instagram Live to premiere those snippets along with some for other songs on the album. She announced the release of her album, titled “143” (meaning “I love you”) set for September, and stated that Dr. Luke had a large role in the production and writing of the album. She also wore an incredibly long, red dress leading up to the release of the song, featuring the entirety of the lyrics on the back of it. Her choice to collaborate with the controversial music producer Dr. Luke created negative attention, even before its release. Dr. Luke was accused of sexual assault & abuse by Kesha several years ago, with the court acquitting him despite the evidence and testimony against him. Because of this, many people (including some of her fans) refused to stream her new song & album and boycotted Perry’s music for deciding to work with Dr. Luke, despite knowing of the allegations against him.
Upon the release of “WOMAN’S WORLD,” it was met with negative reviews from critics – stating that the song was annoyingly repetitive, basic, and just plain boring to many. Due to the failure and negative reviews of the single, she rushed out a second single “LIFETIMES”, which was also met with mostly (but less) negative reviews than the first single – this song was also produced by Dr. Luke. She was awarded the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards, which were hosted by rapper Megan Thee Stallion this year. She made a performance, including past hits and newer songs off of the upcoming “143” record. The next day, she released the third single off the album, “I’m His, He’s Mine” featuring rapper & singer Doechii, who is a more recent celebrity – as her song “What It Is” blew up a few months ago. The song was the least-hated one of the three singles, still receiving mixed reviews from critics, saying that the album seemed to just be a desperate ploy to retreat to her successful music from the early 2010s, while also trying to make it sound like newer music.
With the constant and repeated failures of Perry’s albums and music since 2017, there is not much hope for the commercial success of her upcoming record, as the controversy with Dr. Luke has made her career and character less reputable, and has gotten her into a large amount of hot water. Her new record, “143”, was released September 20 through her label, Capitol Records.
