Pop star Katy Perry, who you will know for one of the best pop albums of the 21st century with 2010’s Teenage Dream, has been chasing that high without replicating it ever since. In the past 14 years, Perry has been having trouble finding relevance in a pop space where she was once dominant, and that could not be more clear after today, July 12, as she released her new single “Woman’s World.” The “anthemic” pop song is getting raked across the coals online. It has me thinking back on one of her career highlights of the past decade: the Pokémon 25th anniversary single and music video “Electric.” “Woman’s World” is so bad I can’t help but feel like she’s embarrassing her friend Pikachu, and wonder where was the little electric rat to stop her friend from putting out this monstrosity.
To catch up with those who aren’t tuned into pop music, Perry’s new single “Woman’s World” was under fire long before it was released today. When she released a clip of the song on June 17, its lyrics were roasted for sounding like the kind of thing you sing to your dog when no one is home. It’s meant to be empowering, and it mostly just ends up being Perry saying a bunch of adjectives and platitudes. It’s a toothless, juvenile song that only got worse as the truth of its creation was revealed. When it came out that Dr. Luke, the same man who has been accused of assaulting women like fellow pop star Kesha and being misogynistic and predatory toward women in the industry, was a writer and producer for the song, the entire pro-woman anthem became a laughing stock of the internet. There are six writers on “Woman’s World” and four of them are men.
The music video that also launched today is pretty nonsensical. “Woman’s World” is the kind of shit you’ll hear on women’s razor commercials, but when it’s not cashing in on the most cliched and generic feminist imagery, it’s leaning into a strange, absurdism like Perry filling her ass with unleaded gas. Controversial YouTuber Trisha Paytas is here, for some reason and drives Perry around in a monster truck, then the singer is airlifted out of a random girl’s backyard by a helicopter as the onlooker just screams “who are you” at her. Apt.
Perry told Elle that she knows a lot of people associate her music with empowering messages. In fairness, that’s true, if you look at songs like “Firework” and “Roar,” but those songs were far more effective thanks to their specificity. “Firework” was a queer anthem in the 2010s because it spoke specifically to finding the light inside oneself despite hardship. “Roar” works when it’s speaking to how power dynamics in relationships can make us small and about reclaiming your space. “Woman’s World” essentially boils down to “women exist,” while also propping up one of the most prominent known abusers in the music industry.
But “Electric,” the 2021 Pokémon anthemic pop song, was all of those things.
I’m a total mark because while some might call the song cheesy, I get a little choked up listening to it and watching the music video with Perry and her partner Pikachu. The two time travel to an earlier point in their lives when Perry was younger and trying to make it in music, though her Pikachu was a Pichu at the time. The duo helps their younger selves get past a rut in their respective careers. It’s all very sweet, actually. It would’ve been great for a future version of her and Pikachu to have stopped the sequence of events that had her collaborating with a known abuser and putting out the most half-hearted swing at a feminist anthem as she attempts a comeback.
We reached out to Perry’s Pikachu for comment and she said, “Pika, piiiiiiikaaaa” with a bewildered expression.
But that disappointment is how I feel listening to most of Perry’s music. Teenage Dream is legitimately one of the most important pop records of the modern era and the falloff has been disastrous to watch unfold. Her next album, 143, launches on September 20. Hopefully, there is something to redeem it after this shitshow.
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