Olivia Kittel
Elm Columnist
Why do I hate Katy Perry? Aside from her horribly auto-tuned voice, absurdly tight, bright, mismatching, and attention-whoring outfits, her contradictory “girl power” attitude, and pretty much everything else about her, I mostly hate her latest song “Last Friday Night.” The first time I ever heard this song on the radio (and yes, I was listening to 104.3 so you might say listening to that station was asking to have my ears assaulted with terrible music, because let’s face it, Maryland really doesn’t have any half decent radio stations), I wanted to drive my car off of a bridge.
This song isn’t just bad in the same sense as every other pop song about drinkin’ your drank, shakin’ your booty, and hookin’ up with ‘bitches’, it’s worse. Perry’s latest hit not only condones but glorifies and celebrates excessive partying, binge drinking, and unprotected sex with both men and women you neither know nor remember.
Let’s examine the lyrics. The opening line reads, “There’s a stranger in my bed.” Do I really even need to explain why this shouldn’t be the opening line of a song? Apparently I do. There are countless dangers in having unprotected sex, let alone, having sex with strangers. If you really wake up with strangers in your bed on a weekly basis, I don’t even want to guess the number of STDs you probably have.
This line is of particular concern to me because Katy Perry’s music appeals specifically to teenage girls. Celebrating the extreme fun that you have sleeping with strangers is not a message role-models should be sending to impressionable teenage girls.
Another line declares the night to have been “a blacked out blur.” This obviously is not the message role-models should be sending to their teenage fans either. I mean, unless you want a bunch of 15-year-olds drinking until they black out. Oh, wait, that already happens. It is pop music like Katy Perry’s that sends the message “blacking out makes you cool! And its fun! Brag about it!” This is one of the many reasons America has such a big underage drinking problem.
Let’s not forget the bridge, “Yeah, we danced on table tops, and we took too many shots, think we kissed but I forgot.” I don’t think many people, especially at WAC, realize this, but dancing on a table or a bar does not make you cool. In fact, it’s pretty immature and classless. It seems outrageous to celebrate and brag about such behavior and to encourage your fans that look up to you to do the same because you had such a great time taking too many shots, dancing on tables, and kissing random people.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that as a pop “star”, many young people look up to you and may even want to be like you. Thus, when you celebrate this behavior, teens are likely to follow you. This brings me to her repetitive lines involving law breaking.
Katy Perry sings “Last Friday night, yeah, I think we broke the law,” and “Got kicked out of the bar,” and even “warrants out for my arrest.”
The absurdity in the celebratory singing of this is pretty self-explanatory. But finally, the worst part about this song is when she proclaims “This Friday night, do it all again!” I really can’t understand why you would want to repeat any of this behavior.
Don’t get me wrong, I am the last person to preach wholesomeness and I certainly don’t waste my time listening to Christian rock. I understand and even accept that some people listen to awful pop and hip-hop music solely for the purpose of drinking and dancing. I will even admit to being sometimes guilty of this myself. All I’m saying is have a little respect for yourself. And please don’t kid yourself into believing that getting wasted all the time, dancing on tables, and forgetting your nights makes you cool.
Maybe I am being a little harsh on Katy simply because I have a distaste for her music. It’s not Katy Perry’s fault that teens are dumb enough to look up to her as a role model. She probably doesn’t even write her own lyrics, so I can’t necessarily throw all of the blame on her. However, please don’t call yourself a “musical artist” if you’re going to choose to sing these types of songs. They’re hardly music.
April 29, 2011
Volume LXXXI Issue 24
What are you, 5? Do you really think 15 year old girls don’t have minds of their own?
The reason we have a big teenage drinking problem in America is because we’re one of the few Westernized civilizations that don’t let teenagers drink! You made yourself sound like a moron with that one, let me tell you.
They know what she’s talking about. She’s just talking about having fun in general and decides to make it funny but making it absolutely ridiculous. Even teenage girls can see that. IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
I don’t care for Katy’s music often but I don’t mind it. But she is b e a u t i f u l, has an exceptional voice (look up her singing gospel on YouTube) and she has every right to call herself an artist as she writes music (yeah, she does write her own lyrics), can play music, and can sing and create a show.
Have you never heard of rock n roll? Most of that is worse than this one pop song!
You, on the other hand, have no right to call yourself a writer if your common sense development stunted so severely. Christ.
Read between the freakin lines.