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A kinky pop song in the US charts?
Published Thursday, May 22 2008, 14:54 BST | By Nick Levine | 13 comments
Actually, 'I Kissed A Girl' is a little bit remarkable, because it's sung by Katy Perry, a female singer-songwriter. A girl singing a song about kissing another girl: does that make it lesbo-pop? Well, not really, because Katy's kinky revelation comes with three provisos:
1. She got a little bit drunk before she kissed a girl.
2. Just because she kissed a girl "don't mean I'm in love tonight", you know.
3. She may have kissed a girl, but she's still got a boyfriend.
Given her previous form, it will be interesting to see whether Katy follows 'I Kissed A Girl' with another titillating/risqué single. Could she write a pop song about incest? Light bondage perhaps? 'My Cattle's Making Eyes At Me (And I'm Not Sure I Can Resist)'? The mind really does boggle.
Anyway, whatever you think of its subject matter, 'I Kissed A Girl' is actually a pretty decent electro-glammy pop single: like Goldfrapp writing a song for The Hills soundtrack. The video - which doesn't feature any tongue action, lesbian or otherwise - appears below:
What do you think of 'I Kissed A Girl'? Is it fun and cheeky or just a little bit desperate? Use the space below to have your say.
More: Katy Perry, Music
Your Views
13 Comments
Your Responses
Tom, Wirral, on July 5th, 2008
I like the song, it has v. interesting lyrics as it shows her confusion after kissing another girl (obviously.) It's just a shame that she's absolutely sh!t live.
I like the song, it has v. interesting lyrics as it shows her confusion after kissing another girl (obviously.) It's just a shame that she's absolutely sh!t live.
Amy, Brighton, UK, on June 23rd, 2008
Man I wish I could buy Katy Perry's music in the UK. I love her songs. 'Ur So Gay' is just great.
Man I wish I could buy Katy Perry's music in the UK. I love her songs. 'Ur So Gay' is just great.
John St. Louis, on June 18th, 2008
She is a typical pathetic young jerk with no values and this person is not a Christian. Her music is cheesy crap, bubble-gum pop just like the majority of her generations music. There is no heart, no soul, and no true fans so they need to create sensationalism. They are benefiting from the bisexual craze sweeping western women as a direct result of the mainstreaming of the porn industry and the encouragement of homosexual behavior amongst women often for male entertainment. This person is encouraging young girls to try homosexual relations with one another and the thought of this person in any way representing Christianity is a disgrace. I hope she disappears as quickly as she arrived.
She is a typical pathetic young jerk with no values and this person is not a Christian. Her music is cheesy crap, bubble-gum pop just like the majority of her generations music. There is no heart, no soul, and no true fans so they need to create sensationalism. They are benefiting from the bisexual craze sweeping western women as a direct result of the mainstreaming of the porn industry and the encouragement of homosexual behavior amongst women often for male entertainment. This person is encouraging young girls to try homosexual relations with one another and the thought of this person in any way representing Christianity is a disgrace. I hope she disappears as quickly as she arrived.
Emily Miller, on June 18th, 2008
When I first heard Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl,” I was driving in the car with my little sister, and I was about to change the radio station from the “pop channel” to the oldies, when she said, “Wait, wait, listen to this one!” I complied, indulging her love of gooey pop beats. What struck me most, after having listened to the song, is how unfortunately it does have substance. As an ally of the GBLT community, I became immediately curious to see what that community’s reaction to the song actually was. A quick Google search turned up with nothing—no one on the Internet had ventured to comment on the song, save the inane responses found tagged to the end of fan blogs. I’m almost positive, however, that somewhere, a gender studies Ph.D. candidate is working the song into a dissertation, but I’ll leave that to them, and possibly say it first: I find the song to exude homophobia, among other things. Sure, the song is about a girl kissing another girl, (“how is that anti-gay?”), but from the actual content of the work, I believe there is legitimate reason for concern. I’ll begin where my training begins—let’s take a close look at the text—for the song, that means the lyrics (I have read excellent close readings of musical theory-- check out Adam Krims' “Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity”, but I can’t begin to go in-depth on the musical theory behind this song). The song begins with a qualifier (a theme repeated throughout the song): “this was never the way I planned/ not my intention”. It is made immediately clear that the singer did not mean to engage in homosocial behavior—it was an accident. A mention of drinking is made, followed by a “loss of discretion”. What strikes me so powerfully in these opening lines is the reinforcement of the situation’s accidental nature. Such lyrics seem to highlight a certain point: a girl cannot legitimately desire another girl without the influence of alcohol or some other “loss of discretion”, or… she’s a lesbian. There’s something of degradation hanging about these lines—the song makes it seem as if a “normal” female would never choose to kiss another girl, or, it seems to me to be implying—albeit on the very far end of these lyric’s interpretive power-- that lesbians lack a certain ability to discern between “right” and “wrong”. Indeed, Perry notes such confusion in moral terms in the chorus and later—“it felt so wrong/ it felt so right” and “it’s not what, good girls do”—but, Perry makes it clear she’s drunk, so is it okay for a “good girl” to desire another woman in any other capacity? Perry certainly doesn’t offer that up as a possibility. True, while these first lines caught me off guard, I wasn’t too surprised--I could analyze the content of many pop songs today and find them duplicating heteronormative values, but I feel this song goes beyond the mere replication of certain values--it degrades others. Is a woman (sober or otherwise) who happens to desire (or desire to be desired by) another woman, the song offers, not a “good girl”? The next lines, “No, I don’t even know your name/ It doesn’t matter” scream not only of belittlement on the part of the nameless girl, but of callous objectification. Case in point: I’ve seen several movies in which men are belittled for not knowing their “object of affection’s ” name (I can’t think of them now, but it’s a rather common trope)—and here, in this song, Katy Perry is replicating a certain type of behavior for which males are normally lampooned. In a sense, Katy Perry assumes a macho-male identity and objectifies her “object”. Her vocabulary replicates the male-perspective of the situation, (which she assumes) and does not take into account her partner. At this point, one might say, “men do it; good for her; she’s turning the tables”, but the mediation of such behavior in this song’s current form (in movies, the woman’s feelings at being thus treated are often shown), fails to account for the other girl, period. The singer’s partner is established through the lyrics (or lack of lyrics; as I’ve learned in studying Henry James, sometimes what’s not said is more important than what is) as a non-entity—we are not given any insight into her desires or her feelings on the situation. Again, this isn’t uncommon in pop songs, but this isn’t just a pop song, acknowledging to an extent, its own ridiculousness—what I did come across in my search for answers on the Internet was that many people felt that this song was supportive of GBLT movements, and I feel that such a reading needs to be exposed for its utter insensitivity to the words being sung. The next lines, “You’re my experimental game/ Just human nature” are at once telling and empty. One can get into a very long argument about the composition of something as vague as human nature, but the fact that Perry refers to her object as both an “experiment” and a “game” further supports points noted above. Males who are good at attracting women are sometimes said to “have game,” and for some, the whole process of engaging girls at all becomes “the game,” but…rarely have I ever heard, personally or in cultural use, men refer to women as “experiments”. That type of terminology rings of beakers, dissection, medical sterility and abortive results. We already know the singer has no intention of taking her relationship any further (“don’t mean I’m in love tonight” and, ironically playing into the phenomenon of some males being intrigued by lesbian activity, “I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it”), so certainly, this “experiment” will end, like a Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in heteronormativity swooping in to “make things right” in the morning. The “staging” of this song, whereby I mean the imagined setting, favors both the boyfriend in the background, who gets to watch an impromptu “spectacle” put on for his pleasure, and the singer, who objectifies and derives pleasure from her nameless partner. Everyone wins to some extent, except for the “object”. Like Antonio in “Twelfth Night,” the unnamed partner will, it appears, inevitably be cut out of the equation when morning comes. Certainly, the singer’s partner could be just another drunk girl, with her boyfriend also watching in the background, or… her partner could be a lesbian looking for love in the tumult of a dominant heteronormative world. There are many options for what the “object” might or not be—such categorization doesn’t even need to occur, because the point is clear—the objectified partner doesn’t matter—we don’t even need to know her name. With Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl” we’re left with the superficial taste of cherry chapstick, but that’s it, and for me, that taste smacks of disappointment—disappointment that today a song with such implications can be played over airwaves, let alone become a hit.
When I first heard Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl,” I was driving in the car with my little sister, and I was about to change the radio station from the “pop channel” to the oldies, when she said, “Wait, wait, listen to this one!” I complied, indulging her love of gooey pop beats. What struck me most, after having listened to the song, is how unfortunately it does have substance. As an ally of the GBLT community, I became immediately curious to see what that community’s reaction to the song actually was. A quick Google search turned up with nothing—no one on the Internet had ventured to comment on the song, save the inane responses found tagged to the end of fan blogs. I’m almost positive, however, that somewhere, a gender studies Ph.D. candidate is working the song into a dissertation, but I’ll leave that to them, and possibly say it first: I find the song to exude homophobia, among other things. Sure, the song is about a girl kissing another girl, (“how is that anti-gay?”), but from the actual content of the work, I believe there is legitimate reason for concern. I’ll begin where my training begins—let’s take a close look at the text—for the song, that means the lyrics (I have read excellent close readings of musical theory-- check out Adam Krims' “Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity”, but I can’t begin to go in-depth on the musical theory behind this song). The song begins with a qualifier (a theme repeated throughout the song): “this was never the way I planned/ not my intention”. It is made immediately clear that the singer did not mean to engage in homosocial behavior—it was an accident. A mention of drinking is made, followed by a “loss of discretion”. What strikes me so powerfully in these opening lines is the reinforcement of the situation’s accidental nature. Such lyrics seem to highlight a certain point: a girl cannot legitimately desire another girl without the influence of alcohol or some other “loss of discretion”, or… she’s a lesbian. There’s something of degradation hanging about these lines—the song makes it seem as if a “normal” female would never choose to kiss another girl, or, it seems to me to be implying—albeit on the very far end of these lyric’s interpretive power-- that lesbians lack a certain ability to discern between “right” and “wrong”. Indeed, Perry notes such confusion in moral terms in the chorus and later—“it felt so wrong/ it felt so right” and “it’s not what, good girls do”—but, Perry makes it clear she’s drunk, so is it okay for a “good girl” to desire another woman in any other capacity? Perry certainly doesn’t offer that up as a possibility. True, while these first lines caught me off guard, I wasn’t too surprised--I could analyze the content of many pop songs today and find them duplicating heteronormative values, but I feel this song goes beyond the mere replication of certain values--it degrades others. Is a woman (sober or otherwise) who happens to desire (or desire to be desired by) another woman, the song offers, not a “good girl”? The next lines, “No, I don’t even know your name/ It doesn’t matter” scream not only of belittlement on the part of the nameless girl, but of callous objectification. Case in point: I’ve seen several movies in which men are belittled for not knowing their “object of affection’s ” name (I can’t think of them now, but it’s a rather common trope)—and here, in this song, Katy Perry is replicating a certain type of behavior for which males are normally lampooned. In a sense, Katy Perry assumes a macho-male identity and objectifies her “object”. Her vocabulary replicates the male-perspective of the situation, (which she assumes) and does not take into account her partner. At this point, one might say, “men do it; good for her; she’s turning the tables”, but the mediation of such behavior in this song’s current form (in movies, the woman’s feelings at being thus treated are often shown), fails to account for the other girl, period. The singer’s partner is established through the lyrics (or lack of lyrics; as I’ve learned in studying Henry James, sometimes what’s not said is more important than what is) as a non-entity—we are not given any insight into her desires or her feelings on the situation. Again, this isn’t uncommon in pop songs, but this isn’t just a pop song, acknowledging to an extent, its own ridiculousness—what I did come across in my search for answers on the Internet was that many people felt that this song was supportive of GBLT movements, and I feel that such a reading needs to be exposed for its utter insensitivity to the words being sung. The next lines, “You’re my experimental game/ Just human nature” are at once telling and empty. One can get into a very long argument about the composition of something as vague as human nature, but the fact that Perry refers to her object as both an “experiment” and a “game” further supports points noted above. Males who are good at attracting women are sometimes said to “have game,” and for some, the whole process of engaging girls at all becomes “the game,” but…rarely have I ever heard, personally or in cultural use, men refer to women as “experiments”. That type of terminology rings of beakers, dissection, medical sterility and abortive results. We already know the singer has no intention of taking her relationship any further (“don’t mean I’m in love tonight” and, ironically playing into the phenomenon of some males being intrigued by lesbian activity, “I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it”), so certainly, this “experiment” will end, like a Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in heteronormativity swooping in to “make things right” in the morning. The “staging” of this song, whereby I mean the imagined setting, favors both the boyfriend in the background, who gets to watch an impromptu “spectacle” put on for his pleasure, and the singer, who objectifies and derives pleasure from her nameless partner. Everyone wins to some extent, except for the “object”. Like Antonio in “Twelfth Night,” the unnamed partner will, it appears, inevitably be cut out of the equation when morning comes. Certainly, the singer’s partner could be just another drunk girl, with her boyfriend also watching in the background, or… her partner could be a lesbian looking for love in the tumult of a dominant heteronormative world. There are many options for what the “object” might or not be—such categorization doesn’t even need to occur, because the point is clear—the objectified partner doesn’t matter—we don’t even need to know her name. With Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl” we’re left with the superficial taste of cherry chapstick, but that’s it, and for me, that taste smacks of disappointment—disappointment that today a song with such implications can be played over airwaves, let alone become a hit.
Josh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on June 17th, 2008
I love this song. Personally, I don't think it's a marketing ploy. Cynics will say that...but I think it's a personal statement. And in response to the criticism that it's lesbo-pop 'lite'....most gay and bi people have opposite sex partners before they ultimately choose to adopt a same-sex partner, so the fact that she's 'trying something on' doesn't make it any less important or significant than if she weren't. According to that standard, she would only be praiseworthy if she'd come out with a song called "I'm a Hardcore Lesbian." This is the type of song that you can find fault with if you have a particular axe to grind, but it is a GOOD song.
I love this song. Personally, I don't think it's a marketing ploy. Cynics will say that...but I think it's a personal statement. And in response to the criticism that it's lesbo-pop 'lite'....most gay and bi people have opposite sex partners before they ultimately choose to adopt a same-sex partner, so the fact that she's 'trying something on' doesn't make it any less important or significant than if she weren't. According to that standard, she would only be praiseworthy if she'd come out with a song called "I'm a Hardcore Lesbian." This is the type of song that you can find fault with if you have a particular axe to grind, but it is a GOOD song.
Steve, England, on June 14th, 2008
Okay, firstly it's a fun song and secondly, where's your sense of humour?
Okay, firstly it's a fun song and secondly, where's your sense of humour?
John Sposato, Syracuse, NY, USA, on June 12th, 2008
I caught the end of this on VH1 US today. I thought it was hilarious! She pushes the envelope! Every guy's fantasy!
I caught the end of this on VH1 US today. I thought it was hilarious! She pushes the envelope! Every guy's fantasy!
Ken, on June 6th, 2008
absolutely atrocious
absolutely atrocious
Sam, London, on May 24th, 2008
I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!!!!!
Brian, Essex, on May 24th, 2008
I think Katy Perry is a desperate woman who is using female bisexuality as a marketing ploy. I wonder if her current boyfriend likes to kiss boys. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, Katy.
I think Katy Perry is a desperate woman who is using female bisexuality as a marketing ploy. I wonder if her current boyfriend likes to kiss boys. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, Katy.
Serena, London, on May 22nd, 2008
This song is the best, along with Hot N Cold!
This song is the best, along with Hot N Cold!
zip@zap.com, on May 22nd, 2008
Pathetic garbage.
Pathetic garbage.
this song is red HOT , its having grt success over in USA . I cant wait for the ablbum to come to the UK. "A girl singing a song about kissing another girl: does that make it lesbo-pop?" love it haha And dont we all like a bit from the same sex