Katy Perry's Album of the Year Grammy Nomination Truly Shocking
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I mean, don't get me wrong. As a person, I adore her. She's funny, sassy, confident and beautiful, and she really does have amazing vocal talent. Her debut album, One of the Boys, is still one of my favorite albums of all time. I've also interviewed her several times and met her in person, and she's just as charming as you'd expect. (Seriously, what superstar singer gives her interviewer a hug after the interview?)
In other words, Katy is pretty awesome. But her sophomore album, Teenage Dream, was a pretty big disappointment to me, someone who was one of her biggest fans when it came out. (You can read my review of it here.) It was actually less personal and way more manufactured than her debut, and it's spawned silly singles such as "California Gurls" and the title track.
While her current single, "Firework," is so meaningful and uplifting, it's one of the few standout songs on the album. The rest sounds like a rip-off of Kesha, and that's not a good thing.
Besides party anthems such as "Last Friday Night," the album reaches its peak in silliness with "Peacock," all about Perry wanting to see a guy's genitalia. This is the kind of music that represents America as the best of the best?
While I'm stoked that Perry, a person I admire, achieved such a great honor with this nomination, it makes me question what the voting process is based on these days. If her album was among the nominees, Miley Cyrus might has well have been, too. And that, I'm sure everyone can agree, would have been terrifying.
Maybe it's because she got married and is constantly in the tabloids. Overexposure can lead to likeness. Maybe it's because "Firework" is actually a great song dedicated to gay youth. Or maybe Grammy voters are, for some reason, starting to want to award bubblegum pop music with more accolades beyond record sales.
While I'm stoked another Top 40 artist, Lady Gaga, is deservedly nominated in the same category, too, it sort of scares me when someone with music as fluffy as Perry's is at the forefront. Yes, some would call Gaga's music fluffy, too, but her The Fame Monster EP features a striking piano ballad in "Speechless" and a gospel-influenced track called "Teeth" among the disco pop which is superbly written. Perry's Teenage Dream, for the most part, is boring and generic. How it stood out to Grammy voters is baffling.
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