Tuesday 13 May 2008

WTF?

With a friendly song called Ur So Gay and a sweet publicity shot like this, what's not to like about Katy Perry?

Note that the back-pedaling single out in the US is called I Kissed a Girl. Really Katy? Have a lend of my phone and call someone who cares.

Sheesh.

I honestly can't see why the Popjustice I LOVE is peddling this crap. By the way, if I find out that the above shot is ANTI knives I'll gladly take the post down.

**UPDATE** And then I found all this...

Even if PJ itself is doing its own readers a diservice, the forum comes good. In the words of Cat Deeley on Stars in Their Eyes: "Tonight Katy Perry, you are Katy Hudson..."

Yes, this is the former name of the wannabe pop star - or, as a PJ forum member described her "a homophobic twunt who fuels knife crime culture" - who has a hidden past as a wannabe Christian pop star. Not so hidden any more. All credit to Steve for finding this link to her 2001 album and this link to a review in Christianity Today.

Fair enough a person can change their name, change direction and change who they are. A person aged 16 (Katy Hudson) is completely different to that of a 23 year old (Katy Perry). But to become a fake rebel with pretensions of being Pink? Nah. Bog off. Especially when you're homophobic one minute and 'possibly' lesbian the next. Pfft.

18 comments:

xolondon said...

Interesting that you addressed this. ONe of the PR folks has been peddling her hard and 1) I don't think she's that good and 2) I don't buy the irony defense. This girl is not that smart. Apparently Madonna loves the song.

I wonder if her followup will be "U R Such A Darkie"? Or maybe "U R So Gay (Soul Seekerz Fairy Mix)"?

Anonymous said...

you think you know... but you have no idea...

Phil said...

So right, XO. The irony thing is so vague it's not even there. It's interesting that Popjustice were so eloquent in their comments on The Pogues' 'faggot' lyric and yet they give this girl publicity.

And anonymous, why don't you enlighten us instead of talking in riddles.

Adem With An E said...

I liked "Hot & Cold," but everything else I've heard from her has been truly awful, and was quite put off by her when the Gay song surfaced.

Interestingly, on the Amazon page for Katy Hudson's album, the suggested tags for her music are:

Annoying
No Talent
Fake Punk
Ashlee Simpson

!

D'luv said...

The most shocking part of all this: did you say you love Pop Justice??!?

John said...

Careful...Jockohomo called her out on this piece of shit "song" a couple months ago and she came over to his comments section crying the "boo hoo" blues.

Hi, Katy, I mean, "anonymous!"

Phil said...

Anonymous is right though. I have no idea what they're on about.

Peter said...

Phil, my first post on Katy included the terms "fucking abysmal", "the worst song I've heard this year so far", "sack of shit" and "pony", but I also stated that I think 'Hot & Cold' is great. I'm not sure how this counts as doing Popjustice's readers a disservice and whether you or I like it or not it seems this girl will be all over the place in the coming months. It's been interesting to see how people on the Popjustice forums have responded to 'Ur So Gay' - a lot of them didn't have a problem with it, which strikes me as a bit odd but each to their own etc.

Sorry about posting a comment offering my own take on this, I know it's deeply unfashionable.

Phil said...

Fair enough, Peter. Your stand on the Ur So Gay song is quite clear - "sack of shit" is what it is.

But would you revisit the likes of Beenie Man if he suddenly came up with an inoffensive song that was "great".

The level of homophobia is wildy different between the two, but the effect is the same. It gives credence to any kind of attack on gay people wether it's name-calling or queer bashing.

This girl will be hard to avoid because of the clout behind her, granted, but does that mean everyone has to give her the air of publicity? All I'm saying is that it's disappointing to see her featured at all on PJ.

Peter said...

Yes I know exactly what you mean. There are a few things I haven't written about on Popjustice (or elsewhere) simply because I knew it would be bringing them to people's attention. The Jonathan King musical is a recent example, although there was a terrible girlgroup knocking around a few months ago with a fairly homophobic song about a gay man and I just decided not to cover it.

I think the 'starving someone of the oxygen of publicity' argument only works - unfortunately - if something isn't being covered elsewhere. If something *is* being covered elsewhere, and particularly if it's being covered in an unquestioningly positive way, then I think it's important that one is able to offer the alternative viewpoint. I suppose in the same way that The Guardian would cover the BNP winning a local election - they're informing their readers that something has happened, without offering the party any support.

The situation with Katy is made more complicated by the fact that a couple of her songs are pretty good, so while the Perez-friendly schtick they've gone with to launch her isn't to my taste at all I know a lot of readers will like those songs. (Some of them even like the Ur So Gay-type ones, too, as I mentioned in my previous comment.)

Basically my rationale was that because nobody in the UK had covered her (to the best of my knowledge) it was important to get in there first with a post saying 'this thing is coming your way - terrible gay angle but one of her other songs is quite good', or words to that effect.

As for the Beenie Man question... I'm not sure how I'd handle it. if it was a song that was going to be everywhere over the summer then I'd probably write something explaining how he'd made a brilliant pop record but also explaining what stank about the whole thing. Tricky. If Beenie Man had written the next 'Maneater' or 'Umbrella', how would you cover it?

Phil said...

Perhaps Beenie man is a bad example. I don't think he would be given the time of day in this country even if he did have a brilliant record and arrived with arms full of fluffy kittens. He pissed people off TOO much.

Eminem's probably a better example. I can understand that if HE came back with a fabbo tune, Popjustice be hard-pushed not to feature him. But with new artists like Katy, even with the Perez/Madonna seal of approval, no one would miss her if she was 'left off' the PJ 'playlist'. Radio 1 does it all the time. A proportion of listeners probably adore Westlife, but they still get ignored by the station. And they still have hits. And everyone is happy.

It is up to you, editorially, to feature who you want. If you suddenly said "We love Gary Glitter", it would be your perrogative (argh! can you imagine!). But just like the proportion of Radio 1's audience who like Irish boybands, there's a proportion of PJ readers who don't like homophobes given credence.

Peter said...

Eminem's a really good example actually - and I have covered him on Popjustice.

At the end of the day I'd rather people's first experience of Katy was to read me saying 'this single is shit' than to hear Jo Whiley or Chris Moyles going 'here's a hilarious song'. Not that I think I can tell people what to think, of course, but I do think that first impressions are important.

Don't forget that for every gay man who says, 'this song is a disgrace', there is another who says 'why are you making such a fuss about nothing? It's just a fun song and I can't wait to hear a remix of it at G-A-Y' etc. The former might have a problem with me writing about the song and saying it's good (or NOT writing about it saying it's bad) and the latter might have a problem with me not writing about it at all.

Basically, you can't please all the people all the time and I guess you just have to go with your gut reaction, which is what I did with this.

D'luv said...

Sorry, Katy Perry's 15 minutes are up. Next topic...

Phil said...

Fairy snuff, Peter.

And D'Luv, thank you, and goodnight.

xolondon said...

Seems to me there is a juggernaut behind her - has been since months ago when I threw out the promo.

Strange days.

D'luv said...

No, that's just her collie behind her, sniffing for the peanut butter, luv.

Anonymous said...

I don't think you should take the song Ur so gay so seriously.

And when you're a girl and kissed a girl doesn't mean you're lesbian. If you check the lyrics you will see she was trying it out. "You're my experimental game". And she sings "I hope my boyfriend don't mind it".

From this song you can also conclude that she hasn't got a problem with gays / lesbians. If she was homophobic, why is she singing I kissed a girl.

So, don't take the song Ur so gay, so seriously. She's just singing about her ex-BOYFRIEND.

Phil said...

Do you know something, I'm sick of the lame "Don't take it so seriously", comments. Just really fed up.

I don't think you understand my argument or the lyrics in Ur So Gay. I think we agree that I Kissed a Girl isn't a song about being queer. It's fairly obvious. It's just a boring scenario designed to get people talking and ultimately give Perry a faux edginess to sell Perry Inc. because there's nothing there, really. Remember the Britney sexy schoolgirl shocker? It's all just smoke and mirrors.

But the other song causes problems. There's been a subtle shift in society which equates being crap or rubbish with being gay. Without reading the lyrics, the song title plays on that. And then she sings about her boyfriend being 'so gay' for being a dick? It's just offensive ignorant garbage and sometimes, things like that piss me off.

Next time I get beaten up for being being 'so gay' I'll laugh it off and won't take it so seriously.