MUSIC! A Delving Into Katy Perry (and why that song sounds awfully familiar...)

This post kind of breaks format of many of our Replays, but I was recently going through a YouTube playlist of Katy Perry videos. I know, I know. "You like Katy Perry?" First of all, yeah, so what? Second of all, no one should ever have to explain what they like. (I mean, do you know why you like the things you do?) I'm not saying she's the greatest or anything, but she makes catchy tunes and puts on entertaining videos.

But as I was going through and listening to some of those songs again, I got a little caught up on something. Most of her songs that I know sound awfully familiar. It took a little digging to figure out why that was the case, but here are five Katy Perry songs that I probably like because I liked the song it is essentially ripping off:

KATY PERRY - "Last Friday Night (TGIF)"




Pretty catchy guitar riff there. Pretty dancy and poppy. Kind of a funny video. But ya know, I think I liked the song better when it was:

DAFT PUNK - "Digital Love"






Ok, so maybe that one just has a kind of similar sound to it. They're not identical, after all. So what about this:

KATY PERRY - "Wide Awake"



One of those drama-pop songs where an artist is trying to show s/he's not just all about sexual innuendo built off of your favorite childhood board game. But wasn't this song better when it was:

LENNY KRAVITZ - "Fly Away"





Again, they aren't by any means identical, but it sounds as if whoever wrote "Wide Awake" was literally just writing over Lenny Kravitz's (pre-Hunger Games) hit. I mean, "Wide Awake" even sounds like "Fly Away" as a title! But it's not the only time Katy Perry (or whoever writes her songs) basically just wrote new words over an old song.


KATY PERRY - "Firework"




The build up to the title is pretty much just copied and pasted from:

ERASURE - "Always"




Now, of course, these two songs don't ultimately have that much in common. And as big a fan of Erasure as I am, Katy Perry's anthem is - in my opinion - far superior. There's enough of a difference between the two overall that it's not as obvious, but it's hard not to hear "Always" in the "Firework" build up.


Again, none of these songs are identical, and I'm not (at this point) arguing plagiarism. "Firework" borrows only a little from Erasure. "Last Friday Night (TGIF)" borrows the guitar from Daft Punk. And "Wide Awake" borrows the lyrical meter and scheme from Lenny Kravitz. Where it gets even worse though is with one of her initial breakthrough songs (and one of the most obviously stolen songs in the bunch.)


KATY PERRY - "California Gurls"




Thing is, I actually really like "California Gurls" (pronoun misspelling not withstanding). It's fun, it's light, it's got Snoop Dogg, and it's catchy as hell. And to be fair to Katy Perry (who's song debuted in 2010), it's far superior to its immediate predecessor of a song:

KE$HA - "Tik Tok"




I've got nothing against Ke$ha (apart from that she kind of is a talentless hack - but she does make weirdly catchy and raucous pop music), but Katy Perry had proven her abilities are greater. Of course, "Tik Tok" released in 2009 and essentially rocketed Ke$ha from obscurity to greater pop fame. In this way, even though "California Gurls" is far superior (even using a better rapper in Snoop Dogg where Ke$ha used P. Diddy), it still feels a bit like a cheap ploy to gain further fame. She essentially ripped off Ke$ha.

Now, I don't want to just dump on Katy Perry here as if she were the only one who rips off bits and pieces. Certainly, if she ripped off Ke$ha (which she did), you have to argue that Ke$ha also ripped off Kylie Minogue (which she did):

KYLIE MINOGUE - "Love At First Sight"




Minogue's song (which, frankly, is better than both Ke$ha's and Katy Perry's takes) preceded those later songs by nearly a decade - dropping in 2001. So clearly, if Katy Perry is just ripping off other already-successful pop tunes to build her own successful pop career, she isn't the only one. It's hard to bash Katy Perry for doing it when one of the people she ripped off had also ripped off another pop star.

Even Kylie Minogue can be accused of stealing from another, even earlier pop star, as her song does sound quite a bit like:

the artist formerly known as PRINCE - "I Wanna Be Your Lover"



Prince - I Wanna Be Your Lover (Official Video) by Prince-Official



However, for all of these surprisingly forgivable forays into borderline plagiarism, the one that stands out as the most egregious is a song she put out in 2013 months and months after another song debuted earlier in that same year. Yes, I'm talking about "Roar."

KATY PERRY - "Roar"




A good song, to be sure: catchy and with a memorable and fun video to match it. And it's at least a modest effort to say something substantial. It's always refreshing to hear female pop stars singing about feeling empowered. It's encouraging to have something out there that will communicate with young girls that they should feel strong and empowered themselves, rather than simply trying to get the attention of the cute boy (even if her video kinda goes against that message  with the "sexy female Tarzan" thing going on).

But, wasn't this song kind of better when Sara Bareilles did it earlier?

SARA BAREILLES - "Brave"




And listen, I understand that Sara Bareilles and Katy Perry are friends, so they don't appreciate the controversy that arose when Perry's "Roar" debuted. And of course the dude who wrote "Roar" is going to say his song was written and thrown into production first. The problem here is that given the overall body of work produced for Katy Perry, it's kind of hard to believe. I mean, I've pointed out four songs that are either blatantly taking something from another song or subtly taking from another song.  I just find it a little too convenient that "Roar" would not only sound sooooo similar musically to "Brave;" it also preaches a very similar message of empowerment. It'd be one thing if they both had either similar lyrics or similar melodies, but it's both.

Again, this isn't so much an argument against Katy Perry. As far as I can tell, she doesn't do much of her own writing. She's more of the "sing well and look smokin' hot in your overly sexualized music videos" type of pop star.  In that way, this seems to be more of a problem with mainstream pop music. Is it so painfully and outwardly out of new ideas that they just keep rehashing the same dozen songs and figuring we won't know the difference? (Even worse, why do we never seem to act like we know the difference?)  For example:

TAYLOR SWIFT - "Haunted"





COLDPLAY - "The Scientist"




Pretty much the exact same melody. Only one is a bit more mellow and the other more poppy. Oh, but where have I heard that song before? Oh yeah, in the much superior:


THE CRANBERRIES - "Zombie"




Coldplay also provides us with another classic "barely even trying to come up with something new" example:


COLDPLAY - "Talk"




Pretty good tune, but I liked it better when it was the nerdier:

KRAFTWERK - "Computer Love"

So. What are we to make of all this? We tend to joke a lot about how Hollywood seems out of ideas because it's simply remaking older movies, building sequels and franchises, or adapting every book, comic, show, and even toys into films. But perhaps it's more accurate to say that modern pop music has run dry with new ideas.

Katy Perry is a great pop star, for sure. Her music is catchy and fun and usually very easy to dance to. Still, it's hard to get super stoked about her next single. Odds are, you've already heard it.