I kissed a trend, and I liked it

This past summer, one could not escape the incessant wails of Katy Perry, whose hit single “I Kissed a Girl” sparked an emergence of cherry ChapStick and homoeroticism for heterosexual girls being cool. Now that autumn is upon us, we have recovered from the single and are wiser with newer, better musical choices. Yet despite the song’s short amount of time in the spotlight, one must realize the song’s historical moment in the larger cultural context and ask, is Katy Perry capable of artistic merit?

The easiest component of the answer is examining the historical moment of Ms. Perry’s song. Only four years ago, President Bush, backed by the American religious right, put forth an attempt to amend the Constitution in order to federally ban gay marriage. The arguments between both sides of the conflict have been forged into our popular culture through films like “Brokeback Mountain” and the funeral antics of the Westboro Baptist Church. Here we see the clear progression of Katy Perry’s role in our cultural present.

Personally, the song seemed offensive the first time I heard it. It placed the validity of lesbians and other non-heterosexual females into cultural question, with Perry casually reflecting on her experience by saying, “hope my boyfriend don’t mind it.” The song depicts femininity from an ironically misogynistic light, with symbols such as the cherry flavor reflecting sexual attractions geared toward males. Why would someone considered an artist support the status quo with a highly oppressive ditty that discriminates against members of minority groups?

Letting that thought rest for now, one must consider the musical element of the piece’s artistic context. We have entered an age of producers, with hip-hop/techno/afro/Britpop fusions competing to create sounds that are bigger, better and more innovative than ever. From Kanye West to Justice, from Mark Ronson to Pharrell, the influence of production innovation has broken into the mainstream and trickled down to the top-40 genre. In the same way “I Kissed a Girl” is intriguing and attractive through its lyrics, it is also attractive for its beats and bass lines because of its moment in the art history of American pop culture.

So where does this leave Katy Perry in the postmodern canon? Is she to be remembered as a jovial faux-lesbo with a badass song or as an offensive imitator who released top-40 music, furthering the cultural stuffing of the bourgeoisie?

For one of the few times in my column, I don’t have an answer to this one. While art usually does not discriminate against or misrepresent truth, the song does meet with the innovative forms in music that represent the values of our current culture. Perhaps the song will result in another work of art’s backlash toward it, and thus can build more from it. Perhaps it will fade into obscurity as another attempt to create strong art geared toward the masses. For now, we must wait for art’s natural progressions to determine what “I Kissed a Girl” meant about our historical moment.