They want her to be successful, don’t you get it?

It’s easier this way.  You find someone attractive, hook her up with the producers/songwriters du jour, and hype her to high heaven.  If it doesn’t work?

Then you’re screwed.  Then you’ve got to do it the hard way.  You’ve got to find someone with talent, who’s put in thousands of hours and is willing to put in thousands more in order to establish a career fan by fan, by playing live ad infinitum, by being nice, realizing the customer is the fan, not the TV network or the radio station or any of the dying intermediaries.

I don’t think Katy Perry is without talent.  But the YouTube link below doesn’t close me.  In order to close you, a clip, whether it be audio or video, has to stop you in your tracks, it’s got to make you forget what you planned to do as you sit there stunned, overwhelmed with the sheer quality and intrinsic value of the artist’s material.

A good enough voice won’t stop you.  It’s the alchemy of song, singer and presentation.  Not everybody has it.  But when you’ve got it, you’re a star.

Maybe Katy Perry could have a career if she played by career rules.  If she refused to work with the usual suspects and just went on the road, starting in clubs, grinding it out, gig by gig, fan by fan, until suddenly there’s a buzz, when your friends ask HAVE YOU HEARD THIS GIRL?

But no.  She decided to take the easy way out.  Issuing novelty singles.  Trading on her sexuality.  Hyping to high heaven.

Sure, she did the Warped Tour, I commend her for that. But instead of dallying with Russell Brand in the gossip pages, she could have stayed on the road, honing her chops, building her audience.  Instead, she was holed up in a studio, trying to create pop perfection.  And pop perfection just doesn’t go as far as it used to.

So let this be a lesson to you.  Play the game at your peril.  Listen to the usual suspects with caution.  It’s your one and only career.  Everybody might know who you are overnight, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got any fans.  That’s the essence of a reality star.  Famous for nothing other than overexposure.  That’s Paris Hilton.  That’s Kim Kardashian.  That’s not a musical star.

Katy should do a mea culpa.  Can the overscripted, slick videos with guest rappers and go on the road with a band, sans hype.

But she doesn’t want to work that hard.

Oh, she’ll tell us how hard it is to be today’s Katy Perry.  All that time in the studio, all that hair and makeup.  Hogwash.  AC/DC had it right decades ago, and it hasn’t changed since, it’s more true now than ever:

Hotel, motel
Make you wanna cry
Lady do the hard sell
Know the reason why
Gettin’ old
Gettin’ grey
Gettin’ ripped off
Underpaid
Gettin’ sold
Second hand
That’s how it goes
Playin’ in a band
It’s a long way to the top
If you wanna rock ‘n’ roll

Those driving hundreds of miles a day in a van, sleeping four to a room, eating fast food to stay alive are the true stars of tomorrow.  It’s a learning experience.  You bond with your audience.  You get good.  And the public knows it.

Hell, how many albums did AC/DC release in America before they made it?  PLENTY!  Hell, their American label wouldn’t even put out "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", but after the mega-success of "Back In Black", that earlier album came out and sold tonnage too.

And isn’t it great to be able to go back in time and find the undiscovered gems, as opposed to an act making one hit album, which succeeds immediately, and then nothing?

And now it’s not even an album, but a track.

And you can’t charge $1000 for a track.  You can’t sell a Topspin $100 package.  Sure, you can license it to a commercial, whore it out ad infinitum, but when the mania dies down, you’re left with almost nothing.  A momentary pile of cash that you’d better save, because there’s no more coming in.  Meanwhile, the fat cats who told you to sell out are on to the next thing.

Let Katy Perry be a warning.  If you’ve got a modicum of talent, take the road less traveled.  Go your own way.  Find your own voice.  Create something unique.  Build your audience fan by fan.  Then you’ll have a career, and money that rains down year after year.

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Sure would be nice if you knew what you were talking about.  

She’s done all this, do some youtube research and you’ll see.  She’s very talented.  It’s possible the persona she currently pushes might negate this, might push it back underground where no one will find it.  But she’s demonstrated her cred numerous times, those in the industry know, which is why they’ve invested massively in her, even at this teen- hits stage.

Michael Olson

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Well, had you been to her many hotel cafe shows (including other singer/songwriter events) prior to the emi signing, you would realize how far wide right you missed on this missive.

Todd A. Cooper
Of Counsel
Greenberg Traurig

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You should check out Katy Perry’s unplugged set. It’s got what you need to help her "real musician" cred.

Matt O’Donnell

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I couldn’t agree more with you on Katy . A little tough love now to learn from might still give her a career if she takes it all in and comes up with something SPECIAL not a sensational tease.

Kevin Sutter

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You mean like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLgy3P11aXI

Daniel Barassi

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Bob, Just a note regarding Katy Perry (formerly Katy Hudson).  I signed her in 2002 to a new label venture and had the bright idea to bring in Glen Ballard to write with her before we had her emancipated- She was 17.  Glen convinced her to jump ship to his label, which eventually folded. However, I will say she is truly talented and could easily pull off an unplugged guitar vocal performance.

Keith Thomas

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Do a youtube search for Katy Perry acoustic at Hotel Cafe and you will find hundreds of videos of her alone onstage and playing guitar.  She played there a lot before she got her break and she still plays there occasionally for her friends and fans.  I find it commendable that she saves that for the people that know her instead of trying to prove to the world that she is a real artist/musician/songwriter.  
When Lady Gaga does it on national television, it almost seems gimmicky.

Kevin Lyon

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Hi Bob….I’m a new subscriber and really enjoy your thoughts.
I think I want to disagree with you about Katy Perry, on some level.

Yeah, she – now – is basically "Katy Perry – the product".
Or fully submersed in the machinations of pop stardom, perhaps.
But she really is talented underneath all the makeup and baggage.

I had her on my (now defunct) Indie 103.1FM radio show back in December 2007 – many months before "I Kissed A Girl" was even released, and way way before her debut CD exploded. My radio show ("Neon Noise") was a DJ mix show — mainly an electro-indie rock club beats kind of thing.

While she sounds nothing like that, I’d really loved a 5-track sampler I’d gotten from her press people. And in my gut, I thought
"This girl’s gonna be something big" – so I booked her on my show.
She came in with her buddy DJ Skeet Skeet and we had a silly, fun time.

She did two songs live…just her and her acoustic guitar.

"You’re So Gay" is on video here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLgy3P11aXI

Just the (better) audio is here – http://www.divshare.com/download/3270232-318

And here’s just the audio for "One Of The Boys"
– http://www.divshare.com/download/3270252-1c1

No Dr. Luke, no Swedish hit producers, no auto-tune & no Snoop Dogg – and if you watch the video — not even the glammed up makeup/look.

She wrote these songs, sang them live, and the talent IS there.
But sigh, yes — that was then, and this is now.

But I thought you’d like to compare and contrast?

Best – Paul V., Los Angeles

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Perry released an Unplugged album between the debut and this one. She can actually sing. But no one cared. They like her as a cartoon character, a Disney version of Gwen Stefani.

– Phil Freeman

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Did you see Katy Perry’s MTV Unplugged? She is talented. Get real. Stop hating on the pop machine.

Sexuality/Gimmicks get you attention- case and point: GaGa. She would not have been known or had as many fans is she was just sitting at a piano singing her songs. She was smart. She had talent, but knew her talent alone would not be enough to reach the stardom/fame that she longed for. So, she used the questionable sexuality, costumes and odd behavior to get what she wanted. Just like Katy Perry did with "I Kissed a Girl", on a smaller scale, but still, it is the same equation. And just because you use it doesn’t mean you aren’t talented, it means you understand pop.

L.A. Landgraf

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I can’t argue with any of your assessments because frankly, you know your shit and are normally 100% on target. I confess to being a little bit of a casual Katy Perry fan (her looks certainly have something to do with it). Her "music" is just ok on record.

I did catch her though on  that "Pladia" HD channel (the one you have to stick a coat hanger on to your roof with Dish Network dish to get) and she was quite impressive in a LIVE setting.

She played all of her songs acoustic and even did a great cover of an obscure Fountains Of Wayne song.

For what its worth, I came away impressed (especially with the choice of cover material) and I usually hate everything plastic and packaged up for music consumption.

Jeff D. Fulton
8bitrocket Studios

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Katy Perry:

Have you seen her performance on Letterman?  I think her handlers wanted to prove her vocal talent with an acapella start to her song.  BIG MISTAKE!  Truly awful vocals.  So bad that even when the instruments kicked in it was unlistenable!

-Please keep my name confidential-

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EW.com article on Perry’s disappointing sales:

http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/09/01/katy-perry-album-sales/?xid=email-ThisWeekend-20100902-5Things-Story4

Eric Schornhorst