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Why 2016 is the Year of Katy Perry

By Ani Bundel

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From getting on the ground floor of the Hillary campaign to her Olympic theme song, we look at how Katy Perry conquered 2016.

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Katy Perry has never presented herself to the public as a particularly intellectual individual. From her original hit, the “faux lesbianism for men” “Kissed a Girl,” to the earworm of “California Gurls,” her career seemed one made of whipped cream. That is, sure to collapse into sour milk if left in the spotlight too long.

And yet, here it is, 2016, and Katy Perry is still somehow not only going strong, making the Forbes top celebrity earners. She’s putting out well timed releases which are currently inescapable. Plus she’s making national and celebrity news while seeming to stay above both. It’s a remarkable feat for the 32 year old pop star who at one point seemed to be poised to be written off as Mrs. Russell Brand. How did Perry outsmart the gods of short lived pop careers?

1. She got serious. 

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Perry says she is a feminist. But for a long time, it seemed that this was more of a buzzword someone has put in her mouth than a concept she was readily embracing. The videos and the songs she put out didn’t help, as it’s hard to take anyone calling themselves a feminist seriously, when out of the other side of their mouth they’re playing hard to the patriarchy and the male gaze.

But in the last year, the candidacy of Hillary Clinton seems to have finally given her the proper footing and role model. She worked her relationship with the DNC during Obama’s 2012 re-election, where she performed at multiple rallies over the course of his campaign. Now she is one of the go to headliners at multiple stops over the course of 2016 for the Clinton campaign. She didn’t write “Fight Song,” the official theme of the campaign. But quite a few people don’t actually know it wasn’t one of Perry’s. (It’s actually by country artist Rachel Platten.)

Perry associating herself with Clinton early and often, has also been extremely effective in one other arena. Taylor Swift, who had to admit that Perry is on her “enemies list,” now is unable to show her own feminist bonafides by supporting Hillary. At least, not without looking like she’s following in Perry’s footsteps. Finally earning the feminist credibility you’ve been working for, and freezing out another pop star who is just as desperate to do the same? Now that’s Game of Thrones level.

2. Rising Above 

Speaking of Taylor, and the Game of Thrones that celebrity pop stars play, Katy Perry scored a massive win over her would be rival this past summer in a single 140 character move. Now, to be fair, Swift is one of the most ruthless and calculating players in the celebrity game. The entire HiddleSwift showmance that she pulled this past June was a masterclass in media manipulation. She took out ex Calvin Harris, and gained instant elevation in social status, as she is now associated with a high class Shakespearean actor. (Hiddleston was a full beneficiary too, as he suddenly went from “That Guy who Played Loki” to “Famous British Actor Who Dates Taylor Swift” in under 12 hours.) But in doing so, Swift accidentally allowed Harris to disclose that indeed she does consider Perry to be on the enemies list. Perry’s reaction?

But then Taylor was ambushed by the Kardashian-West clan last July. The internet finally came down on her with snake emojis galore. And Perry decided this was the moment to be better than all of this.

3. That Olympic Single

This of course leads me to the song “Rise”. The song is earworming it’s way around for the last few weeks, since its release ahead of the Olympic games. Having your single be the theme of the Olympics is serious high level product placement. (American Idol winner Phillip Phillips can attest. His coronation single “Home” being used in 2012 helped it become the first omnipresent Idol song years after the show had begun their down slide.)

“Rise” has seen much of the same sort of success. With the Olympics only a few days into airing, it is bopping around the iTunes Top Ten charts. It also helped that she performed it live at the DNC right before Clinton’s acceptance of the nomination. (Though it should be noted that once again her vocal range is a little behind her ambition when she performs live. It was also obvious she was far more comfortable singing “Roar,” the follow up song.)

Off the back of this success, she’s promising her next album is on the way. Though she admitted to the New York Times she refuses to fast track it just to please impatient fans. “I do my records in a more traditional way, where the cycle is three years, so that once I start writing them, I know exactly where I’ll be in spring of 2018.”

Perhaps that refusal to is part of why Perry has lasted so long, and kept putting out hits. Despite the pop music industry’s habit of eating their own young, she’s survived. Either way, we’re here to keep watching what she’s doing. We will see if her next move continues this upward trajectory she’s charted for 2016. If the polls for Hillary hold, it looks like her next big performance night might just be November 8th.

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