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How the mismanagement of Katy Perry affected her career and her power in the pop scene.
[THREAD]
![How the mismanagement of Katy Perry affected her career and her power in the pop scene. [THREAD]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Erk5UIpXAAAPs23.jpg "How the mismanagement of Katy Perry affected her career and her power in the pop scene. [THREAD]")
[THREAD]
Katy Perry is one of the most successful and iconic artists of the past decade, breaking records and setting new ones during her peak, she built a legacy that will be remembered for decades to come.. But how did she go from that, to where she is today? One word: mismanagement.
People like to assume that Katy’s decline started in 2017 but the truth is that she was showing early signs in late 2013, unconditionally was Katy Perry’s first song not to reach #1 on iTunes and top 10 on billboard in 4 years.
Why did unconditionally “flop” for Katy’s standards? Especially after a massive hit like roar? Simply because people wanted dark horse, Katy and her team were trying to push one song while the public and the fans wanted something else, and here is where the mismanagement began.
Katy’s team was promoting two songs that are completely different at once, and that caused for one song to overshadow the other & the promo for unconditionally caused some backlash like the AMAs cultural appropriation, bad vocal moment on X Factor UK etc..
2014 & the bad choices: DH was smashing everywhere, until Katy and her team made another wrong choice with the concept for the video, fans and locals have already loved the witch concept that she gave at the Grammys, but she changed it, which turned a lot of fans off.
the video has many views, and now it’s considered iconic but at the time there was a lot of backlash which didn’t really help Katy, locals were calling her out for cultural appropriation again & they thought the video was tacky and cheap.
the 4th single, Birthday. many fans were hoping for it to be Legendary lovers, & they made that clear by telling her countless times, most of them even told her in person, but she still ignored (again) this lack of communication between Katy & her fans was truly damaging.
Legendary lovers was not only the better song, but it would’ve been a perfect follow up for dark horse, it had the same vibe, it was perfect for spring, and she could’ve made the video for it very aesthetically pleasing and won everyone back.
Birthday was showing potential & everyone was enjoying it & expecting a glamorous/sexy video for it but once again Katy does the unexpected, The MV for birthday did not make any type of noise whatsoever, to the point where locals don’t even know it existed. Another hit wasted.
She then released yet another song that no one wanted as a single, This is how we do, & at that time, pop girls like Ariana and Taylor were starting their eras and releasing better singles with better videos with better promo overall, while Katy was just dropping random singles.
2014 was a year where a lot of Katy fans were starting to lean towards other pop girls more, considering that Katy does not listen or take her fans’ opinion into consideration, she also had controversy and some people were starting to think she’s “tacky”.
2015 & not using the Super Bowl hype: in 2015 Katy headlined the most viewed televised show in history, but she did not use it for her advantage, she could’ve used it to promote a new standalone single, or even a whole new album.. or re-release PRISM but she didn’t..
2015 in general was a very boring year (musically speaking) Katy wasn’t doing anything new, PRISM was two years old and there were no new singles.. they could’ve used that year to release different collabs, or start a new mini era. But they chose not to.
2016 // no new music in forever, politics, & bas choices.
Not using that year to drop a new album or at least a few EDM collabs (the dominating genre in that year) damaged her career a lot.. the pop scene was alive and artists were making a transition to streaming and she wasn’t
Not using that year to drop a new album or at least a few EDM collabs (the dominating genre in that year) damaged her career a lot.. the pop scene was alive and artists were making a transition to streaming and she wasn’t
Rise, an electronic ballad during the summer which then turned into a political song didn’t help either. And not releasing it on the biggest platform (Spotify) was a stupid move. In fact her team did not care for Spotify at all up until 2017..
Campaigning for Hillary Clinton and being heavily involved in politics was also very damaging, but it was a personal choice and not really mismanagement.
2017 // witness era controversy & underperformance.
choosing to release while so many songs are smashing wasnt the smartest move especially that she has been absent for years..
her team didn’t know how to adapt to the streaming era and was still using the old formula
choosing to release while so many songs are smashing wasnt the smartest move especially that she has been absent for years..
her team didn’t know how to adapt to the streaming era and was still using the old formula
CTTR would’ve been #1 if her team released the video the same day as the song and it would’ve had better numbers in general if Katy was more active in the past years. Doesn’t matter if the song was political or not.
The haircut and bon appetit and her not having a good PR team made her an easy target.. she was still relevant, still making numbers, but something was wrong. This is where the messed up management was really showing.
Swish swish could’ve debuted in the top 10 if they released it with the video and would’ve been a huge hit if promoted upon release.. but they waited FOUR months to promote it. And once again they wasted the potential with a bad video.
Most of the controversy surrounding her during the witness era could’ve been avoided if she had good PR.. she could’ve sued many websites and people who were trying to ruin her reputation but her & her team just stood there and watched everything burn..
Even with the controversy, they could’ve used it for her advantage and went for a reputation type of era, but instead they continued with the campy vibe which did not fit a political era AT ALL and came off as “cringey”. Thus making her lose her appeal even more.
2018 // no witness promo, another campy music video for a song that fans mostly didn’t like, no new music, basically nothing but a tour that no one knew about due to the lack of promo..
2019 // wasting potential and ignoring fans (again): Katy was getting good press & everyone was loving Never really over and it’s aesthetic, until they pulled it from radio after a few weeks and released “small talk” a very bad song that killed every bit of hype left.
Choosing ST over Harleys In hawaii a song that obviously would’ve done much better in summer 2019 if promoted right. & releasing HIH during the winter with absolutely no promo on a Wednesday.
2020 // choices.. choices..
Waiting too long to release an album and going for a clown themed concept when fans were anticipating a completely different aesthetic & sound (70s, retro), choosing daisies & smile as singles when there are much better songs & lack of promo.
Waiting too long to release an album and going for a clown themed concept when fans were anticipating a completely different aesthetic & sound (70s, retro), choosing daisies & smile as singles when there are much better songs & lack of promo.
So in conclusion, the mismanagement, lack of communication with fans, using old promo tactics & Katy relying on one style (camp) are the things that slowed her career.. it can be easily fixed if these problems are solved, She might not re-peak but she can definitely do better.
You can listen to Smile yourself and see how much potential it has and how many hits it could’ve produced. The concept might not be great but some songs in here are a career highlight. https://open.spotify.com/album/47zMF6LrXQ8odi6Xv1unC0?si=dsU_RlkwRx-ShCuU4f--QQ
