In the months leading up to this summer, it finally seemed to be a good time to be Katy Perry. After a few years of ducking the spotlight and shifting her focus to motherhood, she faced a rebound in public interest with a wave of late 2000s nostalgia sweeping social media. For the first time since the release of her poorly received, self-proclaimed “purposeful pop” album Witness in mid-2017, it appeared the world was finally ready for Perry to reclaim her spot at the pinnacle of pop stardom. The teaser released in June for “Woman’s World”, the first single from Perry’s newest album 143, killed the hype even faster than it began.
Instantly met with criticism for its lackluster lyrical content (“Sexy, confident/So intelligent”), Perry’s comment sections filled with comments from users who deemed the snippet “lifeless” and likened it to something “AI-generated.” While these critiques were damaging enough to the viability of the 143 album cycle, one name found within the song’s credits would derail everything past the point of rectification. Lukasz Gottwald, better known as Dr. Luke, was one of Perry’s main collaborators in her early career, sporting credits on songs like “Roar”, “Dark Horse”, and “Teenage Dream.” In an attempt to recapture this early success, Perry enlisted Dr. Luke – along with other former collaborators – to assist in creating her new LP. Eclipsing his success, however, was an infamous reputation: a decade-long litigation battle with Kesha stemming from her damning 2014 sexual assault accusation against him had left Dr. Luke disgraced in the public eye. His inclusion quickly dominated headlines and comment sections upon the revelation, with many noting the irony in the alleged rapist’s involvement in penning the female empowerment track.
The single’s premiere on July 11 was met with universal negativity, with critics panning the song’s barren beat, simple lyrics, and accompanying video: Perry’s appearance as a sexed-up Rosie the Riveter selling vibrators was labeled “out-of-touch” and “embarrassing”, despite it being an obvious attempt at satirizing capitalistic sexual exploitation. It’s important to remember the criticism surrounding Perry since 2017’s ill-fated Witness when critics labeled her attempt at a more personal and political approach as “trying too hard” and demanded she return to her more digestible bubblegum pop style. In trying to return to that style with “Woman’s World”, she was slammed with a flurry of single-star reviews, criticizing the song for lacking substance and originality. Sure, the song and video both fell flat and felt generic, but not to the point of deserving being trashed as “garbage” or “creatively bankrupt.” Pop music has never required the most meaningful lyrics or genius sense of musicality to work, so the apparent expectation for Perry to deliver that here – especially when considering her past output – is unwarranted.
Met with a similarly negative reaction upon its September 20 release, 143 failed to connect with general audiences and critics. It debuted at a meager #6 on the Billboard 200 – in contrast to her #1 debuts of years past – and received similar criticism to “Woman’s World,” with critics slamming it as “full of filler” and “frivolous.” The influx of abysmal reviews scored 143 a 37 on the review-aggregator site Metacritic, the lowest rating for a female artist in the site’s 23-year history and the lowest-rated release by any artist since 2011; this record scored low despite the album housing a number of decent tracks, like the Doechii-assisted, Crystal Waters-sampling “I’m His, He’s Mine” and sultry pop-rap collaboration “Gimme Gimme” with 21 Savage.
The record only treads close to validating its widespread critiques when feeling unambitious and flat at moments, missing glaring opportunities to expand on musical and lyrical ideas. One such example is “Gorgeous” with Kim Petras: a solid, dance-heavy track reminiscent of Petras’ 2022 hit “Unholy” that’s limited by a monotonous, repetitive beat and annoyingly basic lyrics, like the overly simple 2-line pre-chorus “If you don’t/Yeah, well now you know.” The most egregious offense committed here isn’t that the music is bad, but that Perry doesn’t attempt to make it anything above an easily-digestible “decent.” While this is disappointing, it certainly doesn’t make 143 deserving of being deemed the worst album released in over a decade. It’s focused on accessibility, not artistic merit: and that’s ok.
The only criticism fully warranted here is calling out Perry’s involvement with Dr. Luke: electing to work with an alleged rapist is certainly a choice deserving of being condemned. While Perry deserves to be held accountable, the massive amount of hate she has been bombarded with is moreso indicative of her almost decade-long status as pop’s scapegoat. She was bombarded with equal amounts of hate for being found “cringe” and “too political” as she has for working with an alleged abuser, indicating the current backlash is more from a general desire to trash her as opposed to genuinely trying to hold her accountable for her actions. Her support of Dr. Luke is used as the newest excuse to unfairly attack her music and career, all while asserting a sense of moral superiority in those criticizing her.
This has occurred with Dr. Luke himself being largely removed from the conversation, avoiding mainstream media coverage and backlash from the general public. His producing of hits for numerous artists like Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, and Kim Petras in recent years has proved that sexual assault is allowed to go under the radar when serving the culture’s greater interest: the public’s desire to hear “Super Freaky Girl” on the radio is greater than their desire to hold abusers accountable. Perry hasn’t found herself in the center of the pop zeitgeist since the early 2010s, falling from darling starlet to the Internet’s punching bag over the past decade. This has caused Dr. Luke’s involvement to make headline news despite the clear apathy towards him in previous years: if Perry were still in the good graces of the larger public, his contributions to the album would likely be dismissed.
143 could have been Katy Perry’s return to the pinnacle of pop. Somehow, an amalgamation of oversights, from the lukewarm quality of “Woman’s World” to the damning Dr. Luke association, derailed everything, burying Perry’s career further into the ground than ever before. While it’s undeniable she had some of this coming – choosing to associate with Dr. Luke was bound to sabotage her potential success - it’s difficult to believe Perry would have faced the same volume of criticism had the desire to hate her not already existed. Her only chance now to reclaim her former heights is to recede from the spotlight again, in hopes that we’ll forget 143 – maybe, after a few years of silence, she can finally have the comeback she’s clearly been waiting for.
