California Dreamin...

Hey KatyCats!

    So I was thinking (because I had a performance today) that I'd take the time to talk about and think about Katy's ways of performing. And what better performance to talk about than the California Dreams tour!? I never actually went (sad, yes I know) but I know a lot about it-thank you "Katy Perry: The Movie Part of Me". There's a lot of concert footage in her movie, actually. But you can also go on YouTube and find video of the whole thing! That's what I did...it's not the same, but it's close enough. I'll go through the whole set-list and talk about each performance.
    The first song she does is "Teenage Dream" and the show actually starts with an opening video played on "cotton candy" clouds. Here's a video of it along with her performance:

I love her outfit here, first of all. Though it wasn't originally this dress. The peppermint dress was her original outfit for "Teenage Dream" but it was replaced with this cotton candy and sequin heart dress after the spinning peppermints on the other dress were malfunctioning. This video was from the European tour so I guess I'll try to just stick with this one. Anyway, I thought this was a wonderful way to begin the show- in an outfit people would remember and with a BANG! I mean, the whole tour seems to kind of follow a storyline and this is where the story is introduced.The next songs to be performed are "Hummingbird Heartbeat" and "Waking Up in Vegas". Waking up in Vegas was a really cool performance! She had a human slot machine, showgirls and even an Elvis impersonator on stage with her and it was really fun to watch!

    Then there's a brief costume change and a video is shown. This video shows her taking a shortcut in Candyfornia that leads to a candy forest. While she is searching for Kitty Purry, she runs into a couple f mimes who then join her on stage for "Ur So Gay". She then goes on to perform "Peacock" after changing into a feathered costume. I LOVE this whole performance. The peacock tail is amazing and the performance of it with the feathered fans is simply genius!

    Katy's next song is "I Kissed a Girl." This is a really cool performance also- it starts out slow and Katy is in this gorgeous sparkly green dress with a feather boa. It's sort of sensual to start and then goes into the real song and a boy is brought on stage for Katy to flirt with and kiss. She also slides underneath her guitarist which is really cool. It's overall a great performance.

    The next section starts with another video where Katy is trying to pull Kitty Purry's tail out of a bush and discovers that the tail is her own. She had eaten a brownie that the mimes gave her and she discovered that it must've been the brownie that turned her into a catwoman! It had been an evil plan of the butcher's the whole time! It then goes into her performance of "Circle the Drain" while sausages and hambones swing above her head. During the song, she battles her dancers who have dressed themselves as butchers.

 It then goes into "E.T." and it's a really futuristic performance. There's laserbeams and the lyrics are shown on screen alshing in different futuristic fonts. It continues with "Who Am I Living For?" which I talked about last night, where Katy is being pulled and tugged on by her dancers with elastic strings and she ends up on the ground, defeated.

    Katy then moves on to sing "Pearl" after being saved by her two backup singers. She also is changed into a really sparkly white robe-looking thing. Then there's a brief video interlude where a happy couple is seen sharing a moment of affection and Katy returns to sing "Not Like the Movies". It's a wonderful performance where Katy is strapped into a swing. The swing rises as she sings and on a curtain behind her plays sweet romance kisses of classic cartoon characters. It's very sweet.

    This next part is really cool. Katy descends and then picks up her guitar to play an acoustic version of "The One that Got Away". There was one performance (I forget where, but it's shown in her movie) where Katy was having a really rough time and when she got out to sing this song for the crowd, they were all screaming in unison "We love you, Katy!". It was in Portugese (Yes in Portugal) so she didn't understand what they were saying until later but she started crying anyway. Then Katy goes on to perform some of her favorite karaoke songs with her guitar.She does Rhianna's "Only Girl (In the World)", Jay Z's "Big Pimpin'", and Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair". It's a really interactive part and really awesome of her to do, I think. Although, at select locations on the European tour, Katy covered Adele's "Someone Like You", so I'll include both versions!

 Then another really fun part came up. A giant cotton candy cloud descends and she straps herself onto a candy cane and flies above the crowd singing "Thinking of You" with her guitar. I don't even have to explain any further how cool that is.

    The next section of the concert has another video interlude where Katy finally finds Kitty Purry and they head to the Bakers City Ball where Katy hopes to find her Baker's Boy. Poor Katy can't decide what to wear and then we see her reappear for "Hot N' Cold" where she does some cool quick costume changes on stage. Then she bursts into  "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" In one city (again, forgive me for not knowing where, I just saw it in her movie) she dresses her sister up as the famous Kathy Beth Terry and has her dance on stage. But normally, it just flashes pictures of fans on the screen during the song.

    Katy then covers Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". She and Kitty Purry invite fans in costume to come up on stage and dance with her. I think it's awesome and shows how much she really loves her fans. Then she does a very "sparkly" performance of "Firework".

     Then begins the final interlude of the show where Katy wakes up, realizing her entire adventure in Candyfornia was a dream. Then the Baker's Boy shows up in her bedroom and brings her the cupcakes that she ordered for breakfast. He starts dancing goofily and then Katy comes back on stage in a silver bra shaped like Hershey's kisses to sing "California Gurls", the final number. Towards the end of the song, she gets out a whipped cream cannon and covers the crowd.

Well, KatyCats, for those who, like me, didn't go to the tour itself, you've now seen it all! I think it was amazing! Hope you enjoyed it!
Love You All,
-Autumn The Purrfect KatyCat

Who Are YOU Living For?

Hey KatyCats!

     So tonight I am talking about another Katy song and this will be rather lengthy because there's a lot to go into on this song. This is about Katy's song from the "Teenage Dream" album called "Who am I Living For". This song can be interpreted in two different ways and I'll go into detail on them both! So, let's dive in!
    First you may want to look at the lyrics here. So  the first way to look at this song is the common way of this is a religious song. As I've said before, Katy was raised Christian and her first record was actually a Christian/Gospel record. This song is seen by most (as I'm sure she intended) as a throwback to that version of herself. I'll go line by line and explain: The first stanza can be interpreted in two ways even with the religious meaning. I see it as she is feeling new and different from who she was around the time of her gospel record, but in the Christian religion, believing in Christ is seen and felt as a rebirth of the person and so, hence, the phoenix which is a bird that dies and is reborn. In this view, the other lines in the stanza about marching to a different beat could be about how she is doing her own thing but basically has to swallow her pride and admit she made a mistake. A mistake about what? We'll find out. The road less traveled many times refers to the christian life and the other lines are very clearly biblical.She is battling over a life changing choice and it is only a choice that she can bear or make. The lines "It's never easy to be chosen, never easy to be called. Standing on the front line when the bombs start to fall, I can see the heavens, but I still hear the flames calling out my name." are also really heavy if you look at the song in this matter. The first two lines are referring to many of the people who have been chosen by God in the bible.  The "standing on the front line" part refers to a major battle she is having internally-probably a moral battle. And of course the heavens and flames thing is about how she wants to live a Christian life but feels like she is being tempted by the world in her career. The chorus, talking about the war is the moral war she is facing that was mentioned right before. She doesn't want to lose her career but feels conflicted about her life and her beliefs. That's the jist of the song. The second verse is about how she needs the strength of God (making a reference to Esther) to make her choice about what to do in this predicament. And at the end, she still asks the question, "Who am I living for?".

    Personally this isn't how I like to look at this song so for those who don't want to think of this song in religious terms I have provided an alternate way of looking at it. The phoenix reference can be seen as a simple rebirth of the self, turning yourself into a new person. I still see the song as an internal battle, but a different sort. It's a battle between the old and new person, perhaps someone who has reformed and their old habits wanting to come back and it's a battle that the person is constantly fighting and "suiting up" for. And instead of the heavens and flames in a literal/or religious sense, I choose to see them as simply the good and bad parts of us that are always battling. We always have to make the decision to do either the right or the wrong thing and it is always a battle.  And that's how I see this song. The chorus: I can't ignore this war is exactly how it's meant. It's a battle we ALL face, regardless of our religious beliefs...the battle between right and wrong.And we need to recognize the war and pick a side (hopefully the right one!) and we need to choose right now who we are going to live for; the you who wants to be successful and live a happy life or the you who wants to throw it all down the drain. For me, that's what this song's all about and I think in this sense, it's truly inspiring.
    On Katy's California Dreams Tour, her live performance of this song showed her being tugged at and pulled on by bright glowing "chains". Demonstrating the constant battle and how difficult it is and how we are pulled in so many different directions because even if the battle is internal, it can be affected by outside forces. I thought it was a really cool way to show the meaning of the song in a very artistic way.

    Well, KatyCats...either way you look at this song it has a wonderful message: Live your life the way YOU want to. Don't let anyone or anything stop you from doing that. I hope this song makes a difference for you, whoever you are, whatever you believe in.
Love Always,
-Autumn the Purrfect KatyCat

P.S. You can listen to the song here and watch it live below!

I Don't Wanna Be "One of the Boys"...or do I?

Hey KatyCats!

    So, yes this is about Katy's song (not album) "One of the Boys". There isn't much to report on this song, since it never really got famous, but it's still a fun one. It is (obviously) off of the "One of the Boys" album considering it is the album's namesake. This is from Katy's breakout as a major artist. Now without further a due, let's get started on this song!
    The song's lyrics are here. So this is another kind of straightforward Katy song. It's about wanting to be more feminine. Katy started out as a Christian/Gospel music singer as "Katy Hudson" (her real last name). After her record label dropped her and she decided to go a different way with her career, she was pretty tomboyish! She was tomboyish during her Christian music days, also.

    I think it's pretty awesome how she was able to totally reinvent herself. That's kind of what this song is about, and maybe it's from that time in her life. She wanted to reinvent herself, so she did. And I think she's trying to tell us that anyone can. We can be more girly if we want to, or we can be just like "One of the Boys" and either way is fine! The point is to be yourself!
    So that's really it for this song! As I said, there wasn't much to this one. I may revisit it someday, but I might not. So long for now and I hope that by listening to this song, you will realize that you can be whoever you want to be!
Love you ALL, KatyCats, and remember to be true to yourselves!
-Autumn the Purrfect KatyCat

I'm not gonna stay and watch you "Circle the Drain"

Hey KatyCats!

    Well, today I write about a more serious Katy song. Serious you say? How serious could a Katy Perry song really be? Well, I'll show you exactly how serious it could be when talking about her song from the "Teenage Dream" album, "Circle the Drain". This song shows a kind of edgier side to Katy, I think. She's a little pissed off in this song and it's a really interesting thing to see.
    This song is all about an ex of Katy's and what their relationship was like prior to their split though I think it was probably around the time they broke up. Lyrics can be found here. So basically, this song is really straightforward. This ex of hers was a major drug user. The drugs became way more important to this guy than she was. It talks about how she wants to be there for him as a girlfriend, and not as someone who has to take care of him when he's too messed up and high and drunk to take care of himself. So she decides not to put up with it anymore and she's "not gonna stay and watch you circle the drain". She doesn't want to see him throw his life away, so she leaves. It's about the strains that the drug use puts on their relationship.

 
     As for the song's inspiration, it was based off of Katy's relationship (once again) with Gym Class Heroes singer, Travie McCoy. It seems she wrote a lot of her songs about him. And I can see why most of them are negative. When asked about this song when it first came out, Travie hadn't heard the song but said this in an interview:

"I heard she put out a song that's about me, or about some old habits or whatever. [And] I look at it like this: I'm just stoked that she finally has a song with some substance on her record. Good job."

Let me just say, he doesn't sound like such a great guy and Katy is WAY better off now. Yes, they broke up a while ago, but I'm saying that after they broke up, I think her career started to boom. See, Travie was exactly what Katy has said about him. A "Hot N Cold" drug addict who was "Circling the Drain". He has actually been addicted to pharmaceuticals since he was a teenager.She actually broke up with him over email. I have to say, I think that's kinda lame. About that, he said:

Speaking of their break up, McCoy admitted it “destroyed” him, with Katy ending it reportedly via email. He explained: "It started off with 'I love you so much I hate to do this...'” “Someone that you are ready to spend the rest of your life with sends you a f**king email just s**ting on your whole parade. It destroyed me."

But it also turns out that Travie wrote a song about Katy! I just found this out actually. It's not slamming her in any way, he said so in an interview. The song is called "Need You". He's said this about the song:

"But it's not a stab in any way," says McCoy. "And I haven't been sitting around for a year waiting for her to call me. She's moved on and I'm doing my thing." "Its about how tough it is to move on and explain to someone that you're bruised and not really ready to pursue something,"

Personally, I think they are both better off without each other. He wasn't good for her and I think he just needs...someone else.
    I think that "Circle the Drain" actually does have a message to it if you can think about it like this: if you know that someone you're with isn't good for you, then you shouldn't be with them. No matter how much you may love them, no matter how much you don't want to hurt them, no matter how much you think you can change them-you probably can't. Only they can change themselves; only they can make that decision. And if they really love you and want to be with you, they will make that decision to keep from losing you. But you have to make them choose. You can't just sit by and spend the rest of your life taking care of someone who is throwing theirs away. Don't just sit there and watch them circle the drain.
With Love, KatyCats,
-Autumn the Purrfect KatyCat

P.S. I'm posting the videos for the songs "Circle the Drain" and Travie's song, "Need You"

"You're hot, then you're cold..."

Hey KatyCats!

    So, yes today I am talking about the Katy classic, "Hot N Cold". I think probably everyone that I know knows this song, but if you don't, get ready to hear all about it! This was Katy's second big hit and it's from her "One of the Boys" album. Man, has she come a long way since then!
    So, as usual you can find the lyrics, here. I think this song is kind of straightforward. It's all about a guy who can't seem to make up his mind about anything but especially about whether or not he wants to be with her. They are an on-again-off-again couple, as seen in the lyrics "we fight we break up, we kiss we make up." He can't make up his mind about wanting to stay with her or leave-"you don't really wanna stay, no. But you don't really wanna go, oh." And it seems to me, like she's just kind of fed up, but at the same time, she still wants to be with him. It's a song about a lot of conflicting feelings, all put together in a fun, dance-y way.

    The music video to this song is just about my favorite part. It's set at a wedding where Katy says "I do" and her groom is about to take his vows and he runs. Katy and her bridesmaid backup team chase after him, all over. From showing up in tattered dresses with baseball bats, to Katy on a stage in red leather in a club, to in street clothes doing some break dancing. It really shows how fast girls can change clothes! And there's a surprise at the end of the video that you'll just have to wait and see.
    As for the inspiration for this song, there wasn't much I could find. I only found one statement that Katy stated in an interview that it was written about her early stages in her relationship with Gym Class Heroes singer, Travie McCoy.
    I don't think this song has a real life lesson in it, but if I had to come up with one, it'd be to not be like the guy Katy's singing about. Make up your mind, or don't make the other person keep having to put up with your roller coaster. And if you're the one dealing with it, tell that person, "Hey, until you make up your mind, we're going to take a break. If you decide you do want to be with me, then come get me." because you shouldn't have to be constantly worried about when that person's going to break up with you and get back together five days later. It's not fair to you, and it isn't worth it. You're worth more than that, every one of you. Everyone's a firework in their own special way.
Hope I helped someone!
Love you, KatyCats!
-Autumn the Purrfect KatyCat

P.S. You can find the "Hot N Cold" music video on my music video page!