Where Did It All Start?

Hey KatyCats!

     So, like I said on Tuesday, I'm going to talk about Katy's history in the music business. I've said before, she's been through a lot in this department. She's been pretty much dropped by three different record labels before she got to where she is today.
     She was signed to the independent Christian label Red Hill Records at the age of 15. Sadly for her, this album failed. It was released in 2001 and only sold about one hundred copies total.
     At 17, Katy left her home of Santa Barbara for Los Angeles. That's where she met Glen Ballard. He is a really famous producer! He was the producer for people such as Michael Jackson and Alanis Morisette. Alanis Morisette had a HUGE influence on Katy and this is what she did: She knocked on his door and he asked her if she was a writer- she said yes, he asked her if she wanted to play him a song- she said yes. He was blown away. Ballard helped her to develop her songwriting over the next few years that she was with him. She was writing, writing, writing. Ballard said she probably wrote over a hundred songs in the time that she was with him. The album was supposed to be released in 2004, but then it changed to 2005. Ballard said he couldn't get the label to pay attention to her, and she was dropped. Some of her songs did go places though. A song called "Simple" was used on the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" soundtrack.

    
     After she was dropped, Katy was signed to Columbia records. Though, Columbia didn't really understand her ideas or visions for her career. Instead they wanted to team her up with a group of producers called the Matrix. They didn't understand her style either. They had just recently had big success with people like Avril Lavigne and Britney Spears. They tried to tell her "Oh, be more like Avril Lavigne, be really angry on this one" or "She should be the next Christina Aguilara" and things like that. But the whole time, she kept saying "I don't want to be the next anybody. I just want to be the first Katy Perry." But Columbia didn't want to drop her because they were afraid she would go off and get famous somehwere else.
     Well, Columbia's publicity executive stole Katy's files and took them to Virgin Records and recommended her to their chairman, Jason Flom. He became convinced that she would be the next breakthrough star. At the start of 2007, he began negotiating with Columbia which resulted in Katy being dropped by them and signed to the newly formed Capitol Music Group which was created by the merger between Virgin and Capitol.
     At Capitol, they loved Katy's ideas and went with it. They had her working with  Dr. Luke, which resulted in her songs "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot N Cold", which were her two biggest hits from her first album! In order to establish her image, they released the video of "Ur So Gay" to introduce her into the market. And on May 6, 2008, her first official single, "I Kissed a Girl" was released. And we know the story from there! It was one of those songs where the minute it was played on the raido, everyone had to have it.
Well, that's it! That's the story. Here's the video for "Ur So Gay"

Hope you all like :)
Love you all, KatyCats
-Autumn the Purrfect KatyCat