Did feuding with T. Swift end K. Perry’s music career?

[Relaxing Cup]

She never really recovered. Some blame her short hair or the witness album but was it really her feuding with T. Swift?

[Au$tin]

No. No one who isn't a Swiftie or Katy Perry stan gave two s**ts about their feud.

Katy Perry had an image problem during the Witness era, and I don't just mean her looks. People started turning on Katy not because of the feud but because people didn't really like her or think she was "cool" and the American Idol stint didn't really help it either. (See: the "wig" moment and being that guy's first kiss) "Never Really Over," Smile, and her social media presence since have helped, though, and I think she will go on to be a decently successful legacy act.

[dbhmr]

It was a collection of things and I think it's probably one of them, but it's more a case of her falling out of public favor for the more banal reasons of being an aging pop female and not cultivating much of a personality or pop music presence outside of her chart stats, so as soon as those dipped even slightly the media and public were all too ready to dogpile on anything and everything, including a feud she was destined to lose.

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

No, not specifically. But it also didn’t help things. It just added further fuel to the fire. The music, her public persona, and all of the negative media attention together lead to her success decreasing. I wouldn’t consider her career to be over because she’s making big bucks now doing the residency and American Idol. Most pop girls would kill to be doing what she’s doing right now.

[Troublemaker]

2 words, Dr Luke. 
She worked with several producers/songwriters but her hits stopped coming the minute she stopped working with him showing that he must have been more than pivotal to her success. Her vocals have always been less than average but his production took her songs to another level, the cracks started after she released Rise. I liken her situation to Shania Twain without Mutt Lange, less than average. 

[🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾]

[SPRΞΞ]

But Rise would’ve been a Top 10 had she lined up the promo correctly. Chained to the Rhythm was a hit. Then she chopped her hair off and lost her sex appeal. So all that drama resulted in Bon Appetit and Swish Swish bombing. Feels was a hit. 365 is a cult classic. Never Really Over performed really well too until they pulled it to release Small Talk. Had they made more of an effort on NRO it would’ve gone Top 10. Small Talk was a miscalculation. Harleys in Hawaii was a return to sexy Katy and they didn’t even release it. Daisies would’ve performed better had they done Spotify promo instead of TV performances. Another miscalculation. Smile was a demo that had a crappy video. When I’m Gone had zero playlisting and they spent the entire budget on a football game.

It’s just miscalculation after miscalculation. The music, for the most part, has always been good, if not great. It’s just her team just sucks these days.

She can totally come back. Megan Trainor proves that. She just needs the right promo strategy. It’s been off since Rise and Chained, really.

[ampersand]

The feud definitely didn't help. While Katy was out there bringing up Taylor in multiple interviews, Taylor was off-cycle and not responding despite being the one to make their issues public in the first place (she would later deny pointing the finger at Katy but we all know she left enough breadcrumbs for us stans to figure it out). This radio silence from Taylor gave off the impression that Katy was using her for attention even though the reality was that they both attempted to capitalize off the feud, with Taylor, of course, channeling it into a #1 single and record-breaking video.

But by this point, Katy was already struggling. I think the real issue was that Katy wasn't the kind of act who cultivated a core fanbase beyond casual listeners, which is essential for a pop act post-30. How many people do you know who consider Katy their favourite artist? Once the hits stopped coming, everyone was ready to accuse her of being lame, cringe, desperate, and past her prime, etc. Ultimately, though, it really did seem that Katy was unhappy being "Katy Perry" (I believe she even said as much on her live-streamed therapy session), and she seems to be in a better place now. She's still collecting millions from her Vegas residency and American Idol gig and has her hot man and baby, so it's not like she's at rock bottom. And nobody can take away what she accomplished with the Teenage Dream era away from her.

[HEADOFTHEPACK]

Apr 18, 2023 5:09:34 GMT -5 🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾 said:

This is BS, echoing what most others have said in this thread - KP had a shelf life as a huge chart presence and was only truly as good as her last smash. a bunch of miscalculations and a largely mediocre album with off putting marketing is a major contributor to that accelerating, but I also think she was just of a time. Also per ampersand above, I feel like she was just done and had to play that out publicly.

[kcdawg13]

Katy was already on her way out before her feud with Taylor, the last couple Prism singles failed to gain any ground and her Super Bowl performance was her last hurrah before she officially flopped outta the public eye.

Also as many people have said before, Katy never cultivated a dedicated fanbase like Taylor or Gaga or Beyonce, so once her relevancy dried up with the GP it was over for her.

[rnb]

katy was already going downhill with the later singles from prism before the feud got big, so probably not

[salt]

"Unconditionally" was the single I most associate with starting her downward slide. It was not a big hit, and she really only had 1 more big hit after it with Dark Horse. The Prism era really lost a lot of steam as time went on, and it really doesn't seem to be remembered very well today. Witness was just the nail in the coffin.

[Daenerys]

I think there is something to the idea that Katy never took a musical risk - and if she did, it could be argued that it just came too late past the point as when people were most likely to care. I think that factor disabled her from being able to cultivate a fanbase beyond general audience members. As such Katy became 'trendy' in her peak, but after that period of music changed, so did audiences' taste.

There is something of a Oliva Newton John, Paula Abdul, Jessica Simpson with hits factor to her that I think emulates where she ended up.

When you look at most pop stars trajectory there is usually a risk period -- Madonna, Janet, Mariah, Britney, Christina, Rihanna, Gaga, where they do something different and while they may have some backlash for it, it's ultimately accepted and looked on as a pivotal change for them that made them endure with some form of longevity.

[Deleted]

Yes. The GP saw right through her 

[irice22]

Witness was just a lackluster album with a lackluster lead single.

[JukeboxJacob]

Apr 20, 2023 18:37:18 GMT -5 irice22 said:

Witness was just a lackluster album with a lackluster lead single.

don't talk about her best song like that