Star Analysis – Katy Perry
Katy Perry is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Katy is known for her unconventional style of dress.
It is fairly obvious that her outfits match her bold lyrics within her songs as they are often humorous and creative.
Fashion/Visual Look
She frequently uses fruit-shaped accessories, mainly watermelon, as part of her stage outfits. Since the teenage dream era katy has included more glamorous and food-related outfits in her wardrobe. Her outfits are retro- inspired and everything she wears is fitted well and correctly to her figure. She embraces the fun of fashion and wears what she likes regardless of criticism.
She defines her fashion style as:
And her fashion stylist; Jonny Wujek as
“Very colourful and vintage”
Music Genre
Most of Katy Perry’s songs are placed in the ‘Pop’ genre. Katy Perry’s representation comes across as fun and loving and lives her life to the full; however, some of her videos may be classed to some viewers as provocative as her outfits are raunchy and revealing. As in her California videos she is shown partly nude with candyfloss covering her chest and bottom.
Media Representation
Katy Perry’s appearances in the media can all relate to her attractiveness and a figure that most teenage girls would like to have. She is also presented as a sex symbol to men as she has appeared in a Victoria’s Secret lingerie catwalk showing off her killer curves.
Katy has also appeared in many magazines that compliment different groups of her target audiences. She has appeared in fashion magazines like Elle and cosmopolitan, being interviewed about her marriage to Bad Boy Russell Brand, and tips on how she maintains her figure.
She has appeared in Raunchy photo shoots for FHM and has been anointed the Sexiest Woman of 2011 by Australia’s FHM, a popular men’s magazine.
Katy Perry released her first album in 2008 ‘One of the Boys’. The artwork on the album is very creative, and colourful. The cover and the back of the album is Katy in a garden, the pictures represent her being girly and feminine. However, the songs on the album are far from this and in fact the complete opposite, being rocky and edgy. One of the pictures on the album artwork is of Katy holding a watermelon as a phone; once again she has used fruit as an object.
’Teenage Dream’, her second album was released in 2010, which in her pictures showed a whole new Katy. The album cover is a Will Cotton painting of Perry lying nude on a cotton-candy cloud and a limited number of the albums are also scented like cotton candy. Her images inside the album cover are colorful and show her wearing purple and blue wigs which show a fun side to her.
Motifs
Katy Perry uses many visual motifs to represent her style. A recurring motif that she uses is food. She uses these in pictures, videos and outfits. For the video of ‘California girls’ nearly all of the props that have been used are of food. , "It's definitely something to watch when you have the munchies. ... It's all edible. We named it 'Candyfornia' instead of 'California', so it's a different world," she said.
The food that she usually uses is candy. Lollipops, cotton candy, and hard candy motifs. She uses a lot of glitter and satin with her outfits, which all connote how she may come across as immature, and she dresses the way that a young girl would like to dress.
Symbolism
Katy Perry often uses real life attitudes in her videos. They are usually telling a story or filming a party with the use of actors. She is shown as innocent in most of her videos, however, her outfits are sexual and revealing so this is a complete contrast to being innocent. Most of her videos are created to entertain the audience as she is usually acting in them wearing all different kinds of costumes. I think the main symbolism in Perry’s videos is her being a liberator of women. She wants women to be strong and not held back. She seems to be shown as dominant of males in most of her videos.
Performance
Katy Perry’s performances are often theatrical with many actors and a storyline too it. She is always the main source in the video and the video is created to match with the narrative of the lyrics.
In the ‘Last Friday Night’ video she has taken on the role of Kathy Terry who is an unpopular ‘geek’ who does not remember her drunken night from the night before.
'Hot N Cold' is said to be about one of Katy's neurotic ex-boyfriends, she is dressed in a wedding outfit and also acting as a psycho fiancé in this.
Target Audience
Katy Perry’s target audience range from around 13-24 year old male/female audience also including homosexual males and females.
Katy Perry’s first single was ‘I Kissed a Girl ‘which promoted homosexuality. This is why I have included homosexual female and males in her target audience. It is clear to straight people now that it can be normal to be attracted to the opposite sex.
In many of her video it shows provocative style outfits and even in one video she is nude, this can attract male fans. Also, the use of candy and glitter will represent Katy as being a role model of younger girls as she is living their dream worlds.
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