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10 Years On: Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream is still the Best Teenpop
words and design by: JOSH ONG 10 YEARS ON and Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream is still the best teenpop album of all time.
Things were simpler a decade ago; socialisation came in groupings of full fringe-cladden preteen boys in the local McDonalds, One Direction had held their first X Factor auditions, and the infamous Jesus bracelets were soon to make their debut as a must have accessory. To the best of my memory, the year was pretty favourable overall. But musically, it also birthed the pinnacle album of an entire sub-genre, Teenage Dream.
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Leading up to 2010, the market for teen-pop was incredibly saturated. From Kesha’s Tik Tok to Mr Worldwide’s tales of the splendour of swampy Florida, the prevailing sound of strictly 4/4, clean formulaic ‘radio friendly’ tracks dominated the charts. Looking back, it’s understandable to see why; the formula worked, and still does. The entire era stood as a testament to contemporary pop hooks and effective musical simplicity that could earworm its way into society.
Teenage Dream saw this formula perfected to a near tee. In short, this album served as a way of testing the limit of how far you could take this form of unabashedly positive-minded quad-chordial bops, without making them entirely devoid of anything beyond surface level noise.
Immediately from the opening titular track you are blessed with an immediate statement of what is to come. The song draws from explicitly teenage lyrics from a not-so-teenage Perry who draws inspiration and nostalgic fondness from her own younger days. This is only further continued straight into Last Friday Night, arguably the platonic ideal of any modern pop song; simple chords, a memorable hook, and even a bridge devoted entirely to a place for listeners to chant along. The following two tracks, California Gurls and Firework, result in a starting quadruple threat that could dethrone any charting artist to date.
“But making pop music is easy isn’t it? All the lyrics are always just the same”. Not quite. Diving deeper into the lyricism across the tracks, these aren’t simple soulless and deliberately machined hits. Aside from the fact that so many of these songs exude irrefutable positive energy and promise, they are matched by demonstrations of lyrical excellence by Perry and co. Where perhaps the devastating lyrics might not be encompassed in the slower ballads akin to Taylor Swift’s All Too Well, the merit of this album is in its ability to interweave these into bops. Stripping away the drums and piano hook from The One That Got Away, and you are left with a sombre song of forlorn and faded romanticism. The breadth and depth of this album saw it gain an accolade, matched only by Michael Jackson, of having five number one singles from the same album. Beyond the instantly recognisable singles comes a swathe of deeper cuts and b-sides, such as Hummingbird Heartbeat and Who am I living for?, all of which hold their own in serving as anything more than filler tracks.
In a previous article about genre fluidity, I mentioned how teenpop was subsequently abdicated by the sad girl boppop, spearheaded by Lorde’s Pure Heroine in 2013. So, if Teenage Dream was so great, then why was its genre almost entirely wiped out from mainstream music just a few years after? There were a few reasons for this; society’s taste tends to change every few years anyways. However, in my eyes, the main reason for this decline was simply that this album created the ultimate teenpop album. This album was beyond extravagant and was ridiculous by design. From cotton candy clouds through to oddly daemonic cat mascots, the visuals bled rainbows through every orifice. The accompanying California Dreams tour, visualised in the movie documenting this period, Part of Me, only drove home further this desire to appeal to inner childishness. Perhaps more successfully, this album has stood the test of time, and still provides enjoyment to those who have since escaped their teenage years, or more yet, those who are becoming teenagers in today’s very different musical climate.
So, this summer, on the decadal anniversary of its release, I reflect on the profound joy that this album managed to conjure amidst an already densely populated market. Teenage Dream finds its ultimate success in taking the formula of teenpop and whittling it down to its core functions. What resulted was an outrageously over the top masterpiece of pop exuberance, one which has yet to have been matched in energy, and probably never will be. Teen-pop’s mainstream position has long since passed, but this album has stood as the monument to unbridled positivity and joy of pop music of that era. My appreciation for this album has only grown over time, and I don’t think it’ll diminish any time soon.
THE BEST UNDERRATED FEMALE ARTISTS IN THE UK
In light of the recent criticisms levelled at festivals for not representing enough female artists in their line-ups, and even worse, TRNSMT Festival’s Geoff Ellis telling BBC Newsbeat that “we need to get more females picking up guitars, forming bands, playing in bands”, Quench Magazine will prove this perception incorrect. Some of the best artists in the UK are female, an untapped scene waiting to be discovered by fans. Female artists that have picked up guitars, formed bands and played in them exist all throughout the UK, creating music that is just as good, and often better, than their male counterparts.
Marika Hackman has been releasing music since 2012, ranging between shoegaze to upbeat, riff driven tracks that stick in your mind for weeks. Hackman lets the music speak for itself on the stage, and her fans are eager disciples. In 2019 she released Any Human Friend, a beautifully melancholic album that challenges topics still taboo in British society, including one track ‘hand solo’, about masturbation. The titular track, ‘any human friend’, includes her typical brand of haunting melodies and vocals. Her 2017 album, ‘I’m Not Your Man’, first brought her to my attention, and the entire album encompasses every mood. When it’s an acoustic day, listen to ‘Cigarette’. When the day is full of summer and you’re out with your friends, listen to ‘Time’s Been Reckless’. For shiver inducement, listen to ‘Violet’, my personal favourite.
Recommended listen: ‘Any Human Friend’
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Sinead O’Brien recently came to my attention after listening to the brilliant track ‘A Thing You Call Joy’, which calls to mind Patti Smith. Her style of music is an Irish blend of music and poetry. O’Brien comes from Limerick, an ironic name for the Irish poet and singer. According to her biography, her influences come from literature, which is reflected in the tracks she writes. As an artist to be signed by one of the few true indie record labels left, O’Brien represents a culture needing revival. Listen to Sinead O’Brien for lilting vocals and quirky riffs.
Recommended listen: ‘A Thing You Call Joy’
L Devine is a relatively new artist, upcoming in the indie pop scene. She has been recognised by GAY TIMES, the Guardian, NME, and Vogue as an emerging star. After listening to ‘Naked Alone’ on repeat for weeks, I branched out to listen to her other tracks, with an equally obsessive response. ‘Nervous’ and ‘When The Time’s Right’ are a few of her best earworms, tracks that pull listeners in for endless repeated playing. Devine is young, and her music is only going to get better, as heard by ‘Boring People’, her most recent release, a blend of the 90’s and the pop of today.
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Bloxx would fit in perfectly within the festival scene. Fee Booth leads the indie band from Uxbridge, touring as a support act for bands such as the Wombats, Sundara Karma, and Pale Waves, another brilliant female-lead band. Booth embodies British, having worked in Wetherspoons with her bassist before starting the band that is sure to see success in the coming years. They’re young, but their music has already been recognised across the seas, in Avvustralia and the Netherlands, as well as touring in the US. Listening to their music transports you to a festival, imagining crowds of dancing fans in the sun that only seems to come out for the best line-ups. This band are a must listen if you want a refreshing female voice to brighten up that playlist full of the Catfishes and the Wombats of the British indie scene.
Recommended listen: ‘Coming Up Short’
Beabadoobee is receiving a lot of attention in the UK, a London artist who was born in the Philippines. Beabadoobee is an artist best slotted into the new ‘bedroom pop’ genre. Once you wrap your head around the spelling, search her name and delve into some of the best new music the UK has to offer. Whilst she is arguably less an underrated artist and more an upcoming star that is consistently on the rise, another magazine championing her brand of pop can never be a bad thing.
Recommended listen: ‘Space Cadet’
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Anteros take influence from bands such as Blondie, The Cure and The Cardigans. Their genre wistfully looks back to the good old days of music, with an injection of their own style. When talking about this band I find it hard to describe what their music reminds me of, because Anteros has become iconic in its own retro way. If I could recommend one band from this list as a must-see for any concert goers, Anteros is that band. Vocalist Laura Hayden is a mesmerising vision on stage, all eyes drawn to her. ‘Bonnie’ brings Hayden down from the stage into the crowd, encouraging GRL PWR to all her fans. Their most recent album, ‘When We Land’ is a brilliant taste of the band’s unique nostalgic energy.
Recommended Listen: ‘Call Your Mother’
These brilliant female artists span all genres, a track for almost every mood and genre. In an ideal world, we would see these bands and artists on the big stages of our favourite festivals, and the front of our favourite magazines. And their music is certainly powerful enough to take them there. So, in answer to Geoff Ellis, there are plenty of women picking up guitars, and playing them, to crowds of fans. Their music inspires young girls and women to pick up their own guitars. Perhaps if we championed more female artists, on the stage and in playlists, those line-ups would be filled much more quickly with the female talent that exists all over the UK.
Best
Not Waving, But Drowning Loyle Carner (2019) By Craig Strachan
This album artwork is a stunning, low-key and almost minimalist piece of photography that conceptually encapsulates the album itself. As a record, Loyle Carner’s follow up album to 2017’s Yesterday’s Gone is a continuation of a great style of relaxed and intimate rap that almost whispers and soothes you into serine submission on many of the tracks. You can see this in the art. The body of water that consumes the entire cover is simply and discretely rippling and in a state of unassuming placidity. This is Carner’s musical style, with his lyrics also rippling unassumingly and inoffensively across his songs. But then this central figure, hands aloft, as the only person in frame, represents the musicians actual state of mind within his music and by extension this body of water. The title itself, reveals to the onlooker that the figure (who we can assume is Carner himself) is drowning, sinking and ultimately crying for help. As a phrase and accompanying photograph, I think Not Waving, But Drowning is a great metaphor for what artists who write, record and release music that touches on their own mental health issues are actually trying to do and say in their songs.
Strangers to ourselves modest mouse (2015) By Luisa De la Concha Montes
The American rock band’s sixth studio album is, in my opinion, their most complex work, both musically and lyrically. Throughout each of the songs, Isaac Brook develops a dark narrative that builds upon his disenchantment towards modern society. The structure of the album flows naturally between pumped up songs, to slow ballads; however, regardless of the speed and rhythm, each song exacerbates one particular feeling: isolation.
The album cover, a satellite image of a Resort in Phoenix, Arizona perfectly represents this. The repetitiveness of the houses, contrasted with the maze-like structure of the road are a simple, yet compact metaphor of the eeriness of modernity. The roads in this landscape seem to lead nowhere and the framing suggests that there is no way out. More disturbingly, it’s almost implied that even if there was an exit, it would only lead to another repetitive suburban complex. This geographical predictability –and Brook’s desire to escape from it– permeates the whole album, creating an inescapable anxiousness. This is an album that openly tries to fight the system while acknowledging that the desire to fight the system is… well, part of the system. Listeners are therefore left to wander across this land of preestablished delimitations, wondering where to place their emotions inside this ideological maze.
Album
Golden Hour Kacey Musgraves (2018) By Josh Ong
At first glance, this album cover doesn’t really delve particularly deep into any fancified artwork or illusive imagery. Depicting an image of Musgraves’ face partially concealed by a large fan, its nature is particularly simple. Tonally, this sets off the entire album pretty well. The simplicity and passive nature of the colours utilised in the art in conjunction with the opening track of Burn create an entire package that not only aids the music within, but works in total unison with it. As the album explores introversion and how the individual character relates to the outside world, it finds its success by maintaining its core ideals throughout without burying them too deep. The artwork for this album certainly reflects this desire to keep things simple whilst colourfully reflecting the album’s tonality.
Album
Golden Hour Kacey Musgraves (2018)
At first glance, this album cover doesn’t really delve particularly deep into any fancified artwork or illusive imagery. Depicting an image of Musgraves’ face partially concealed by a large fan, its nature is particularly simple. Tonally, this sets off the entire album pretty well. The simplicity and passive nature of the colours utilised in the art in conjunction with the opening track of Slow create an entire package that not only aids the music within, but works in total unison with it. As the album explores introversion and how the individual character relates to the outside world, it finds its success by maintaining its core ideals throughout without burying them too deep. The artwork for this album certainly reflects this desire to keep things simple whilst colourfully reflecting the album’s tonality.
Definitely Maybe Oasis (1994) By Josh Ong
This is perhaps more of a mainstream pick than Golden Hour, but its place as a classic within society is certainly well grounded. The excellence of this art is that it tells you just about everything you need to know about the band and the music they were making, before any tracks have even started playing.
Like the band itself, it’s clear that the two Gallagher brothers are the key players, as a guitar-cladden Noel sits looking forlorn into nothingness beside his boisterous little brother Liam, lying on the floor surrounded by cigarettes and alcohol. Meanwhile, the three other members in the back, including Bonehead, all seem rather uninterested preferring to instead stare at an old television.
The fact that this iconic image can be recreated in just about any living room as long as you have two people, a guitar and a sofa, demonstrates how its simplicity, once again, fell in line with what they were trying to achieve with their music. There was nothing particularly fancy within this shoot, as a matter of fact, the ‘wine’ pictured in the glass is actually diluted Ribena. But that was the point; Oasis wanted to be familiar to millions, with music that the everyday person could relate to. This album cover depicts a very mundane situation that ultimately boils down to two brothers in a house making music, something very achievable by the everyday folk.
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design by: LUISA DE LA CONCHA MONTES
Turn on the Bright Lights Interpol (2002) By Craig Strachan
This album art might appear to be boring, simple and unworthy of this article entirely. However, I implore anyone who’s interested to watch, stare or even leer at this artwork with it’s accompanying music playing loud in the background. This debut album was heralded as a integral pillar of the New York alternative rock scene of the early noughties, alongside such works as The Strokes’ Is This It and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Fever to Tell and is often commended for its’ dark and sinister baselines and almost sociopathic vocals. If you gaze long enough at those six foreboding red lights whilst tracks like Obstacle 1, PDA and the opener, Untitled, wash over you, it’s almost as if you can feel your sanity and innocence being dragged into the blood red art itself leaving only murder behind. Never before or since have I seen an album’s artwork that so perfectly irradiates the same mood and emotion of the music so clearly and in such a simple but beautifully menacing way. For the fact that it can communicate so much of the personality of this album with literally next to nothing in the photo, is all the reason the art of Turn on the Bright Lights needs to be included on this list.
