Video: Katy Perry – “Waking Up In Vegas”
Another week, another black eye for America. BEP are still our favorite Martians for a 21st week. Clearly this is a quartet with a diabolical plan to destroy us. Wasn’t that Taboo seen sneaking away from the Shuttle Discovery? It was he who busted the valve that delayed Discovery’s launch. But anyway, back to the Hot 100. There’s some other hilarity in the chart. Kenny Chesney is suddenly Dave Matthews‘ homeboy. Miley Cyrus also makes noise this week with “Party in the USA,” sure to be making noise as the preteen set heads back to school. “Ma, buy me these bedazzled jeans. Miley said to!” Something in that brew smells like freedom and commerce.
The charts also see a host of artists with less name recognition on the national scene, but an ability to make waves regionally and via download. See? With some clever local canvassing and an eventual big money push, your ringtone single with the autotuned sex scene can be on its way to a homeroom somewhere in the complacent heartland of America. It’ll be just like those dingbats yelling at congressional representatives. Only, you know, with autotune.
Katy Perry has accrued more staying power than maybe anyone besides her handlers expected. Remember, “I Kissed a Girl,” her whoopsy-daisy, Kohl’s Department Store discount rack pop swindle, was last year’s summer breakout hit. And yes, this also has a lot to do with complacency. America accepts massive infusions of hot sauce into its mainline fast food the way stimulus money is clamored for by city governments, then turns its tearing eyes away from the fact that it’s the same old taco, only this time its crusty walls are red.
And yet, Perry’s “Waking Up in Vegas” is counting its chips at #14 on the Hot 100, rising three spots from #17 after peaking at #9. If you haven’t run into it, “Vegas” pits Perry and her beau against the glitter on their clothes and the crass delights in their sightlines of the city that still thinks it’s the late 1990s. Hijinks ensue. Supersized mishaps are made. And in the end, Perry is left to chant “Get me some cash out, baby.” It’s a phrase built not from English but from text patter, status updates, and random drunk # signs in Twitter exclamations. In this experience, Perry’s 140 characters are all money signs.
Plus, “Vegas” has a hook as huge as the Luxor. That has to count for something, especially in a climate where the only thing that lasts longer than BEP at the top of the charts is the heartburn rendered from a Volcano Taco.
JTL
Each week Johnny Loftus will select a song from your hit parade to explicate, celebrate, or humiliate.
“same old taco”
Brilliant.
Jeez, those Katy Perry songs are lame…She does have a nice rack, tho.
We all know this former ‘christian’ artist is cashing in on her fifteen minutes. But, the song has an impossibly catchy hook and undeniably goofy lyrics.
I also agree: nice rack.
The problem with today vs. 10 years ago is that now people’s 15 minutes never end.
Loftus points out that “I Kissed a Girl” was last summer‘s hit. If the world was spinning on its proper axis, she would’ve disappeared after that song dropped off the charts.
But no, now we’ll have to hear about for the rest of her life. Just like Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, and the “stars” of reality television. They just never go away anymore.