Released in 2008, Katy Perry’s hit, pop-rock song, “I Kissed A Girl”, topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for multiple weeks and is still streamed regularly by music listeners. During this time, sexual orientation and curiosity pertaining to sexuality were quite rarely touched on in pop music, as well as popular culture overall, because prejudice against homosexuality was on a greater scale during the 2000s compared to that of 2022. In the genre of 2000s pop, it was common for artists to write and produce songs regarding love and the opposite sex. Although most artists refused to refer to homosexuality in their work, Katy Perry, known for her musical experimentation and “wildness”, has touched on sexual orientation on multiple occasions and can be seen as an artist who deviates from the “norm” of pop. Specifically, “I Kissed A Girl” is about the female narrator getting drunk and soon becoming curious about a girl whom she does not know, even though she already has a boyfriend. She then describes kissing the female stranger and being torn on whether it was the right or wrong thing to do but concludes that she liked it. I find this song to be “wild” because at the time, girls were expected to not act so uncontrollable nor be homosexual. Perry acknowledges this expectation by stating “It’s not what, good girls do/ Not how they should behave”. Because the narrator does what is not expected by her and, instead, does what she is naturally inclined to do, this song aligns with the definition of “wild”. As a result, a large listening audience was attracted/shocked by its wildness, boosting its sales.
https://genius.com/Katy-perry-i-kissed-a-girl-lyrics
Vivian Nguyen
This is a very good choice of a song for a wild song. Homosexuality was a very sensitive topic back then, and Katy Perry cracked the door for more openness of same-sex attraction. Not only did it do that, but it was a wild song with a wild beat that went wild in the charts. Great choice Vivian!
This is such a great song for this topic! I definitely did not think about it this way but for the time that Katy Perry wrote this song, the topic is kind of “wild”. I can see how the instrumentation and beat also fits into this wildness theme!
I remember first listening to this song and I thought it was so different! Whenever I would ask people if they knew this song they always had a surprised reaction due to the title and the lyrics specially coming from Katy Perry. This song definitely fits the definition of wild specially in the time that it was released like you mentioned. I think Katy Perry is known for thinking outside the box and this song really portrays that since she is free-spirited and doesn’t care for norms but what she feels like doing. I think her approach to wild and how she involves it in her music has to do a lot with her success and how she is seen as this uplifting artist.