Californian pop-star Katy Perry’s image is very cleverly crafted to appeal to an extremely vast fan-base and target audience.
With regards to the general representation of Katy across many forms of media, it is clear that herself and her record label are presenting her as a ‘youthful’, ‘fun’, ‘bubbly’ and ‘sexy’ singer. Her sound is very commercial; therefore her image must reinforce this by appealing aesthetically to her audience. One of the main elements that attract people to Katy Perry is the fact that although she uses crazy, fun costumes, puts on extravagant shows and has an extremely commercial sound, she still comes across as natural and isn’t regarded as a ‘fake’ star; it is quite obvious that she is having fun and therefore fans want to have fun with her.
Her recent music video, ‘California Gurls’, depicts this image perfectly and the aesthetic and themes from this video seem to carry across to all forms of media in which Perry is represented. The star construction is this video is very carefully put together to attract a large scope of her fans. The theme of the video is ‘Candyland’, using very bright colours, candy-related props, settings and costumes to set the scene. The video combines a clear narrative with performance, merging the two seamlessly into one; using obvious narrative shots and lip-syncing throughout. The idea is that ‘Candyfornia’, the make-believe setting of the video, is a board-game of which ‘Snoop-Dogg’ is the games master, controlling the players. Every other girl that has played Snoop has lost before and been trapped in the game, and the video follows Katy as she enters the game and attempts to free the girls and defeat Snoop-Dogg.
The video seems to play on the themes of nostalgia, as a lot of recognisable classic childhood sweets can be seen, which allows the slightly older fans to relate. The bright colours and quirky characters, e.g. walking gummy bears and ginger-bread men, allow the younger generations to relate and become engrossed in the story. With regards to communicating to both genders, the video appeals to girls in the way that Katy’s image empowers females, as it shows her freeing her female friends and defeating the male antagonist. There is also a theme of voyeurism in the video, in the fact that Katy is represented to have a large amount of sex-appeal. Along with the other female characters in the video, she wears low cut tops, flawless makeup and tight and revealing costumes that show a lot of skin. There is one scene in the video where she is seen naked lying in ‘cotton candy’ clouds. This adds a ‘sexy’ side to the video, which brings all the elements of Katy’s image together and means that a very extensive audience will enjoy it.
The song ‘California Gurls’ is a single from the album ‘Teenage Dream’, the artwork of which is the image of Katy Perry lying naked amongst cotton candy clouds. This obviously follows directly on from the image constructed in the music video, and again depicts the star’s persona as ‘fun, ‘quirky’ and ‘sexy’. The colour scheme, bright blues and pastel pinks, is used specifically to enhance this persona and show Katy in a positive, youthful way. The fact that the album cover is so simple is appealing because it appears fresh and un-cluttered, and may be an implication that the album is simply Katy, and isn’t fake and cluttered.
These themes and representations also continue onto Katy’s official website, which is bright and clean. It uses pastel pinks against black for contrast and to stand out and light, muted colours in the background for a ‘vintage’ feel, possibly hinting at the theme of ‘nostalgia’ again and appealing to older generations. A cartoon stylised image of Katy with blue hair is seen on a link at the side, which again reiterates her ‘quirky’ and youthful persona and appeals to a younger audience.
When seeing Perry’s tour-diaries and interviews, it appears that she is a very fun, bubbly woman who is confident and enjoys what she does. She is seen constantly smiling, laughing or having a fun time. This genuine personality and likability is what really attracts her audience and is one of the main reasons she has such a large fan-base. Despite the make-up, wild wigs and costumes, slim body, sex-appeal and talent, the way she appears on stage and what the public see of her through various outlets is extremely appealing and compliments her style of up-beat pop perfectly. Obviously what the public does see is largely down to the record label and it is possible that some videos have been largely edited to only show specific appealing clips. However, some clips do show Katy swearing which is obviously not appropriate for all audiences; these clips do on the other hand, show Katy just being herself which is evidently appealing for older audiences.
Her performances at concerts also have huge appeal, as she appears as a friend to whole audiences and seems to act very natural on-stage whilst still maintaining an almost flawless performance of dance and music. For example, as she steps from the stage to greet a fan at the front row of a concert on her tour, she says, “Woah, don’t freak out! I’m just a human!” Again this could be fairly dictated by the label, but these performances are a large part of what makes her so enjoyable.
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