i kissed a girl

mix by dj richie rich / ultimix

"I Kissed a Girl" is the second single from Katy Perry's album One of the Boys produced by Dr. Luke. Perry says it is "about the magical beauty of a woman."[1]. On June 26, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the 1000th chart-topper of the Rock Era.[2] It also topped the "Canadian Hot 100" and Australian ARIA Charts.

critical reception...

"I Kissed a Girl" has drawn mixed reviews from critics. Blog Critics Magazine called it "an instantly catchy number,"[3] and About.com said, "fueled by an instrumental wallop provided courtesy of producer Dr. Luke, 'I Kissed a Girl' is the perfect breakthrough."[4]

However, Rolling Stone, while giving her album 2/5 stars, despite describing the song as a "New Wave-y club single," says the supposedly rebellious "attention-grabbing" lyrics are "a vanilla recounting of her chick-on-chick exploits" and that this "acting out" is "just to get a dude's attention."[5] AllMusic praises "the stomping Gary Glitter beat" before criticizing the producers for turning it "into a leaden stumble and burying Perry's voice underneath Pro Tools overdubs so it all winds up as a faceless wash of sound designed to be placed in TV shows, movie trailers, and malls."[6]

Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote, Perry's "lead single 'I Kissed a Girl' features a throbbing beat and an infectious, bi-curious hook, but its self-satisfied, in-your-face posturing rings phony in comparison to the expertly constructed ambiguities of 'Justify My Love' or practically anything in the first decade of Ani DiFranco's catalogue; it's like a tween version of DiFranco's tortured bisexual confession 'Light of Some Kind.'"[7] Hiponline.com wrote that the song is "not nearly as interesting or exciting as you’d expect. It’s not even half as good as Jill Sobule’s song 'I Kissed a Girl'.”[8] Glitterati Gossip agrees Sobule's song "was ten times better, because there was actual emotional content to her lyrics."[9]

The song was premiered on BBC Radio 1 in the UK on July 21, 2008 on The Scott Mills Show. It was praised by many fans on their text lines and was made his record of the week. On July 23, 2008, "I Kissed a Girl" was added to the station's C-List, "The Playlist," being, "where most songs on daytime Radio 1 are selected from". [10]

Previous to its debut on Radio 1, it had been (and continues to be) on the playlist of some of the UK radio stations which are part of The One Network for a number of weeks. In addition it had received at least one play a week on BBC Radio 2 on its Saturday evening America’s Greatest Hits show hosted by Paul Gambaccini due to the song’s number status in the Billboard chart.

controversy...

The song gained a significant amount of controversy after its rise in popularity due to its perceived promotion of promiscuity. While community members and parents may be concerned over the "the coarseness of the sexual behavior," including its public nature and intoxicated state, they may or, such as Unitarian minister Debra W. Haffner, may not be concerned over "the sex or gender of the person she's talking about."[11]

While Haffner, who holds a degree in public health, believes Perry "obviously is using the whole issue of sexual orientation in a positive way, raising awareness, or she's doing it because it gets attention,"[11] AllMusic concludes that, "the problem is not with Katy's gender-bending, it's that her heart isn't in it; she's just using it to get her places, so she sinks to crass, craven depths."[6] Slant Magazine agrees, saying, the song, "isn't problematic because it promotes homosexuality, but because its appropriation of the gay lifestyle exists for the sole purpose of garnering attention—both from Perry's boyfriend and her audience."[7]

Adam Holz of PluggedinOnline, a division of Focus on the Family, wrote an article entitled "A Tale of Two Katys"[12] about the singer's image transformation from a Contemporary Christian Music artiste to one of the "girls gone wild". He criticizes the song for being the latest, "high-profile message to young women and men that our sexuality is a malleable commodity that can be reshaped at will." Ironically, Focus on the Family believes sexuality to be malleable as witnessed by their ex-gay Love Won Out campaign. Holz also argues that Perry's message carries with it, "no need to worry about who might get used or objectified in the process," causing Katy to live, "down to a damaging, demeaning stereotype."

In some areas of the world the song's bi-curious lyrics have kept it from reaching the Top 40 or to even be released at all. In Malaysian radio stations, the song has been retitled 'I Kissed...' with the words 'a girl' silenced throughout the chorus in the song.[citation needed]. Though The Star, of Canada, describes it as "a lesbian-friendly tune,"[13] whether anti-gay bias fuels negative reactions to the song or the song itself appears to divide critics. While Slant and other critics[14][15] suggest that Perry may be homophobic, especially given her single "Ur So Gay", which makes "I Kissed a Girl" seem like "a classic example of the 'Guys kissing is gross, girls kissing is hot' line of thought"[16] The Star Ledger quotes a listener who proposes that negative reactions to the song are due to homophobia, saying that it would not draw disapproval if sung by a male artist, and who compares the level of explicitness in the lyrics with other songs on the radio such as rap lyrics.[11] MomLogic.com writer Vuv-A-Licious agrees, asking, "'What's the big deal?'...When this tune is playing and my son and daughter are dancing, I will be trying to dance along, or trying to acknowledge that they may one day dance to the beat of a different drummer than me."[17]

This text is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "I Kissed A Girl".