NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

When I was a Christian teenager, a book started circulating in my church youth group. Joshua Harris wrote about youth with wisdom and authority that seemed logical and categorical for every situation to the young women who read I Kissed Dating Goodbye . The book’s thesis argued that dating was a worldly alternative to the more purposeful Christian concept of courtship. Dating fueled erotic passions, which must be saved for a heterosexual marriage. Dating is casual, even preteens dates. Courtship was about vetting a marriage partner and would happen in the late teen years or early adulthood.  YOU THINK I'M PRETTY WITHOUT ANY MAKEUP ON .  Josh Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye was part of a movement I’ve written about a lot: purity culture. How much this movement influenced young Katy Hudson, a pastor’s daughter in Southern California, touring with a slew of Christian rockers on the heels of her debut, self-titled album , I can only speculate what went through the 17-year-old st...

Around 2007 Internet bloggers started sharing a song by an edgy new pop star called " Ur So Gay ," a song in which  Katy Perry  complains about her metrosexual, emo boyfriend who is more feminine than she wants in a man. The song was one of many cringe-worthy homophobic, sexist, or otherwise problematic songs that could exist only in the noughties, the UK pronunciation for the time period of 2000-2009. I think that it's apropos when talking about this era of music. While "Ur So Gay" never impacted radio, other head-scratching lines littered Perry's major label debut  One of the Boys .    YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND LIKE A GIRL CHANGES CLOTHES.  Katy Perry broke through with the single " I Kissed a Girl ." After the 2004 Super Bowl incident involving  Janet Jackson 's wardrobe malfunction, the Bush-era FCC heavily censored the television and radio waves. While there were edgy hits from that time, "shock pop" seemed to abound at the end of Geo...

Teenage Dream was Katy Perry 's marriage album. Perry, along with her songwriting team of Max Martin , Dr. Luke , Et. al. wrote the songs as the singer was dating British comedian Russell Brand . Perry and Brand were married less than two months after the release of Teenage Dream in a Hindu wedding ceremony in India . But Perry's teenage dream soon became a nightmare, with the couple separating 14 months after the marriage, Brand calling off the marriage via text message.  I USED TO BITE MY TONGUE AND HOLD MY BREATH. The documentary film Part of Me shows a heartbreaking scene in which Perry has just found out that her marriage is over. Not even one album cycle had passed, and Perry's marriage had dissolved. The single " Part of Me " was released on Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection expanding  the album cycle until she released Prism in October of 2013. But Prism isn't a morose break up album. Starting with the anthemic " Roar ," an arguably ...