The Complete Guide to Katy Perry’s Music Videos
Goofy, sexy and above all else a savvy marketer of herself, Katy Perry has made herself both relatable and completely out there. She's girlier than Gaga and edgier than Beyonce – the kind of suburban superstar who probably still has all her Lisa Frank gear in a box at the back of her very insane closet. In honor of her spot on our cover, we've put together the ultimate in LED, candy-striped, heart-fluttering trips – a Katy Perry videography. Come with us, won't you? It's bright and shiny in there.
By Mallika Rao
Related:
• Katy Perry Talks Body Image, Fame and Politics in Rolling Stone Cover Story
• Video: Katy Perry's Silly, Sexy 2011 Cover Shoot
• Exclusive Photos: Katy Perry's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot
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• Sex, God & Katy Perry: Rolling Stone's 2010 Cover Story
• Video: Katy Perry's First Rolling Stone Cover Shoot
• Photos: Katy Perry Strips Down For Rolling Stone
• Photos: Katy Perry's Best Looks
• Katy Perry's Katycats and Other Great Superfan Communities
• Photos: Katy Perry's Candy-Coated California Dreams Tour
• Live: Katy Perry Rocks a Sweet Tooth on California Dreams Tour
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‘Ur So Gay’ (2007)
Katy Perry's debut single told us exactly who she was right away. The mini-firestorm over her use of the word "gay" – which some saw as tin-eared homophobia, others as playful currency – foreshadowed the spirit of the controversies she'd spawn. Meanwhile, the video proved her affinity for that other publicity-wrangler: corporate sponsorship. The decision to orchestrate a pair of Fashion Royal dolls into playing Katy and her "so gay" ex led to a tweeny pop singer's dream come true: her own line of plastic lookalikes.
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‘I Kissed a Girl’ (2008)
"I Kissed A Girl" hit Number One on MTV's Total Request Live a week and a half after its debut, spawning a legion of copycats and parodies due in no small part to the provocative chorus. Critics bashed Perry's faux-lesbianism for the same reasons they panned the casually pejorative "Ur So Gay," but the video makes no bones about its bro-friendly agenda. This is a hetero haze of fishnets, petal-strewn pillow fights (featuring a pre-fame Ke$ha) – and a notable absence of Katy Perry actually kissing a girl.
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• Katy Perry Talks Body Image, Fame and Politics in Rolling Stone Cover Story
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‘Hot n Cold’ (2008)
A precursor to the Great Sesame Street Scandal of 2010, the video for "Hot n Cold" starts with Katy at the altar, back in the days when Russell Brand was still a twinkle in some other girl's eye. The rest is a colorful cat-and-mouse chase that's equal parts goofy and glam, with supermodel Kim Lee rounding out the angry girl mob in hot pursuit of the runaway groom. Of special note is Katy's hot-pursuit-ready wedding dress – which breaks down into a onesie.
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• Video: Katy Perry's Silly, Sexy 2011 Cover Shoot
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‘Thinking of You’ (2009)
Katy's worst-performing single has a video to match – slow and maudlin, with a Taylor Swift-style 1940s love story that falls flat. Though Katy has the long face and big eyes to pull off the World War II look, there's nothing convincing about the nutty fashionista mooning away at a grandmotherly vanity table. Where are the LED lights? The blue wigs? You'd be forgiven for wondering if it's even Katy in the video, except there's that onesie again.
Related:
• Exclusive Photos: Katy Perry's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot
• Photos: Katy Perry's Candy-Coated California Dreams Tour
• Live: Katy Perry Rocks a Sweet Tooth on California Dreams Tour -
‘Waking Up in Vegas’ (2009)
"Waking Up in Vegas" reignited Katy's momentum after the slow run of "Thinking of You," pushing her album One of the Boys back into the Billboard 200's top 50. In the video, Katy and her boyfriend (played by Bones' Joel David Moore) run the span of their luck in Vegas, making enough to kick Penn and Teller out of a fancy bedroom and hang with hotelier George J. Maloof Jr., only to lose it all midway through. In an unsurprising twist, they win it all back again. That's how it works when you get to write the scripts.
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• Photos: Katy Perry Strips Down For Rolling Stone
• Photos: Katy Perry's Best Looks -
‘California Gurls’ (2010)
Conceived as a response to Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," "California Gurls" sat at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 for six consecutive weeks. The video was a trippy hit, taking inspiration from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Candyland and the work of artist Will Cotton. It also features an elaborate storyline in which Snoop Dogg holds various women captive in a land called Candyfornia as Katy makes her way through, distracting all attention from any plot whatsoever with the unleashing of a pair of whipped cream gun bras.
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• Sex, God & Katy Perry: Rolling Stone's 2010 Cover Story
• Video: Katy Perry's First Rolling Stone Cover Shoot
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‘Teenage Dream’ (2010)
We named it 2010's catchiest tune, a tough title for any video to live up to – and yet this one's just about perfect. From the convertible to the beach party to the motel to the pool, the colliding scenes are teenagehood at its Platonic best: when the wind makes everyone's hair look good and actions have no consequences. Katy's team shot in her hometown of Santa Barbara and enlisted her childhood friends as extras so as to capture the spirit of her own teenage years. There may be nothing realistic about the results, but that's why it's called a dream.
Related:
• Katy Perry's Katycats and Other Great Superfan Communities
• Photos: Katy Perry's Candy-Coated California Dreams Tour
• Live: Katy Perry Rocks a Sweet Tooth on California Dreams Tour -
‘Firework’ (2010)
In the video for "Firework," Katy stands on a balcony in Budapest sparking fireworks from her chest, inspiring the people below to recognize their own inner light. If that sounds too idealistic, never fear. The single also marked the start of a savvy union between Katy and European telecom giant Deutsche Telekom, who auditioned for extras and helped market the song. Someone has no reason to feel like a paper bag.
Related:
• Katy Perry Talks Body Image, Fame and Politics in Rolling Stone Cover Story
• Video: Katy Perry's Silly, Sexy 2011 Cover Shoot
• Exclusive Photos: Katy Perry's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot -
‘E.T.’ ft. Kanye West (2011)
"E.T." is by far the kookiest video in Katy's bag, a mystical outer space free-for-all in which Kanye drops awkward rhymes about being an astronaut with a big head, and Katy ends up with an albino soul mate. The intro has shades of Wall-E and Gaga's "Born This Way," but the rest of it is totally its own. Did we mention Katy has gazelle legs?
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‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)’ (2011)
The pop-cultural references come hard and fast in this take on a classic Eighties teen movie, which landed up on YouTube after an aggressive guerilla video campaign. While Katy's impersonation of a nerdy 13-year-old is more off-putting than funny, the casting is rock-solid, with Debbie Gibson and Corey Feldman as the returning parents who've come home to see the wreckage of a Friday night party. No surprise, this flash-in-the-pan receptacle also stars Rebecca Black.
Related:
• Katy Perry Talks Body Image, Fame and Politics in Rolling Stone Cover Story
• Video: Katy Perry's Silly, Sexy 2011 Cover Shoot
• Exclusive Photos: Katy Perry's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot
• Photos: A History of Pop Divas on the Cover of Rolling Stone
• Sex, God & Katy Perry: Rolling Stone's 2010 Cover Story
• Video: Katy Perry's First Rolling Stone Cover Shoot
• Photos: Katy Perry Strips Down For Rolling Stone
• Photos: Katy Perry's Best Looks
• Katy Perry's Katycats and Other Great Superfan Communities
• Photos: Katy Perry's Candy-Coated California Dreams Tour
• Live: Katy Perry Rocks a Sweet Tooth on California Dreams Tour