I claim to have a wide and varied taste in music, but I do have quite a few prejuidices that color my opinion of certain genres. However, I try to remain open minded and realize that there is always at least something excellent in every subset of music. I hate country music, but I love Johnny Cash, I own a Merle Haggard album, and find something in the simple storytelling of that era to love. I can restrict my hatred to modern country, but then I have to find some way to allow for my giddy anticipation for the new Zac Brown Band album. Simply put, I find it possible to love some particular item, no matter how much I might disdain the category to which the item belongs (Which is why I love my wife yet remain a horrible misogynist).
Therefore, about every six to eight months I fall deeply, passionately, head-over-heels in love with a super, super, gay song. This isn't the sort of love where I merely appreciate the song for being catchy, or very danceable. My wife constantly replays Rihanna's new CD (that I regrettably bought her as a gift) and I find quite a few of those songs to be pleasant, and fun, and actually quite good, even though I am a straight white adult male. That's not the sort of love I'm talking about. I'm talking about this sort of love where I'm truly and deeply emotionally touched by the song and legitimately think it might be one of my top ten songs of all time. I unembarassedly adored Beyonce's, "Irreplaceable" and would hold forth at length on the incredible pairing of the lyrics (a strong, self-sufficient adult telling her no-good lover to get out) and the vocal work, (a truly heartbroken woman summoning the last of her strength to protect herself from further pain).
With this disclaimer firmly and defensively established, I now step from behind my mask of manliness and hereby proclaim Katy Perry's, "Teenage Dream" to be the best song currently on mainstream radio. Don't get me wrong, I loathe Katy Perry. I find her neither clever, cute, or funny. "Fireworks," is such a pathetically sappy song, and the video so astonishingly cliched and over-reaching that I honestly think that it's possible that the entire video is tongue-in-cheek, and parodying other over-earnest pieces of dreck. HOWEVER it's so bad that even if it is a joke, it's still not funny. "Teenage Dream," however is a masterpiece, and I'm about to prove it.
First of all, I love that whole, "falling in love" BS. I'm a huge fan of puppy love, and that stupid teenage love where you actually believe that you are the first couple to ever feel love this intensely. You reason that you have to be, or else there would be no unhappiness in the relationships of adults you've met, no marriages ever ending in divorce. I still completely idolize those late nights and long phone conversations where you're learning everything about a person and these newly developed hormones create a flood of blood to certain areas of your brain and actually gives you a chemical high and love literally becomes a drug (for the record, I hate Ke$ha). I think there's something so innocent, and yes, naieve, but sincerely beautiful about this time in someone's life, and though developed cynicism and the knowledge of how it all ended up colors our view from the present, there's nothing like balancing on the cusp of adulthood, fully stepping into who you are, while still retaining the invincibility of youth.
My heart stops when you look at me
Just one touch now baby I believe
This is what Teenage Dream is about. Katy Perry is singing to a guy about their memories, and back when they were falling in love and feeling like they were one another's only anchors in life, and that really, all you needed was love and everything would fall into place. She uses the verses to describe a few moments from their relationship, and the first part of the chorus (or maybe it's a bridge, I don't know anything about music) to recall the first time they had sex - not meaningless one night stand sex, but the connected, for real sex, of two people who are really falling for one another.
Let's go all the way tonight
No regrets, just love
We can dance until we die
You and I, will be young forever.
This, coupled with the music, would be enough for me to like the song, but what really cranks it up to Better-Than-The-Beatles status is the final added layer. Katy Perry isn't a teenager, and Katy Perry is smarter than this. She knows that love doesn't make everything work out, and she knows that feelings change, and she knows that even if love lasts forever is changes and morphs and grows and mutates and that you only get that, "falling in love" feeling once, with whomever you are with (science says that the 'love as a drug' thing usually peters out at the 15 month mark, but I don't know). Katy Perry isn't a teenage dream to her lover anymore, it isn't that they are falling out of love, but their love has matured and steadied. But in this song she's reminding him of that original fiery passionate love they felt when they were teenagers and they were first feeling that crazy new love with whomever they were feeling that crazy new love with. She's telling him, 'Remember being a teenager in love? Well tonight we are those teenagers, and we're not going to let adulthood or wherever we are at this point in our lives distract us from that. I'm not going to wear some Sexy Nurse Outfit or a gimp suit, I'm going to be the me that you fell in love with, because that's who I still am."
Get your heart racing in my skin tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight
Put your hands on me in my skin tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight.
You might think that I'm bringing a ridiculous amount of baggage to the table before interpreting this song, and maybe I am. But I'm right, and if Katy Perry herself disagrees with me and intended a different meaning to this song entirely, she's wrong. Listen to this song with my interpretation, and see what you think. Sure, I'm semi-old (26) and I'm married (for 2.5 years now) but I've learned to embrace all moments in my life - even the moments when I felt (and still sometimes feel) intense shame - because I've learned from everything I've been through and those experiences have forced me into the person that I am. I will always love those moments of my childhood - the building of tree forts, the terribly long summer afternoons of kick ball and bicycle riding, and I will always love those moments of adolescence - the intense connection I felt with someone who understood me, or at least a part of me, in a way no one else did.
By the way, Clayton disagrees with me about this entirely, and I'm pretty sure my wife does as well (that, or else she made the wise choice to ignore me when I explained this all to her. Her response: "Hmm. I never really thought about it." My reply: "Obviously you never get drunk and listen to Katy Perry.")
This is real
So take a chance
And don't ever look back
Don't ever look back
