Dated to plain disrespectful: The Katy Perry songs that have aged the worst

When Katy Perry is gone, she’s never really gone. After her new song with Doechii, I’m His, He’s Mine, dropped on 13th September, and after that vibey VMAs performance on 12th September, we’re all scrolling through the backlog of Katy Perry songs on Spotify and thinking, “what the hell did I listen to when I was 11?” These are the five Katy Perry songs that have aged the worst.

It’s true that some of Katy Perry’s songs are eternal bangers that have stood the test of time. Last Friday Night and Californian Gurls slap when you’re drunk. The One That Got Away and Teenage Dream slap even when you’re sober. But there are quite a few songs lurking in the depths of her discography that in 2024 are kind of offensive, or just plain bizarre. Even Katy Perry has admitted that some of her songs haven’t aged that great.

Here are the five Katy Perry songs that have aged the worst and deserve to be purged from your music library.

5. Woman’s World

Er, can a song count as aging badly if it’s only been out for two months? The problem with Women’s World is that it feels like it’s been stuck in a cryogenic freezer since 2014 and has only just defrosted. It’s supposed to be a feminist anthem about divine female energy or whatever, but that vibe is rather undermined by how the producer is Dr. Luke, who Kesha made sexual harassment allegations against.

This is not appropriate attire for operating heavy machinery at a construction site
(Image via YouTube)

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The video is giving vibes of “feminist but in a sexy way for men to look at grrrr”, which isn’t really feminist at all. Katy Perry legit shakes her boobs around a fake building site and presses a petrol pump into her bum. I’m sure this song would have done just fine in the age of Little Mix, but pop music has just moved beyond it in 2014.

Katy Perry then backtracked and said that the song was actually deliberately cringe bc it was intended to be satire. Hmmm.

4. I Kissed a Girl

Please don’t come for me for criticising this song. I get that it was a really big deal when it came out 16 years ago. And I get that the music video in which Katy strokes a purring cat (I see what you did there) it an integral part of pop culture history.

But as society’s stance on bisexuality has changed, so have people’s views on that song. There’s the whole “I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it” lyric and the ending of the video where it’s revealed that prancing around a garden with hot girls in gothic lingerie was just a dream. Both sort of give the sense that the girls’ attraction to each other is more for the enjoyment of the boyfriend and the viewers than it is for their own enjoyment.

Bi girls pillow fighting in their underwear has got to be the most straight male thing ever
(Image via YouTube)

Katy Perry told Glamour in 2018 that she understands the song is very of its era. She said: “We’ve really changed, conversationally, in the past 10 years. We’ve come a long way. Bisexuality wasn’t as talked about back then, or any type of fluidity. If I had to write that song again, I probably would make an edit on it. Lyrically, it has a couple of stereotypes in it. Your mind changes so much in 10 years, and you grow so much. What’s true for you can evolve.”

Just listen to Chappell Roan instead xxx

3. This Is How We Do

Katy Perry in the This Is How We Do music video
(Image via YouTube)

One particular line from this song has not aged well. Katy sings, “Getting our nails did all Japanese-y”. Oh dear. 

In 2017, Katy Perry apologised for wearing cornrows in this video while she ate a watermelon. She said: “I didn’t know that I did it wrong until I heard people saying that I did it wrong. It takes someone to say, out of compassion, out of love, ‘Hey, this is what the origin is.’

““I listened and I heard and I didn’t know. I won’t ever understand some of those things because of who I am. I will never understand, but I can educate myself and that’s what I’m trying to do along the way.”

2. Ur So Gay

The title alone just screams, “What were you thinking?”

Ur So Gay was Katy Perry’s first proper music video, and the song intended to launch her as a pop star. Madonna said on the radio in 2008 that this was was her favourite new pop song, which is a tad concerning.

Tragically nothing quite screams ‘2008’ like a Katy Perry barbie doll calling a straight man ‘gay’ on a website called FaceSpace
(Image via YouTube)

The concept of the song is that Katy Berry is insulting a straight boy she used to love by calling him “gay”. The chorus goes, “You’re so gay, and you don’t even like boys.” Katy lists a load of things that are apparently “gay”, including shopping at H&M, wearing too much suncream, and spending more time on MySpace than with her (I kid you not). This track should really stay hidden in 2008.

1. Dark Horse ft. Juicy J

Dark Horse was the most watched music video in 2014, which reflects pretty badly on 2014.

The rap by Juicy J includes a lyric that has aged atrociously. He sings, “She eat your heart out like Jeffrey Dahmer.” Yikes.

Who came up with this concept and were they okay?
(Image via YouTube)

The music video has aged even worse. The video is set in “Memphis, Egypt, a crazy long time ago…”. Katy Perry plays a kind of pole-dancing Cleopatra tyrant. People dressed as Egyptian gods wiggle around her. Yikes. The video even had to be re-edited because there was so much backlash to Katy Perry killing a suitor who wore an Allah pendant. Dark Horse is definitely the Katy Perry song that’s aged the worst. I condemn it to be zapped by my divine sparkly lightning into a pile of dust.

Feature image via YouTube

Related articles recommended by this author:

• Let’s unpack Katy Perry’s most baffling and deranged moments of all time
• Orlando Bloom caught looking *very* awkward while Katy Perry danced erotically at the VMAs
• Um, people think Jack Antonoff put AirPods in during Katy Perry’s VMAs performance?

Feature image credit: YouTube, and the police