The queen of 2010s pop-music Katy Perry has made her long-awaited return to music with her new single “Woman’s World”. But, even with a big-budget music video with celebrity cameos and chaos-a-plenty, fans and critics are both saying the artist has seriously failed to hit the mark this time.
After generating hype around the track for the last month, Perry’s newest song “Woman’s World” and accompanying music video were released on July 11.
The music video was supposed to be a moment of rebirth for the “Teenage Dream” singer, to show how she wasn’t just that superstar from the decade past, but a relevant cultural icon who still churns out hits.
Yet despite promising to be a new beginning, “Woman’s World” featured all the stereotypes of an old Katy Perry music video, like bonkers skimpy outfits — leaving fans and critics feeling the track was more of a step back than the next feminist anthem.
Critics slam Katy Perry’s new song
Leading the charge in the onslaught of negative reviews, Laura Snapes from The Guardian slammed “Woman’s World” as a “dated attempt at writing a feminist anthem”.
“It’s a song that made me feel stupider every sorry time I listened to it,” wrote Snapes, who gave the song a one-star review.
Just heard Woman’s world on the radio & gosh the tears in my eyes. The lyrics, the beat, the delivery, the rhythm, the sound, the production, the flow…everything was garbage from beginning to end. Definitely the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my life. https://t.co/CNq4vsBNpi
— DO☈ITO❦ (@popwarning) July 12, 2024
Snapes also compared Perry’s failed attempt to have modern appeal to current pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, and your favourite artist’s favourite artist, Chappell Roan.
“Roan – along with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx – is modelling how to be a pop star in 2024,” she wrote.
“They’re inventive, self-aware, silly, deep — some of the qualities Perry had at the peak of her promise but seems to have lost forever.”
This feels so outdated. Its a woman’s world but everything is made to appeal to the male gaze. This is a song that would have been insanely popular 10 years ago but feels stale and unoriginal today. https://t.co/CX9PZhhH4W
— Elly (@ellyssmile) July 10, 2024
Alim Kheraj‘s brutal review of the song for Dazed called out how Perry’s new era, actually harkened back to “the epitome of 2010s girlboss feminism”, and felt like it was soullessly designed to pander to LGBTQIA audiences.
“’Woman’s World’ sounds like it was designed by a committee in a boardroom at Capitol Records whose sole objective was a sync on RuPaul’s Drag Race and generating comments of ‘you ate’ from white gays living in West Hollywood,” Kheraj wrote.
putting two gay men instead of two lesbian women in a music video for a song titled woman’s world is a choice https://t.co/ylQWpoTmlb
— hanni (@SWIFTVRSE) July 12, 2024
This sounds like a Ru Paul drag race song and it’s not a compliment.
— LeoGoneSavage (@LeoGoneSavage) July 12, 2024
Shaad D’Souza for Pitchfork called the song a “monumental catastrophe” for trying to deliver a message about female empowerment, while also having certain people work behind the scenes.
“Even if ‘Woman’s World’ didn’t sound like its author had to have feminism explained to her by the top half of the first page of Google, its message of empowerment would have rang false, simply because it was co-written and co-produced by Dr. Luke,” the review stated.
It has nothing to do with empowering women.
— @RoseInWanderland (@RoseInWanderla1) July 12, 2024
Katy Perry’s longstanding music producer Dr Luke, whose real name is Łukasz Gottwald, has been accused of sexual assault and emotional abuse by Kesha in 2014. Dr Luke denied these accusations and the lawsuit was dismissed.
D’Souza pointed out that there is massive dissonance in Perry’s choice to create a women’s empowerment song with such a controversial producer.
“If Perry was willing to cop the built-in bad press of making a song about women’s lib with an alleged abuser, shouldn’t the song at least be a banger? Instead, it’s unfathomably tepid, irritating at best,” wrote D’Souza.
I can’t help but smile at what we’re witnessing.
— Mr. Pop (@MrPopOfficial) July 12, 2024
Despite crawling back to Dr. Luke in an effort to get a hit following his recent success, Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World” has failed to enter the Top 200 chart on U.S. Apple Music in its first 24 hours.
pic.twitter.com/GFrrTLFuEm
These are just some highlights from what has been a bombardment of negative reviews from critics who aren’t impressed by “Woman’s World”.
Unfortunately for Perry, the response from punters and fans was not any better.
Fans roast “Woman’s World” music video
Though the music video for “Woman’s World” amassed 4 million views in just 12 hours on YouTube, the comments on the video leave the impression that there’s a lot of hate-watching happening here.
“Why does this music video feel like an AI-generated fever dream??” wrote one person.
“This is what a feminist video clip would look like if made by a guy,” another slammed.
just listened to woman’s world pic.twitter.com/tOxvW3v0OJ
— ori (@ori555_) July 12, 2024
But it’s not just YouTube. The comments on Katy Perry’s social media have also dragged the star and her new song produced by a problematic man.
“A woman’s empowerment song produced by Dr. Luke. Call Alanis Morissette because this shit ironic,” one Instagram user commented.
“So, so disappointing. In every way imaginable,” wrote another.
Others denounced Perry’s entire upcoming album, 143, due to its affiliation with Dr Luke, and declared a boycott on the song.
Meanwhile, countless others are calling the song a piece of satire — but whether that’s intentional or not is still up in the air.
For a full breakdown of why Katy Perry’s new era is being dragged to hell and back, read here!
[Image: Katy Perry/YouTube]
