Style Maven: Ke$ha and Katy Perry

 

 

This being the end of the year also marks a year worth of blogging for me. This month has been about "Designing Yourself", and to represent this theme as this month's Style Maven, I choose not one, but two girls who "stuck" in the entertainment industry because they willed it into being. Ke$ha and Katy Perry are the two girls who came on the scene with that "stick-appeal". In my fashion, one has "stick-appeal" when you see that someone, and you know you won't forget that you seen them. In our minds, their image implies that they are worthwhile, and you are inclined to learn more about them. You remember that person later when they aren't even around. When these two girls introduced themselves to the world, they had a stick-appeal that I could feel would be around for a substantial amount of time. Katy Perry first came out with "I Kissed a Girl" in 2008, and Kesha came out with "Tik Tok" in 2009. Who knew that now, going into 2013, Kesha has eight top-ten hits, and Katy Perry's “Teenage Dream” album is the second after Michael Jackson to have five songs from a single album make it to number one. In my fashion, the main reason they have stick appeal is because of their value system they have developed for themselves. This month I had offered the "10 Rules to Live By" for each of the 16 personality types described on PersonalityPage.com which offered some good tips on how to live with our personality and interact with others. I wanted to share them because I feel that information to know is a good basis for anyone to gain a greater sense of self as to understand how to refine one's style further, especially with us going into a new year. Kesha and Katy Perry have stick appeal because when they make a move in life, they refuse to stray from the core values they have developed for themselves by learning, and paying attention to their experiences. It reminds me of the quote by the ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tse: "Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become... habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny!" 

Style Watch: Katy Perry

In my fashion, Katy Perry sure did put on a show for us with her sophomore album, “Teenage Dream”. It feels so long ago, but I still remember back in 2010 when the album first came out, and Dwight and I rushed, in between classes, to buy the album for we knew based on her 1^st salacious video, California Girls with Snoop Dogg, she had a well-thought out game plan with such a simple but enchanting album concept. I had deemed “Circle the Drain” one of my favorite songs, off bat, as we blasted the songs in our car on our way back to campus. Since then, Katy Perry has taken us on a whirlwind of modern teenage fantasies that really spoke to all, and I mean all, perspectives of, well—teenager’s dreams. I think the real shock effect is that I don’t think anyone was prepared for such a fluid and cohesive concept to come from cutesy, Katy Perry, and for such a long period of time going strong as a dominant entertainment figure. Katy did a really good job of keeping herself in line with her fantasy even apart from being on stage and in videos. Off the screen she was still making playful splashes in the public wearing darling and whimsical looks that gave her a sort of fluttery appeal as she casually made appearances like when we seen her at this past Fall 2012 Paris Fashion Week as the talk of the town in her edgy blue hair cut, not to mention her variety in red carpet costume throughout the past two years (she even married and divorced within in the “Teenage Dream” time period for goodness sake).  Now she has a 3D movie entitled, Katy Perry: Part of Me, to be released July 5, which aims to expose her journey during, “Teenage Dream”, and in my fashion, she did very well at creating an aura of true fantasy by creating her image in that of a literal modern fairy tale. She has really embodied the meaning of living out loud, and is exactly what I mean by getting out, moving, and experiencing life as you see it! This video for her song, “Wide Awake”, would be a perfect ending to her reign in entertainment for the “Teenage Dream” era, and hopefully this will parlay quite nicely into her next chapter.