Popular Songs That Have Aged Poorly

April 2024 · 2 minute read

You might not want to admit it, but when you first heard Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl (And I Liked It)," you probably had it in your head for weeks, if not months. The song is an undeniable earworm, while its risque lyrics — delivery by a hot new artist who claimed to have come from a devout Christian household – caused a wave of consternation among certain commentators, boosting Perry's profile in the process.

"I Kissed A Girl" wasn't the former Christian rock artist's first brush with controversy. The previous year, Perry released the EP "Ur So Gay," the title track of which berates a male (presumably former) love interest, with the narrator stating: "I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf, while jacking off listening to Mozart." The refrain claims: "You're so gay and you don't even like boys." The song also criticizes the man it addresses for being too skinny, for being sad, and for wearing makeup.

Though the song is arguably meant to be tongue-in-cheek, it was criticized at the time for being potentially homophobic, and it is unlikely that using the word "gay" as an insult toward a straight man would be acceptable in a pop song today. Nevertheless, as recently as 2018, "Ur So Gay" was defended by co-writer Greg Wells, who claimed in an interview with Billboard: "a lot of people didn't get the intent with which we wrote it."

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