9781422286616

Intro

Katy Perry arrived on the pop scene in 2008 when it was very much in need of a wake-up call. Five short years later she is a certified megastar and is being talked of as the new Madonna, a girl who has the entertainment world firmly at her feet. But Katy is very much in touch with the internet generation, using social media to keep close to her fans. The past few years have brought many triumphs with eight Grammy nominations, a smash hit movie, and two platinum albums, not to mention hit singles, but also personal anguish. Her marriage to British actor Russell Brand hit the rocks within months, leading to a great deal of less-than-welcome media coverage. There’s no doubt Katy’s religious upbringing helped her keep her feet firmly planted on the ground. Katy Perry is the only artist to spend over 52 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the Hot 100 and was named 2012 Woman of the Year by music- business magazine Billboard . The big question is whether she can, like Madonna, reinvent herself periodically and sustain a lifetime career. Can she become a brand (with no capital B), write songs for others, and take her own music in an evermore-fascinating direction? In short, will this Teenage Dream who became a California Gurl grow up and take her fans with her for the ride? This fact-packed publication charts Katy’s past, investigates her present, and speculates on her equally fascinating future.

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