Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 2010: Katy Perry
(In 2018, the Billboard staff released a list project of its choices for the Greatest Pop Star of every year, going back to 1981. Read our entry below on why Katy Perry was our Greatest Pop Star of 2010 — with our ’10 Honorable Mention runner-ups, Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year pop stars at the bottom — and find the rest of our picks for every year up to present day here.)
You could be forgiven for not really knowing what to make of Katy Perry as a pop star at the turn of the ‘10s. A re-branded, re-christened Christian rocker now appearing as a Warped Tour rascal and top 40 party-crasher, Perry’s off-kilter presence in the late-’00s mainstream was a confusing one. Her cartoonish charisma was obvious, and her barnstorming hooks refused to take no for an answer. But the occasional sourness to even the most winning hit singles off 2008’s One of the Boys — touristic dips into bisexuality on the Hot 100-topping “I Kissed a Girl,” lyrics like “You P.M.S. like a bitch” on No. 3-peaking followup “Hot ‘n’ Cold” — resulted in their radio dominance leaving an unpleasant aftertaste.
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But that bitterness was nowhere to be found within the candyland fantasia that was Perry’s Teenage Dream era. She returned on a cloud in April 2010 via the music video for “California Gurls,” a spiritual Beach Boys update that thumbed its nose at the implied East Coast supremacy of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” the previous year. With the help of a five-star chorus, a guest blessing from West Coast guardian angel Snoop Dogg, and the enduring video image of Perry shooting whipped cream from her rocket-strapped breasts, the song landed as an instant pop landmark — naughty enough to avoid total bubblegum, but sweet enough to not risk aging into vinegar. It topped the Hot 100 for six weeks in June and July.
“Teenage Dream,” the title track and second single released from her then-still-upcoming new album, was even better — a young-love anthem of Britney Spears-like efficiency and Springsteenian urgency that followed “Gurls” to No. 1 in September. The former comparison point was hardly incidental: Katy was now primarily working with writer/producers Max Martin and Dr. Luke, the super-duo whose combined work with Britney, Kelly Clarkson, P!nk and Miley Cyrus had essentially set the default turbo-pop sound of top 40 at the end of the ‘00s. In Perry, they found their perfect conduit, an artist whose outsized personality and total commitment to the bit properly sold both their larger-than-life toplines and oft-preposterous, first-feeling-best-feeling lyrics.
But Perry wasn’t totally reliant on them, either, as proven by the set’s third single “Firework,” released in October. The everyone-is-beautiful dancefloor anthem, co-helmed by Norwegian writer/producer duo Stargate, was Perry’s most earnest and widely embraced hit to date — even as its video, an eventual video of the year VMA winner, also featured the titular item again being shot out of her chest. The song became her third Teenage Dream No. 1 in December, and before 2011 was over, the album would spawn two more Hot 100-toppers — just the second LP in Billboard history to spawn five No. 1 hits, matching the record set by Michael Jackson’s Bad nearly a quarter-century earlier.
You didn’t need the Billboard record books to tell you that Katy Perry was the defining pop star of the turn of the ‘10s, though. While a year earlier, Lady Gaga personified the genre at its edgiest and most guttural, one watch of “California Gurls” could tell you that Perry was clearly the genre’s future at its frothiest and most accessible: pop as sweet science, rather than boundary-pushing art.
Even if Teenage Dream wasn’t as progressive as The Fame Monster, it quickly proved just as iconic, and this era of Perry’s remains one that inspires as much top 40 listener nostalgia as any: Whenever a fan bemoans the lack of “real pop music” on the radio, it’s the era of Perry’s takeover they’re most likely wistful for — the last time pop’s center was almost exclusively dictated by what was unavoidable on the FM dial.
Honorable Mention: Lady Gaga (“Telephone,” “Alejandro,” “Speechless” Grammys performance with Elton John), Ke$ha (Animal/Cannibal, “Your Love Is My Drug,” “We R Who We R”), Justin Bieber (My World 2.0, “Baby,” “Never Say Never”)
Rookie of the Year: Nicki Minaj
“$50K for a verse, no album out,” Nicki Minaj unforgettably flexed on Kanye West’s “Monster” single, flaunting her Next Big Thing status before even releasing her official debut LP. In fact, Kanye got a bargain: mixtape star Minaj’s scene-swallowing cameos in 2010 were of incalculable value, minting hits by Trey Songz, Sean Kingston and even Usher as must-hear material, and turning Young Money’s “Bedrock” from a cutesy intro-credits crew cut to one of the year’s defining smashes. By 2010’s end, the album was out, and debut LP Pink Friday saw Nicki high-fiving Rihanna, out-dueling Eminem and stealing Drake’s heart — confirming that she wasn’t going to be settling for best supporting actress trophies in the decade to come.
Comeback of the Year: Sade
It was truly the wild, wild west in 2010 pop music, a scene absolutely littered with monolithic (and mononymic) pop stars: Katy, Taylor, Gaga, Britney, Rihanna, Kesha. Yet selling about as well as any of them was a one-named icon who’d scored classic hits before most of ‘em were even born: Sade. Her eponymous band returned at the beginning of the decade with Soldier of Love, a modest masterwork of adult cool that moved 500k first week, and whose unassailable title track became the group’s biggest chart hit in 18 years. “When the time comes, I don’t test the waters,” Ms. Adu proclaimed in a 2011 Billboard cover story, as she prepared for the ensuing world tour. “I just jump straight in.”
(Read on to our Greatest Pop Star of 2011 here, or head back to the full list here.)
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