Why did Witness fail?

Raunaq Nambiar
Sep 8, 2018 · 7 min read

“We’re all just looking for a connection”

- Witness, Witness

Katy Perry has been a powerhouse in the pop world ever since she released her controversial hit I Kissed A Girl in 2008.

Since then, she would go on to release 3 more number one albums and collect a plethora of awards. With her second album Teenage Dream, she became the first woman and second musician ever (after Michael Jackson) to score a whopping 5 number 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. With Prism, she became the first person to have multiple music videos with more than a billion views. These were the videos for her number one hits Roar and Dark Horse. She would also embark on one of the most successful tours by female artist and would also perform at the Super Bowl.

However, when she released Witness in 2017, something didn’t feel right. This wasn’t the same Katy that sang Last Friday Night. This wasn’t the same Katy that made fun music. It felt out of place. It was made by Katy Perry, but it didn’t sound or feel like Katy Perry, and that was a problem.


Witness, Katy’s fourth studio album, was released in the latter half of 2017. This was her first album in 4 years and was supposed to be a major comeback for her.

It didn’t.

There are many reasons why Witness failed to match the success of her previous albums, but the biggest by far, is branding.


From the very beginning, the ‘Katy Perry’ brand has always been one of fun, parties and love. Her music was known to have catchy hooks and relatable, albeit generic, lyrics. She was the Buzzfeed of the music world. She wasn’t known for being innovative, but she had cracked the hot 100 code.

While the occasional motivtional bop or the faux deep ballad were there, no one listened to Katy Perry for hope. They looked at her when they wanted to have fun. They tuned to listen to her when they just wanted to escape from the tribulations of reality for a few minutes and feel free.

2016 and 2017, however, upturned the industry in a matter of months.

First, the presidential election begins to pick up steam, as singers and celebrities alike begin to make their sides clear. As was made evident by their multiple meetings and their public exchange of praises, Katy Perry was a strong and vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton. Second, the infamous exposé of Harvey Weinstein triggered the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, which made sexual assault a prominent part of the media and of celebrity culture. Third, Kesha and Dr. Luke get embroiled in a massive sexual assault case. Given that Perry has worked multiple times with the producer, the overall mood of the Katy Perry brand began changing, and she knew this.

Perry now had a chance to transition from a teen idol, to a mature artist. She had the circumstances to fuel her content, she had the reputation to pull off the change, and she had her fans, who would support her through thick and thin. A transition from shallow to deep music would’ve elevated her brand considerably. But, she couldn’t pull it off.

A still from Perry’s music video for ‘Chained To The Rhythm’

Chained To The Rhythm was the lead single off Witness. Released in February of last year, the song held great potential as a game changer for Perry, who could showcase a much more mature side to her usual party girl/relationship image.

While lack lustre in it’s overall musical composition, the hard hitting lyrics made up for it, and it subsequently debuted within the top 5 of the hot 100 chart. With this, many, more politically active, listeners were anticipating a politically charged album. However, many members of her pre-existing fanbase weren’t very receptive to the new look and feel, many of whom called out Perry for what seemed like ‘fake wokeness’. They felt left out of her sphere. Even visually, many yearned for Perry’s brunette, more casual aesthetics compared to her new, short and blonde look. As a result. Chained To The Rhythm was the first time that a lead single from Perry’s album didn’t top the hot 100. The song would subsequently drop off the chart three months later.

Bon appétit was released as the second single off Witness. As an incoherent smush of questionable ‘Dance-Pop’ beats and overly sexualized lyrics, the song went against everything the album was made to be. Rather than addressing more pressing matters, as she herself said when she called her upcoming record ‘purposeful pop’, the song is another generic sex banger with sexually objectifying lyrics about the female body. The Migos feature didn’t really help the song much, and within 6 weeks, the song dropped off the chart without ever cracking the top 40. This was a new low for a single by Perry.

Swish Swish was released as the third, and essentially, the final single for the album. The song contains lyrics the Perry says are aimed towards bullies. However, magazines and fans alike were quick to draw comparisons between the songs questionable lyrics to Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, which Taylor said was “about a female artist who tried to hijack her arena tour”. This “artist” is all but confirmed to be Perry. Given that Perry has mentioned that there has been some iciness between the two, its inevitable to conclude that Swish Swish had ulterior motives. Don’t get me wrong, the song is quite good. Nicki’s verse is one of the highlights of the entire album and brightens up the song, but once again, we have deviated from the theme that Perry originally claimed the album revolved around. After a few weeks, the song disappeared off the chart.

Over the weekend, I took a listen at the album itself. With my earphones, I listened to all 15 tracks on the standard version of the album. I ignored all the reviews floating across the internet. I ignored all the haters. I listened to it, obejectiveley, from start to end.

After I was done, I was just left with this feeling of confusion. I couldn’t understand the purpose of this album. It seemed more like a chaotic playlist. We start of with songs like Witness (my personal favorite) and Hey Hey Hey, which seems to kinda reflect on Perry’s ‘purposeful pop’ schtick and does touch upon some important topics. However, after Roulette, which seems to be nothing more than a generic filler love song, we arrive at Swish Swish, a song that promotes this anger-hatred emotion towards ‘bullies’, assuming this isn’t a petty diss track towards Swift. Deja Vu and Mind Maze, fillers. We come to Miss You More, which is quite a vulnerable and emotional track, but again, not on theme. After Chained we reach songs like Tsunami and Bon Apetite, which are nothing more than generic, sex bangers that are mass produced for pop radio. Then we reach what I think is the best part of the album. Bigger Than Me and Save As Draft are beautifully worded songs that unfortunately get dumped at the end of the album, with more importance having being given to shallow, more superficial tracks.

Interestingly, Lana Del Rey was another female artist who released a politically charged record in 2017 as well. Like Katy’s, this was quite a deviation from her usual style, which revolved around the 1950s, heartbreak, romance and fame. However, she still stuck to her style. No visual changes, no major appearances with politicians, no musical change. It was still very evident from start to end that this was a true-to-form Lana Del Rey record. This is why she successfully added politics into her music, and her album, Lust For Life, was subsequently nominated for a Grammy.

It’s pretty evident what’s gone wrong here.

We started the era with a questionable style change. This was then followed up by a complete and questionable musical overhaul following a faux-deep rebranding initiative to showcase Perry as ‘woke’, which left many fans isolated and at odds with Perry. This is then followed by an incoherently produced mess of an album which completely contradicted everything Perry said the album stood for. She called it ‘purposeful pop’ and the second single of the album is a materialistic sex song. She then promotes the singles on SNL with a bizzare performance that produced more memes than the actual respect for the album. And finally, she closes the era with no further promoted singles and places any track with remote substance in the latter end of the album, ensuring that people who chose to listen to the record will be more keen for the last song to play rather than attempting to understand the context and meaning behind the songs.


Don’t get me wrong. Katy Perry is an incredible artist. She’s the same person who topped the Billboard Hot 100 nine times. But, at the end of the day, she’s an artist, and has an obligation to put out good and meanigful bodies of music. If she doesn’t do that, she won’t be rewarded.


“So comfortable we cannot see the trouble”

- Chained To The Rhythm

Raunaq Nambiar

Written by

Just an eighteen year old with a laptop and a few opinions

The Music Cove

This is a publication that is dedicated to analyzing and looking into the meaning and significance of pop music, whether it be recent of yesteryears. Do let me know on your opinions on the content up here! I’m also on twitter — @themusiccove1.

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