Katy Perry

What I like about Katy Perry is her theatricality.  Admittedly, I’m someone who misses the days when a performance on the Video Music Awards meant something like Madonna doing “Vogue” in corsets and wigs.  Lately, theatricality in pop music has transformed into shock value, which can certainly have creative merit, but which usually just involves really revealing outfits and some sort of ill-conceived religious imagery.

Katy Perry always keeps things relatively PG-13, colorful, and entertaining.  She seems to know her shortcomings as a singer, and makes up for them with showmanship, which is nothing new—in fact, a lot of really awesome performers have taken that approach over the years.

When I saw Madonna in concert, the show finished—a show that featured upside down marching bands and five-minute fight sequences—and I thought, Well, I sure as hell got my money’s worth.  That was how I felt after watching the halftime show tonight.  Yes, there might be things you could pick on, but for the most part, I feel like we got our money’s worth.  I mean, giant roaring puppets can’t come cheap.