New Good Song: Wide Awake by Katy Perry

Here's a new good song -- "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry

How I found this song -- Most new good songs require effort to find; that's a main purpose and theme of this blog. But it's worth noting that not every new good song is hiding. Sometimes one gets pushed to you, like in the olden days before the Internet. "Wide Awake" will make its way to your radar through one channel or another. In my case, I first found it on Wikipedia, looking at Katy Perry's discography.

That this is the case suggests I am a fan, but as I've mentioned, I'm not really a "fan" of anyone per se. I'm song loyal. And I truly believe that through all the fashion, gossip and nonsense people discuss when they talk about artists, music careers are built on good songs. Yes, Madonna had innovative and provocative videos and built a captivating persona, but she also released good song after good song after good song. She would not be famous had she, in the early '80s, released awful songs like "4 Minutes" (named such, I believe, because that is how long it took to write the melody, then make a sandwich). And she is no longer as popular in part because nothing she has released in the past 10 years has been as good as "Don't Tell Me" in 2001. However, sometimes the audience will miss out on a good song because they have tired of an artist. For example, one of Janet Jackson's best songs (and possibly videos) ever was "Feedback" in 2008, but many people missed or ignored this good song when it was new because, perhaps, people had had their fill of Janet Jackson. Mariah Carey has enjoyed a little more consistent success than her contemporaries, but has also suffered from this phenomenon of having her new good songs ignored. She released, for example, a new good song in 2010 called "Up Out My Face," but it stalled on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart at No. 100. And one of her best songs is 2002's "Through The Rain," ignored in the wake of the harshly reviewed "Glitter."

The point is that you can miss some new good songs if you aren't willing to keep an open mind to popular (or previously popular) artists. They can have the very best new good songs. After all, they certainly have access to the best songwriters and producers. Similarly, don't tune out Katy Perry just because she's popular. I'm not a "fan" -- I'm not going to see her movie -- but this young woman has new good songs. "Teenage Dream," for example, is one of the best new good songs of the past few years.

What makes this song good? "Wide Awake," like "E.T.," uses synths, arrangements and production to create an atmosphere that fits and supports the melody and lyrics, a technique actively violated by, say, Rihanna, Britney Spears and David Guetta.* "Wide Awake" gets a little repetitive, since it's the same four chords over and over. But the melody holds enough interest to compensate, with a beautiful verse line closure ("so wrong" at 00:24 and "so long" at 00:36) and chorus lyrics that put a fresh twist on its cliches. And "Wide Awake" has a key ingredient to goodness that "E.T." lacks -- the absence of Kanye West.

*While one shouldn't discount an artist like Katy Perry just because she's famous, so too shouldn't one discount any artist whose body of work is mostly bad. For example, Coldplay's output of songs is a relentless embarrassment, but, lo and behold, "Paradise" has proved to be one of the best new good songs of 2012. Similarly, Rihanna will occasionally win with songs such as "Umbrella," and even the recent "We Found Love." Britney Spears has released nothing good since 2004, but surely the woman who brought us "Toxic" and "Everytime" is capable of goodness again. I'm still waiting on David Guetta.