Katy Perry: Background information and interpretation of her song “Wide Awake”

She has really surprised me with some of her new songs and her complex (and probably intelligent) personality, but I still know little about her since I`ve had little time to read about her. I would love to learn more if anyone wants to share more information. Btw: Revelations and insight feel like this for me.

Thinking of You (Katy Perry song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The following post will begin with some short background information, before I delve into some of her romantic relationships (which often are many and troubled for people who`s been vulnerable when they grew up. Either because of being sensitive or because of trauma or neglect). This does not mean that it always will be a pattern like that, or that every person with problems had the same past). 

After reading about her earlier relationships, you will read a well-written and interesting interpretation of her song “Wide awake” that I found on the internet. I will end the post with the music video that belongs to the song.

Short background about her childhood and career:

“I didn’t have a childhood,” Perry told Vanity Fair in an interview for its June edition. “I come from a very non-accepting family, but I’m very accepting.” She was the child of evangelical minister parents, who allowed her to read only the Bible and even banned terms like “deviled eggs.”

“Sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up,” she said. “Mine grew up with me. We coexist. I don’t try to change them anymore, and I don’t think they try to change me. We agree to disagree. August 24 Her Dream Comes True. “They’re excited about my success” she says.

 NEW YORK (Reuters)

Lately, the singer tops the Billboard 200 albums chart that earns her four Grammy nominations, including the coveted album of the year award.

It did also earns a 2011 Grammy nomination for record of the year for her inspirational hit “Firework”.

Her relationships: overview

 

Perry begins dating Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy. “She’s super hot,” he tells PEOPLE of falling for his Warped tourmate. After a year of dating and even exchanging promise rings, they call it quits. “It hurts right now,” Perry says during a concert after the split. “When you breakup with someone you move on. You don’t really want to move on…but you have to because they don’t give you any choice.”  After that she was is linked to musicians Benji Madden and Josh Groban. (September)

Katy Kisses Russell

After joking about having a crush on her at the VMAs, British comedian Russell Brand and Perry take their new romance public. Three months later, Brand orchestrates a special New

 Year surprise in India, where he asks Perry to marry him with a ring hidden in flowers. Perry and Brand tie the knot in

a “very private and spiritual ceremony” held at a resort in India, the

newlyweds announce in a statement. “Love between two people is the most

spectacular yet ordinary thing in the world,” the groom said in

the days leading up to the nuptials. “We’ll get married in front of our

friends and family… and keep it sort of normal.” The arrangement,

that lasted several days, treated guests to safaris, song and dance numbers and several parties (2010)

Sadly 16 months after the marriage, they got divorced.

the divorced coupleA mere 16 months after exchanging vows in India, they got divorced

A New Romance

Perry gets the rumor mills buzzing when she’s photographed leaving L.A.’s Chateau Marmont with singer John Mayer. Though the pair’s romance seems to cool off shortly after, they reunite and later spend the holidays together. “They’ve spent a lot of time together and really enjoy each other’s company,” a source says. “John is entirely focused on Katy” (2013).

No More Mayer?

For the second time, Perry and Mayer split, only a month after the “Your Body Is a Wonderland” Crooner describes their relationship to CBS Sunday Morning as “something that’s very human.” But by July 4, the on-again, off-again pair appears to reconcile once more, with Perry sharing an affectionate photo of the two over Instagram.

                                            …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

More information about the artist:

She was brought up in a very christian family, and am today “open for the possiblities” when it comes to religion. She is an explorer, and have always asked the question“Why” and not taken any “facts” for g

ranted.

She wants to be a private person. Perry for example said she and Brand turned down millions of dollars for their wedding pictures because “we wanted the moment to ourselves.”She also hopes that

her music remains the focus of fans, rather than her appearance or her personal life. 

The next part will focus on trying to figure out what the video and lyrics in the song “wide awake” means. I find it interesting that this post reminds me a lot about dissociation and how one should treat it (What are dissociative disorders?).

How her song “wide awake” relates to the background information

Katy Perry’s “Wide Awake” 

As Katy enters the dark labyrinth, she is lured to a lusciously red strawberry amongst the grim atmosphere. The strawberry acting as a metaphor of her sweet fame, she is as I said,

lured between the walls that close in on her. As they close, Katy sings about her “falling from cloud nine” yet pushes the walls away with a powerful light. We watch as Katy proves to us that nothing keeps her down and cornered. Soon after escaping the closing walls, Katy releases a flare from her

breast, a symbolic beacon of “help” (Also reminiscent of the pyrotechnics used in Firework). She

is then met by a child who is an artistic portrayal of her own, younger innocence. (We see later that the little girl gets on a bike labeled “KATHERYN”) The light surrounding the child and the dust flowing upward in comparison to the dark, downward-flowing dust around Katy shows us in how high of a regard she looks on her past. Katy and her younger self travel down a hallway, toward a mirror. In the mirror, Katy sees the paparazzi crowding and photographing her. The child-Katy whom she is holding hands with is not in the mirror, leaving Katy alone against the hoard of media. As we catch a glimpse of the horrid faced media Katy struggles desperately to break through the mirror, leaving it in pieces.

Katy’s struggle leaves her impaired in a wheelchair, being pushed by child-Katy. Her difficulties in life obviously wore her down and left her feeling vulnerable. While trying to pass through a hospital-like passage, the two are blocked by cow-skulled, hospital uniformed men. Child-Katy steps forward while our Katy is weak, casting the “evil” or “bad” men away. This is Katy breaking through her mentally hard times, holding onto her innocence and purity.

After taking Child-Katy’s hand once more, (literally holding on to herself and her innocence) they find themselves out of the labyrinth. The wander into a lush, green bushed area, lathered with flowers of all colors and a handsome young man on a white Unicorn. The man steps down and Katy looks ecstatic to see him until he crosses his fingers behind

his back. Katy then reacts by knocking him sideways with a beautiful punch to his cheek. We witnessed Katy’s refusal to let the men of her past, beautiful but cruel and double-crossing men, to bring her down.

The video itself takes place during the time of Katy Perry’s “Hot and Cold” and “California Girls” release, depicting that Katy was having inner self and life problems even during her rapidly rising fame. After watching her child-self ride away, Katy knows

that while she may feel alone, she is strong and pure. She isn’t in her dreams or nightmares’ anymore… She said it herself; she is “Wide Awake”.

 

Related

Bareilles: Happy with success after Perry chatter

Malcolm Gladwell:

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

Katy Perry’s Latest Single Is Like Nothing She’s Done Before (socialitelife.com)

More information relating to this post:

• Katy Perry Ends Robin Thicke’s Summer Run At Number One In U.s. (contactmusic.com)
• Katy Perry “Outs” Rihanna (ksfm.cbslocal.com)
• New Track: Katy Perry ft. Juicy J – ‘Dark Horse’ (rawmusicent.com)
• • Examples on dissociation and more information (forfreepsychology.wordpress.com)
  • About trauma. Risk factors (forfreepsychology.wordpress.com)
  • Dissociative Identity Disorder (michaelswingman.wordpress.com
  • Pulling Myselves Together (itsmindbloggleing.wordpress.com)
  • Resource: Myths of Dissociative Identity Disorder (mm172001.wordpress.com
    • Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder… (michaelswingman.wordpress.com)
    • what is dissociation? (forfreepsychology.wordpress.com)
    • People with dissociative disorder:….time is distorted? (ptsdawayout.com)