As I mentioned a few months ago, I really came around on Katy Perry this year. Back in January, she chose to endorse Hillary Clinton, and Katy has been a high-profile I’m-With-Her pop star supporter at rallies and at the DNC. Most pop stars of Katy’s stature would not have risked alienating their fanbase for an entire year (perhaps longer), but Katy doesn’t care. She’s #WithHer. And I respect that. Katy isn’t getting into Twitter wars with Trump supporters, she’s not giving interviews about foreign policy, she’s just telling her fanbase – younger people, for the most part – to get out and vote. Anyway, Katy has a great new interview with WWD about politics, fashion, her support of Hillary Clinton and more. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
On business: “I’m super-collaborative in a lot of ways. I obviously have final say on everything and sometimes I’m wrong. I would say I’m right seven times out of 10. Three times out of 10 I make mistakes but I learn from them — but I’m not a monster. I take it in… And I’m always going to place people around me who are smarter than I am in that capacity. We all have a conversation and best shoe wins, just like best song wins.”
On politics: “Listen, I think that we are all ready for some radical change. I think that nothing is perfect, but we are all ready for transparency, radical change and empowering each other and individuality and coming together. I am definitely looking forward to that. I just shot the Rock the Vote campaign commercial, which is a bipartisan campaign. The younger people sometimes don’t feel like their vote matters. They think it’s all rigged, but it’s not true — you have to physically go out and vote. Not everything is perfect and there should be definite updates on how we vote and the whole system in general. I appreciate the conversation that Bernie [Sanders] brought to the table. In some crazy ways I appreciate…I wouldn’t say appreciate…I see the validity of all extremes and conversations because they are making things progressive and they are making things more clear. So it doesn’t feel like history is repeating itself. It doesn’t feel so ‘political.’ It’s not mundane. It doesn’t feel like voices aren’t being heard, so I think we are all in for a big change. The fact of the matter is it’s the chicken or the fish. You gotta pick one if you wanna eat.”
On Santa Barbara: “I still spend a lot of time there because I grew up there. I grew up in the poorest part of Santa Barbara. People associate it with the French Riviera, almost Monte Carlo, like beautiful American rich people, and we were like super poor. Actually my boyfriend didn’t even believe me and I was, like, ‘I’m going to drive you by my house’ and you can Google Earth it. I basically had a crazy church-filled, God squad upbringing. I lived on food stamps and a food bank in Santa Barbara, which is like a crazy juxtaposition to live in beauty and still have a bit of a struggle, but that’s just because of the nature of the church.”
On driving in L.A.: “My boyfriend lives in Malibu and getting used to that [drive] was, like, ‘Are you kidding me? What kind of life is this?’ There’s no pop-over and I never really got used to Malibu ‘cause it’s halfway to Santa Barbara, so I’m always just going to Santa Barbara then. I get the whole coming to L.A. and living by the beach thing. But it’s really…it’s so far, nobody [who lives in town] is going to come see you.”
Did you ever think that Katy Perry was going to be the pragmatic voice of reason in this election cycle? No, really?? “I think that nothing is perfect” combined with “They think it’s all rigged, but it’s not true — you have to physically go out and vote.” It’s pretty perfect. She’s speaking to the millennials who go to her concerts. She saying that she loves their idealism and that of course changes to the system are desperately needed. But they all have to go out to vote. They cannot sit at home. They have to go out and make a decision. They all have to choose. And that’s a great message.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
With the US electoral college system I think the truth is that the only people whose vote matters are those living in swing states.
The electoral college system is so undemocratic. I can’t believe Americans aren’t even thinking about abolishing it.
Plenty of people have called for the electoral college to be abolished, but it’s one of our antiquated systems that our politicians don’t want to touch. It is completely undemocratic, but it was put in place by the founding fathers in an effort to prevent “mob rule” and also to reinforce the sovereignty of the states. I’m one the fence about it. For the most part, it seems like letting the people vote for the president seems most fair, but arguments in favor of the electoral college are pretty convincing. I read an article that used Alaska as an example: enormous, remote from the mainland, and with very particular interests. Without the electoral college, they would have a huge chunk of influence due to size and population, and their interests and concerns are extremely different from the rest of ours. This is where the electoral college works because it prevents a large population from ruling over the rest of us and actually does keep things more equal.
It’s great that celebrities encourage people to vote for presidential elections, but local elections are incredibly important as well. Paying attention to local school boards by reading the newspaper and getting out there and voting is what controls tax dollars. There isn’t enough emphasis on the importance of taking part in local elections. Half of the people I know (I just turned 30) have never voted in a local election or even for governor. Presidents aren’t the only politicians that matter. It’s as if they don’t understand that voting for senators is arguably more important than the president since the Senate and House of Representatives have more power than the president does anyway. I mean face it, if the senate and the house don’t like what the president is trying to do, they’ll force him or her into a lame duck presidency.
I would love if the campaign to encourage young people to vote would push for more than just presidential elections.
“Presidents aren’t the only politicians that matter. It’s as if they don’t understand that voting for senators is arguably more important than the president since the Senate and House of Representatives have more power than the president does anyway”
That is a very good point. And those elections get very little coverage and very low participation.
Presidential elections are just one big show that makes some people think they have a say, but it is the Congress and Senate that have true power.
Amazing post@Michelina
I always wondered how Russell Brand who is very politically informed would do with Katy Perry.
I really don’t get this “my vote doesn’t matter” concept. Voting in and of itself means one has decided to be part of an aggregated tally. When voting does not result in one’s desired outcome, it simply means the aggregation of votes fell in the opposition’s favor. If we’re talking about the Sanders campaign specifically, I have seen people on my FB feed get lost in the echo chamber of social media and assumed Bernie should have one by a landslide or have come closer than he did. Many of these people just forgot how many people existed outside of their social groups and off of social media.
I think some of it comes down to, “if it’s not my way and it doesn’t work immediately then clearly it’s all rigged and not worth doing”
It also suggests a mind that doesn’t really appreciate how much change had to be voted in and decided through a majority of individuals fighting for it.
I think more than anything the issue is that there is a staggering number of people who do not understand how the election system works in the first place. Many young people don’t know about the electoral college. Even some adults don’t. It can be confusing, and I think the argument can be made that it is something that should be taught in school.
I also think that the pandering that occurs in swing states leaves a lot of people feeling left out and sometimes even disgusted. Most presidential candidates will say anything to the people whose votes matter most, and in most cases that’s the swing states.
The swing state argument does make sense. At the same time, swing states have demographics and individual voters that make their politics more salient. The purpose of democratic politics is to give voice to the people, but also to make sure one is in office to influence policies based upon these voices. So if I’m a liberal candidate and I know that I have the votes for Massachusetts, then yes, I’m focusing on Ohio. Strategically it makes sense. That being said, given how ridiculously long and expensive the American election cycle is, candidates should be campaigning a little more widely.
Also, being from a swing state, the amount of pandering that goes on here is mind numbing. Most of the time I ready for the election to be over by the time the primaries are over. So others can feel free to take some. lol
I should clarify that I want people to think their vote is important, but also realize that it’s part of a bigger picture. Your vote counts, but to obtain your desired outcome, MANY people need to vote the same. Hence canvassing or getting involved in other ways.
It also has a special little flower ” I’m important look at me, my age matters the most” thinking behind it as well. Hello sweetheart not everything is about you or your age group in a country of 350+ million people.
To explain “my vote doesn’t matter” concept for me: I live in a fly-over state whose electoral votes have gone Republican every time for more than fifty years. So, if I were a Democrat, my vote won’t matter since it is highly unlikely a Democratic vote would manifest itself at the electoral level.
Good for her!
I’ve heard people say what Colin and other football players are doing is the laziest form of protest but I’ve always felt not voting is. The U.S. system accommodates and allows individuals not to vote, by not voting you’re not really protesting just joining into the mass of other individuals who don’t vote – some even because they’re actually quite content with the system and have no desire to change it.
Voting doesn’t mean you’ll always get your way and it will always be exactly how and what you want, it’s a level of pragmatism that comes with maturity, if you remove your voice from the discussion so to speak then the discussion will move on without you.
She’s right, indeed. Note aside, something I appreciate from this generation of popstars (Katy, Beyoncé, and yes, even Taylor) is the fact that, unlike it used to be, they actually have control over their careers, and realize they’re pretty much running a business. Do they make mistakes? Sure, but I’m not worried about any of them ever ending like Britney.
We all vote as a collective and no one vote doesn’t matter but collective votes do matter and count. The mass collective will decide who gets to president and that could be Trump, older people know it and vote. If millennials want to be represented as a collective than they need to vote in mass. Go ahead sit on your as* which boomers and older people want them to do. The Republicans have tried to legislate laws that can stop minorities and young people from voting in Republican controlled areas. They know it matters if enough of them show up.
The following applies to most Western countries except perhaps Scandinavia, Austria, Switzerland … but it applies to the majority of people living in so-called Western countries.
Well, after so many elections politics seems to be getting worse. The rich and the super-rich gain more and more influence by “virtue” of their money and by virtue of owning the media. The taxpayer had to cough up a sh**load of money to save banks which got into trouble because of the greed of some investment bankers and the relaxed finance laws. However nobody went to jail. Whatever?
Meanwhile student loans keep growing and minimum wages and wages generally keep sinking (compared to inflation and price hikes anyway). At the same time living costs – especially rent – keeps growing quickly. Employment laws favour the employers over the employees who can barely get some unterminated contract. Employees don’t know if they will still be working in the same place in a few weeks or monthes which makes long-term planning like family, house building and such more difficult.
At the same time industrial production keeps getting outsourced either to cheaper contractors who are cheaper because they exploit their employees much more than before or it gets “outsourced” into some less developed country with even less employment rights and even less environmental protection laws. The latter leads to the pollution of air and water and soil and the first two of that actually end up in our countries and on our tables and in our clothes as well.
There is a serious problem with the distribution of wealth between the bottom 99% and the rich.
So what exactly has been getting better in the last 2 decades? And no, I am not after some little law that made some little things better because I want the bottom 99% to get a better life and especially the bottom 50%.
I do not approve but I can understand very well why many people might not be too enthusiastic with regards to elections. Just see what happened to Bernie Sanders. He was kicked out of the presidential race. And who kicked him out? And if you read about Hi_Lla_ry C.lin_tonS behaviour from early on you might be not so enthusiastic about her. Apparently there is a lot of greed and a lot of opportunism at the cost of the weakest in her behaviour. I doubt she would make improvements to the bottom 99% and I don’t doubt she would continue politics more like Dubbajuh though being more sophisticated and less politics like Barack who was at least reluctant to start more wars.
“Just see what happened to Bernie Sanders. He was kicked out of the presidential race. And who kicked him out?”
Voters. The voters kicked him out of the race. 3 million more people voted for Hillary than for Bernie.
If you read about the smear campaigns that have targeted Hillary from early on, you might not be so enthusiastic to believe every claim that is made about her.
I didn’t vote in the last election because my state is almost always Democrat and even though I wanted Obama to win, I knew my vote wouldn’t make a difference and he won the state. This election though, I’m voting because its so close.