Apologies in advance for being the bearer of bad tidings, but it is time to take this whole fake news thing seriously. We all laughed, didn’t we, when the spread of misinformation played a decisive role in Brexit. “Oh, well!” That’s what we chortled. Similarly, we quickly dismissed fake news as just a bit of fun when its cheery deployment helped to propel Donald Trump into the Oval Office. It seemed as if the lols would never cease. But the fun is over now and we must face the facts: fake news may actually not be ideal. It may even be bad. Because, this week, it has finally gone too far. It has hit Katy Perry’s new album campaign.
The background here is that, last weekend, Pezza performed two songs on Saturday Night Live. Those who have been paying attention will know that Katy ushered in this new album era with a lead single that made a broad but commendable stab at articulating alienation, post-election anomie and the seductive danger of filter bubbles. Katy described her new direction as “purposeful pop”, an admirable notion on which she quickly U-turned, then reversed over with the grace and poise of Brian Harvey on a potato binge, by releasing Bon Appetit, her current single in which lyrics such as “I’m spread like a buffet” invite listeners to engage in a less than purposeful way with her undercarriage.
This fake news started its jolly journey to the top of the pop agenda following a post on the website of a production company and, following the pattern of mistruths in vastly less important areas such as presidential elections – it was both believable and complementary to existing narratives – it quickly spread. It was denied by Katy’s people (naturally) and Migos’s people (of course it was), except then it was also denied by a number of the drag artists who had been involved in the performance.
