just thinking about the best pop song of the last decade, katy perry - teenage dream, and how it went to #1 even tho it’s an almost aggressively “girly” song, and i really just deeped its full power...

like how does a song with a title like teenage dream, the opening line “u think i’m pretty without any make up on” and u know... the fluffy pink candyfloss cloud imagery, avoid being dismissed out of hand like so many other songs in this vein? undeniable melody/instrumental ofc

but really it’s the knight saves damsel story in the first verse that has signed sealed and delivered on the deal before the chorus even hits... like it doesn’t matter which perspective u engage with, everyone comes out a winner

the second verse is the exact same melody as the first, but is the song as good if it starts “we drove to cali and got drunk on the beach”? absolutely not - bc who fuckin cares? who instinctively, subconsciously relates to that even metaphorically?

but “u think i’m pretty without any make up on” either ur the person without make up or ur the one who thinks they’re pretty and u can substitute “without make up” for any sort of ~in my raw unguarded state scenario, flip the genders or make it same sex, and it still works

it really is a modern fuckin classic, ms katheryn and ms bonnie aced the fuck out of it, i don’t know a better love song