Subtlety has never been Katy Perry’s forte—and that is exactly her appeal. Her bold and brassy approach to songwriting would become fully realized on 2010’s Teenage Dream, which sees the singer transitioning from the flirty pop-rock pinup of her 2008 major-label debut, One of the Boys, to unstoppable chart-topper. For album No. 2, her most clever move was to look not forward, but back, where the 25-year-old could frolic in the carefree thrills of adolescence, nodding to her own tame teen years as a Christian artist.
And so, Perry bounces between various antics—skinny-dipping in the dark, cavorting with Snoop Dogg—and comes armed with a well-stocked arsenal of 21st-century pop’s biggest producers and songwriters, including Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Stargate, and Tricky Stewart. The album itself is loaded with five No. 1 hits—a feat previously only achieved by Michael Jackson’s Bad—with four of them stacked at the top. The opening title track is her sizzling dance-pop thesis—”we’ll be young forever!”—while “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” squeezes in every ounce of hedonism and a celebratory sax solo to boot. “California Gurls” then brings Snoop, stilettos, and disco beats to the sand, before “Firework” takes self-love and Perry’s powerful pipes to skyrocketing heights.
Still, she recognizes that with every teenage fantasy comes a brutal reality, as depicted on the techno-infused tongue-lashing “Circle the Drain” and bittersweet piano ballad “Not Like the Movies.” With Teenage Dream, Perry proved herself no longer one of the boys—or the girls—but a one-of-a-kind pop sensation.