24 June 2010
Our 2010 number ones from the States have so far been notably conservative: the tweeness of ‘Fireflies’; the strategic corporate alliance of ‘Telephone’; the wholesome high-school musical of ‘Gives You Hell’; the hip-hop-hooray EDM of ‘OMG’; the soccer-parent nostalgia of ‘Hey, Soul Sister’. Had ’00s poptimism congealed into ick? Did the economic crash send US pop culture makers and consumers scurrying for their comfort blanket? Probably a bit of both.
Anyway, this glossy ‘California Girls’ retread and its big-budget Willy-Wonka-meets-Benny-Hill video isn’t going to buck that trend. Katy Perry’s spring-break saucy-sorority-sister schtick doesn’t do much with its sexist ’60s forerunner except reheat its crass jingoism and validate Mike Love’s brand of bikini-body leering. Max Martin being among the collaborators here, we at least get a blockbusting chorus as reward for wading through cliched verses and out-of-the-box DJ-Party-Hardy sounds. But Snoop Dogg’s will-rap-for-food contribution wastes everyone’s time for the sake of lazy name recognition, as if by 2010 he still had any G-funk cred left to lend. Whatever about the economic crash, ‘California Gurls’ is ’00s US pop having its ’10s sugar crash.
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