I Kissed a Girl

"I Kissed a Girl" arrived in 2008 positioned as provocative and landed, retroactively, as more complicated than either its defenders or detractors suggested. The production is driving rock-pop, guitar-forward in a way that distinguished it from contemporary electronic pop, with a chorus hook engineered for immediate memorability — it achieves that goal completely. Katy Perry's vocal is playful in a way that maintains ambiguity about whether the song is confession or performance, which was probably the most honest possible approach to its subject matter at that cultural moment. The lyric is specific enough in its detail ("cherry Chapstick") to feel authentic while remaining sufficiently stylized to function as fantasy. It occupies an interesting position as a pop artifact: both a product of 2008's particular conversations about sexuality and a genuine instance of a mainstream song that created space, however imperfectly, for what followed.