Link to video review on Buzzine.com
Over the course of the Iraq War, there have been a handful of pop ballads sung by American females that deal with 
the subject of losing a loved one to war. In our country’s current “us versus them” political climate, these songs have generally divided audiences; they’ve been embraced by the conservatives as heartfelt patriotism, and shunned by the liberals as part of the Christian agenda.
Leave it to ingenious pop ingénue Katy Perry to bridge the gap between the red and blue musical tastes. In Perry’s new video for her song “Thinking of You” (off her latest release One Of The Boys), the narrative follows a young woman as she laments the fact that the new man in her life doesn’t quite measure up to her one true love, who has been killed in battle. The video for “Thinking of You” does not draw any battle lines or ask its viewers to take a conservative or liberal side. It does this 1. Because it is set in the ’40s, a time when war served as a unifying, not dividing force for the nation, and 2. Because it stars Katy Perry.
There are no shots of young men riding 21st century tanks, or shots of little girls in Hannah Montana shirts crying for their daddies in this video. There are only trees, dirt roads, fields, a couple of dusty interiors, and, most importantly, Perry, looking stunning in her close-ups, dressed in what has always suited her best — a get-up and make-up circa 1942.
Since Perry burst onto the scene with her risqué hit, “I Kissed a Girl,” she has always stood apart from her peers. No other pop star could pull off a vintage aesthetic with the naturalness that Perry does. No other pop star could pull off those strange contralto vocals with the same appeal that Perry does. And no other pop star could pull off a war-themed video concept like the one in “Thinking of You” and still be likeable to the red, white, blue, and everything in between. Katy Perry pulls it off and, like all great artists, makes you wonder what she’s going to come up with next.
Get your copy of One of the Boys, plus other Perry merch and tour date info on Perry’s official website or MySpace. See the video on Buzzine.com.
Tags: I Kissed a Girl, Katy Perry, One of the Boys, Thinking of You video
