WOO-AH: Kim Petras the New Queen of Pop

Kim Petras is the most underrated pop star of the moment. Her songs are so unbelievably catchy and hooky that it's a damn shame she isn't a worldwide pop star like Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift. Of course, I had not heard of her myself until I discovered Troye Sivan. Once I realized I was gonna see him in concert I noticed he had 2 openers. The first was Leland and the second was Kim.

Usually I am not too big a fan of opening acts at concerts unless it's a double billing such as Collective Soul and Live or it's a festival lineup like when I saw Silversun Pickups perform at the DC 101 Chili cookoff before Awolnation and Soundgarden came out. I was so taken with Troye though that I wanted to know and hear the acts he had handpicked himself to open for him.

Before Troye I had felt like there was a lack of really good pop music recently. I still had plenty to like over in rock and alternative but besides Sweetener by Ariana Grande, which I liked but didn't love, I felt there was a deficit of great pop music on a mainstream level in 2017 and 2018. Troye of course proved that there was great pop music still it just operated right beneath the mainstream radar and soon I was about to learn that pop was not only alive but thriving right under the cultural radar.

Like Troye it didn't take me long to fall for Kim after I started looking her up on YouTube and Spotify. Her music was like a cross between Boy Toy era Madonna from the mid 80s, Teen pop era Britney from the late 90s/early 00s and Teenage Dream era Katy Perry from the early 10s. So basically, it was pop music the way I like it which is POP in all caps and this was important. Watching interviews with Kim she discussed how much pop music meant to her growing up and how it really saved her life when she was struggling in her youth. She said that she wanted to make pop music that made people happy and gave them an escape from their own stress and struggles in their daily life. She was here to deliver POP that would be as hooky, sexy, fun, funny and catchy as possible and I respected her for that so much because pop music has a tendency to be seen as lesser than other genres of music.

Despite it's widespread appeal pop music is usually seen as less creative, artistic and worthy of accolades compared to Rock, Hip-Hop, Country and other more masculine defined genres of music. Even pop stars themselves seemed to downplay that they were pop in the past. They would either talk about how their music was better than most other pop or how they wanted their next record to be more rock or more hip hop because than it's more artistically credible and authentic which is honestly wrong. There seemed to be a sense of shame to pop music and being a pop star that didn't happen in other genres as much. In my opinion Pop usually gets a bad rep because it's more feminine and things that are feminine are never given as much respect as things that are seen as more masculine in our culture.

So to see someone like Kim Petras own pop music and express her undying love for the genre was very refreshing for me. I'll admit that sometimes pop can be a bit impersonal as many pop singers don't write their music or even have much musicality but not Kim. Kim actually does write all her own music because she said no one would do it for her. She's also very much in control of her image and message right from the start which outside a few big icons like Madonna and Lady Gaga is not always the case for many pop stars. For me this also shows the DIY attitude of LBGTQ music and how pop music in the post streaming age is operating more like Indie Rock and Alternative Rock have operated for the past several decades. Artists in pop now have much easier access to the tools to make pop music like it sounds on the radio which was not the case for years. In the past pop stars did usually need top shelf producers and major label studios to produce top of the line pop music but now they can do it from their bedroom! Also since they don't need the media gatekeepers and record labels to kick start their careers they can define their sound and image any way they want and not have to report to a committee which I feel is a huge breakthrough for pop music as a whole.

Of course, any in depth discussion about Kim also has to bring up the fact that she is trans but I didn't want to lead with that. The reason being that I think her being trans is both important and not important at the same time. Unlike Troye, who sings songs about his struggles to come to terms with being gay as well as the joys of being a gay man, Kim sings pop songs about love, lust and fashion like many heteronormative female pop stars. So far her identity as trans has not been addressed in any of her music nor does it have to be honestly. Nonetheless Kim being trans is an important step towards LGBTQ inclusion and visibility within pop music. The fact that in some ways it's not a big deal that Kim is trans is the big deal! At the same time for young trans youth struggling for acceptance and understanding Kim is a wonderful role model for them. She shows them that you can be anything they want to be as a trans person and find happiness and fulfillment in their lives just like anyone else. In the current political climate we now find ourselves in this is a big deal.

Yet the thing I find most interesting about Kim's status as a trans pop star is how she really challenges straight people's ideas and perceptions about the trans community. When I introduce Kim Petras to friends and family they are taken back because they don't think she "looks" or "sounds" trans. Of course, this shows what a limiting view people have of the trans community but they have that view because the mainstream doesn't have nearly enough trans people for straight folks to have as a reference point. Kim is helping to shape and change how trans people are perceived both within music and the greater cultural landscape and that's amazing.

Now as I said earlier most of these Queer pop stars don't get much play through media gatekeepers such as radio and TV but there is one major media gatekeeper exception which I find very promising and that's Radio Disney. Radio Disney is a national AM music channel that is aimed at kids and young teens and on Radio Disney LBGTQ pop acts are not only welcomed but celebrated! Troye Sivan and Hayley Kioko both get tons of play on Radio Disney and the channel considers gay pop stars like Troye to be part of the Radio Disney family. Kim meanwhile has been dominating Radio Disney this past year with songs like Can't Do Better and Heart to Break while The Feeling of Falling and Broken both stayed at #1 on the Radio Disney charts for weeks. She also gives countless interviews to Radio Disney which help her to connect even more with the youth who tune in to the station. It's indictive of a larger trend at play, which is that children's entertainment is becoming much more inclusive of LGBTQ people and promoting LGBTQ talent in a way that radio stations aimed at adults don't do. In a time when it feels like the adults are sometimes trying to push back to clock on LGBTQ rights to see the youth registering LGBTQ people as not only normal but as role models at such a young age is so heartening for me since it wasn't that way when I was growing up in the late 90s/early 00s. Many of these kids don't care if Kim is trans, they care about how good her music is and judge her more on her character than her sexuality and that's really how it should be.

On that note lets get back to what's most important about Kim Petras the pop star which is the music. As I have noted her songs are just so damn catchy and fun. I have introduced her music to all my friends who have any interest in pop music and they all quickly become huge fans of hers. For many of them Kim is their favorite of the current crop of LGBTQ pop stars and I can understand why. Songs like Heart to Break, All the Time and The Feeling Of Falling have all the makings of world wide smash hits that should be on every Now That's What I Call Music compilation and get stuck in your head fast like great pop songs should do.

I also love her trademark vocal tic she drops in just about every song where she goes "WOO-AH!" It's silly yeah but so endearing & fun and it brings a smile to my face whenever I hear it pop up in her songs. As one fan on Twitter posted finding the "WOO-AH" in every Kim Petras song is like the musical equivalent of Where's Waldo. It gives her music so much more personality too which is so important for a pop star since I am of the mind that a memorable personality is just as important as a great singing voice in pop music.

At the Troye Sivan show I was almost as excited to see Kim as I was Troye and I was hyping Kim up to people around me who had not heard of her yet. Kim slayed it that night. It was just her and a DJ performing in front of a drawn curtain but Kim owned that stage. Kim was just as fun and engaging on stage as she was on record but her vocals sounded even more impressive live which is not always the case with some pop stars. Kim really belted it out through the whole concert and impressed me even further. I also loved how her DJ kept hitting the "WOO-AH" button in between songs which again made Kim more fun and endearing. My husband started laughing every time the DJ hit the "WOO-"AH" button. By the time she was done with her set the people around me had been won over by Kim completely. One girl told me she had just found her new favorite pop star and was going to listen to Kim on her way home from the concert.

I think at the end of the day the biggest take away from Kim Petras is that she is a pop star who is owning her pop star status. She not only wants to save pop music but she also wants to make people feel happy and included through her music which is especially important for LGBTQ youth. I can't wait to see what she does next and I hope she does break through to the mainstream like a Katy Perry or Britney Spears because Kim's music is just as good as any other pop star of the past 20 years and should be lauded as such.

So go listen to some Kim Petras right now if you have not (I recommend starting with Heart to Break) and let that smile just start to spread across yourself. You'll thank me later! WOO-AH!!!