Not Like the Movies
"Not Like the Movies" is a song by American singer Katy Perry from her third studio album, Teenage Dream (2010). She co-wrote the song with its producer Greg Wells. Capitol Records released it on August 3, 2010, as the album's first promotional single. The song is a power ballad from the point of view of a teenage girl. Lyrically, the girl contemplates her first time and how "it wasn't right". She realizes through that experience that her "prince" is still "out there" waiting for her. It was written when Perry first started dating her then-husband, Russell Brand.
"Not Like the Movies"
Some music critics called "Not Like the Movies" a powerful and lovely song, as well a contemplative ballad, but noticed that the song's lyrics make only minimal reference to Brand. Commercially, the track peaked at number 53 on US Billboard Hot 100 chart and at number 41 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart. Perry performed the song on her California Dreams Tour (2011). She also did a performance of the song along with "Teenage Dream" at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on February 13, 2011. The performance received positive reviews from music critics.
Conception[edit]
In an interview with YouTube about Teenage Dream in August 2010, Perry revealed that "Not Like the Movies" was the first song she wrote for the album after she finished her Hello Katy Tour (2009). Production and additional writing on the songs were done by Greg Wells, who previously worked with the singer on her second studio album, One of the Boys (2008). Perry considers it to be like that of a two-part song because she had started working on "Not Like the Movies" before she met Brand, and completed it after they began dating. She stated it is a "really special" song to her because, at the first part of the track, it is a story that she needed to let out, which was claiming to know something that you do not actually know. Perry later expressed relief at being able to put all of her feelings into "Not Like the Movies".[1]
Composition[edit]
"Not Like the Movies" is a power ballad[2] that lasts for four minutes and one second.[3] The song is composed in the key of A♭ major and is set in time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 100 beats per minute. Perry's vocal range spans over an octave, from F3 to E♭5.[4] The song has a basic sequence of A♭5–Fm7–Cm–E♭ as its chord progression.[4] Lyrically, "Not Like the Movies" is a song about a love relationship where a woman does not feel in love and still waits for the man of her dreams, or "charming prince", as a Terra reviewer put it.[5]
Chris Ryan from MTV News interpreted the song as largely being about how being in love does not meet your expectations and never really captures "the cinematic magic of big-screen love stories."[6]
Steve Leftridge from PopMatters considered the track to have a "ho-hum" melody.[7] Its melody was compared to Britney Spears' "Everytime" (2003) and Evanescence's "My Immortal" (2003).[6] During the chorus, Perry sings about holding out for a love that is "cinematic and dramatic/With the perfect ending" and later asks if she is a "stupid girl", according to Elysa Gardner from USA Today and an anonymous reviewer for Portrait Magazine. A reviewer for Portrait Magazine, considering it to be the slowest-paced song on Teenage Dream, said it juxtaposed well with the other tracks. "It takes all the energy from the rest of the album, all the fast beating hearts and overwhelming feelings of love, and slows it all down to a song about looking for love instead," they wrote.[8]
Credits adapted from the Teenage Dream liner notes.[17]