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Prism (Katy Perry album)

Prism is the fourth studio album by American singer Katy Perry. It was released by Capitol Records on October 18, 2013. While the album was initially planned to be "darker" than her previous material, Prism ultimately became a prominently dance-inspired record. Perry worked with several past collaborators, while enlisting new producers and guest vocals. Much of Prism revolves around the themes of living in the present, relationships, and self-empowerment. The album garnered generally positive reviews with critics praising its lyrics for being more "mature" and personal, while others considered Prism to be more formulaic than her previous material.

Prism

October 18, 2013

November 2012–2013

Pop[1]

48:39

Capitol

The album debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with 286,000 copies sold, becoming Perry's best opening week to date. The album also peaked at number one in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Prism became Perry's fastest-selling album, the second best-selling album in Australia in 2013, and the second best-selling album released by a woman in the United States in 2013. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that Prism was the sixth best-selling album in the world in 2013, the best-selling album in the world in 2013 released by a woman, and labeled Perry "a global phenomenon." It has sold over 4 million copies worldwide. The album's success continued throughout 2014, ranking within the top 10 of the annual charts for 2014 in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and earned Perry a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.


The release of the album was preceded by the release of two singles. "Roar" was released on August 10, 2013, as the album's lead single and topped the Billboard Hot 100. "Unconditionally" debuted on October 16, 2013, as the record's second single. In between the release of these two tracks were the releases of promotional singles "Dark Horse" on September 17 and "Walking on Air" on September 30, 2013. "Dark Horse" was released as the album's third single three months later on December 17, 2013, and also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. "Birthday" and "This Is How We Do" were the fourth and fifth singles, respectively. Prism was further promoted through the Prismatic World Tour.

Recording

The development of Prism started when Perry was embarking on the California Dreams Tour. She began with a process she deemed "slow cooking", which consisted of recording random "fragments of ideas" into her mobile phone's dictaphone application. A member of Direct Management Group, Ngoc Hoang, then transcribed the audio files, which he inserted into what Perry described as a "treasure chest"; such object was consulted by Perry later on during the album's recording sessions. While Perry started recording the album officially in November 2012, accompanied by Greg Wells and Greg Kurstin, she noted she was still in a "dark place", and that she had not "let the light in". The sessions began again in March 2013, following a trip to Madagascar which Perry credited as having "put [her] priorities in perspective", thus leading her to "do more work on [her]self". Perry also viewed a video made by Eckhart Tolle, which discusses loss. She commented: "When you lose something, all your foundations crumble—but that also leaves a big hole that's open for something great to come through."[5]


After feeling prepared to record again, she reunited with her team from Teenage Dream—Dr. Luke, Bonnie McKee, and Cirkut—in Perry's hometown of Santa Barbara, California, where they spent a month recording at Playback Recording Studio among others. After those sessions, she went to Stockholm, where she worked with Scandinavian record producer Max Martin, to do what Perry called "put[ting] the ice on the cake". She also recruited other collaborators, such as Norwegian team Stargate, Bloodshy, Benny Blanco, Jonatha Brooke and Sia.[5] By April 2013, recording for the album was halfway complete, and Perry revealed to ASCAP how was working with such collaborators. She affirmed that Wells allowed her to "vomit words"; with Martin, she picked the melodies of the songs; Luke mostly helmed the production and she worked with "topline and melody". Perry described writing sessions with McKee as "emotional abuse", adding that they argue over the "best lyric", as if they were fighting in a boxing ring.[10] McKee, who wrote four songs for Prism, spoke with MTV on the effort, describing it as "a little bit more grown up" and "interesting".[11]

Singles

"Roar" was serviced to mainstream radio stations on August 10, 2013, as the album's lead single, and its digital release followed two days later.[50] It received mixed-to-positive commentary from music critics, who commended its "easy" and "poppy" beat, while some were ambivalent towards its clichéd lyrics.[51][52] Commercially, it was a success, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.[53] It became Australia's best performing song of 2013 with 560,000 copies sold by the end of the year and spending 9 weeks atop the nation's charts.[54] The song was nominated for the Song of the Year and the Best Pop Solo Performance awards at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.[55][56]


"Unconditionally" was released as the album's second single on October 16, 2013.[57] It received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised it for being "soaring" and "effortless".[58] A lyric video for the song was released two days after its debut,[59] and its official music video was released on November 19, 2013.[60] To promote the single, Perry has performed on various occasions, including a geisha-themed performance of it on the American Music Awards of 2013, which attracted negative press, controversy and accusations of cultural appropriation.[61][62] "Unconditionally" has peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has charted moderately worldwide, reaching the top 30 in the single charts of Canada and Germany [53] and the Top 10 in Italy.[63]


"Dark Horse" was released on December 17, 2013, as the album's third official single.[64][65] It had previously been released as the album's first promotional single exactly three months prior to its single release. The following week, the song leaped to number four due to topping the Hot Digital Songs, selling 243,000 copies. With "Dark Horse" topping the Hot Digital Songs chart, it became Perry's 10th digital number-one single.[66][67] The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 29, 2014, becoming Perry's 9th number one single in the United States.[68] It was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.[69]


On April 3, 2014, "Birthday" was announced as the album's fourth official single. It debuted at number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100[70] and impacted mainstream radio in the U.S. on April 21, 2014.[71][72] This single peaked at number 17 in the US, becoming her 15th song to reach the top 20 in the nation.[53]


"This Is How We Do" served as the fifth official single from the album. A lyric video of the song was released on July 24, 2014.[73] One week later, its official music video premiered and the track was sent to French radio on the same day.[74] The song debuted at number 88 on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 9, 2014, and peaked at number 24.[53]


According to PopDust and Charts in France, "Legendary Lovers" was set to be released as a single, however its release was cancelled to unknown reasons.[75][76] However, the song received unofficial airplay in France.[77] Additionally track's producer Max Martin hinted possible remix release featuring Canadian rapper and singer Drake.[78]

Album era