February 14th, 2012 
James Shotwell 
Artist: Katy Perry
Song: Part Of Me
Album: Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection
Label: Capitol
Yesterday, Katy Perry followed an underwhelming Grammy performance with the release of her latest single, “Part Of Me.” Considering the amount of effort Perry and her label have put into finding the golden sixth #1, the UTG staff eagerly tuned in to hear what the queen of “California Girls” had to offer. For anyone who missed the premiere, here is the lyric video for “Part Of Me.”
Perry is clearly trying as hard as possible to top the charts, but is “Part Of Me” good enough to go the distance? Here’s what our staff had to say:
“The most enjoyable part of “Part of Me” was the sixteen second commercial I had to sit through to get to the song. The lack of dynamics or a hook leaves the song bland and uninteresting.” -Ethan Merrick (Twitter)
“Even for a cookie-cutter, carbon-copy pop song, Part of Me is as generic as they come. The hooks are ignorable and the lyrics are trite. I have no idea what the label is thinking releasing this as a single, considering that it would have ended up on someone like Pink’s cutting room floor.” – Joshua Hammond (Twitter)
“This sounds like a generic club song, that will be remixed by tons of DJ’s just to fill their Top 40 playlist. The tempo remains the same for the entire song and her lyrics are anything but uplifting. Painful to listen to, honestly.” – Grant Trimboli (Twitter)
”I was a mere 30 seconds into this song before I mentally turned it off. The lyrics are rehashed from every pop song ever and the beat is more generic than the shampoo I get at Walmart. It’s Henry Rollin’s Birthday, listen to Black Flag.” – Tyler Osborne (Twitter)
“You can actually hear the Ones and Zeroes in her voice from the computers used to tweak it. When did Auto Tuning switch from being something you were afraid people would notice to the standard?” – Dane Sager (Twitter)
“My distaste for Perry’s marketing strategy and shameless publicity stunts is well recorded, but I admit I never hated Teenage Dream as an album. I approached “Part Of Me” hoping it would be yet another great single that simply did not fit, but what I heard was the exact kind of lazy pop music that infects every facet of our dumbed down culture today. The lyric video might as well have started with a few gerbils driving through a warzone in a Kia.” – James Shotwell (Twitter)
Do you agree with us? Comment below and leave us your thoughts on Katy Perry’s latest!
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You call this a review? You’re biased because all you have going on here is negativity where as this song is at #2 on US iTunes and has an average 5 star rating and of course, everyone in the world loves it, except for this website and its staff.
Anyone can go through twitter and filter on negative remarks. There are about as many of those as there are positive comments if not more. This really doesn’t conclude to anything..
These are not tweet reviews, we simply link to the staff members’ Twitter. The reason we do short takes like this is because there is no reason to write 500+ words on something that runs for such a short time. Singles like this are made for the top 40, which means they’re promoted to the largest audience it can reach, including all of us. Just because we did not care for the song does not make us wrong, nor does it mean we have shorted Perry in some way.
R U kidding me! this song is amazing! she writes how she feels and is already #2 on U.S. iTunes #1 in canada learn to write good reviews and stop with all the negativity!
It’s not so much that you don’t care for the song that makes this article seem superfluous. It’s the fact you went through the trouble to write a “short take” on a single that doesn’t really have too much to say. The fact you draw attention to this and took the time out of your day just makes you lose credibility to me.
Following your track record of Katy Perry articles, it’s clear you just don’t like her. Fine, me either. But there’s no point in writing about her constantly, why write so much about something you don’t love? There’s so many other new singles you can”review.” It just screams pathetic. If you think you are doing this because the “history of pop music is at stake” you are clearly wrong since this does nothing for her singles record on Teenage Dream. If you are sick of hearing her, tune off the radio. Music is found on so many other platforms nowadays. All I get from your slew of articles is someone who has very few bright insights to say on the matter and you lack other entertainment interests.
You don’t like that she gets the spotlight, stop giving it to her. It’s clear that anything you’ve tried so far has had little to no effect…
Or maybe you all should retire to some colony where all they do is play checkers, you obviously have no clue what you are talking about, get a job mates and leave the reviews to those that actually got knowledge.
Did you read the above quote? I (James) confessed that I loved her album. I have no issue with her having the spotlight, I just believe “Part Of Me” is a weak single and there is no shame in covering that. We ran a similar review on Jack White’s new single last week, the only difference being that most the staff enjoyed it, and no one complained. We do write about Katy a lot, but it is not always negatively. The negativity has been more frequent as of late, but always provided with support for the hate. Never did anyone on UTG say “I hate Katy Perry,” we simply do not care for some of her career choices.
Also, how does this make us lose credibility? To be “credible” means “to be believe believed,” or “trusted,” so how does the opinion of our critics put our credibility into question?
Thanks for the comment, but I think your grammatical skills are preventing you from hating us fully. I think you intended to suggest we leave reviews to those knowledgable of music, but it is a bit hard to decipher.
Please, do tell why we are wrong. Can you, in any way desire, explain what makes “Part Of Me” a good song. Go on, I’ll wait…
A “review” from a human being is a personal opinion, and that’s all this is is your own personal opinion not a “review”. This song will make her more famous then she already is, and her next song will do the same, I just seem to have a hard time finding the logic in your “opinion”? There is none, its that simple. And my grammatical skills should not be called into question when your obvious problem of disliking someone is so obvious.
Sorry I did not see the above comment, I must have not refreshed the page. And the reason this strikes a nerve is that any opinion site that states that it is mostly focused on alternative music decides to write bash articles on pop acts.
As for the credibility issue is the fact that you claim this single could take away the integrity of pop music history based on your previous article on her when this clearly is not true. I posted the link to the billboard article that states this. Let me know of that is not a valid source. The fact that you don’t know this, and the way all these articles written by you has framed you as a person with a petty vendetta against her, it just doesn’t look good to me. Also the fact that you attack someone on their grammar now that I read your comment is just petty to me. It’s the Internet for Pete’s sake.
Lastly, everything the staff has tweeted are things that any disgruntled alternative music lover would say. It offers no new perspective, it’s not witty, and it’s all aged realizations on any generic pop song. You’re not wrong you’re just petty.
And because you’re petty and say the same recycled crap it loses weight in its words
Ipare you sure more than one person reviewed this? It seems like the same review over and over. And on top of that, every other review on the Internet for this song is positive. A little suspicious.
And yet it’s sold nearly 100k within 12 hours. Shut the fuck up.
This is a joke right? It just so happens that Katy is currently #2 on the US itunes, and rising rapidly, and the rest of the entire population is loving it. However, your biased comments seem to differ.. hmm.. not like they matter anyway. Flop website, flop review, goodbye.
This is embarrassing as fuck. You clearly DO NOT know what you’re talking about.
Just because something sells doesn’t make it good, people buy shit songs everyday. Now I do feel that a lot of these reviews are harsh, but honestly Part of Me isn’t a great song. It’s really just more of the same, and the fact that it’s on a Teenage Dream re-release album makes it worst. Katy as done much better, but this song will likely be a #1 hit which shows how people really aren’t looking for much substance in music. If you want a truely great Katy Perry song, look up “A Cup of Coffee” from the One of the Boys album.
Actually A Cup of Coffee isn’t off of OOTBs it’s an unreleased track. Part of Me ISN’T a bad song at all, perhaps you have a different music taste, but it isn’t deserving of these harsh comments on here.
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
GUYZ ITS POPULAR SO UR WRONG
CLEERLY
Part of Me shits all over all the haters pathetic lives. Seriously this is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a while
I’m kinda surprised at where Zooey Deschanel is moving with her career. Didn’t expect this of her at all
its #1 on itunes right now … so she gets the last laugh anyway.
I don’t even understand how that is possible. It isn’t even the best song on the album. Or second best. Or third best.
The thing that you’re struggling to realize is that Under the Gun reviews things based on our opinions of how the music is created. Pitch. Tone. Structure. Hook. Studio Production.
Can you tell me WHY this is the best song you have heard in a while? Use your words to illustrate why you disagree.
You’re just throwing rocks in riots. Sure, it makes a mark on someone’s forehead, but no one has a clue what you believe in.
There are a lot of albums in the world with five star rating and gold records that I don’t think are products of talent musicians. Now, before you jump down my throat like a Republican pissed I brought my gay brother to church, I want to make it clear I do think Katy Perry is somewhat talented. She is amusing and entertaining.
This song however lacks the same staying power that her previous singles have. It is not going to stick in your head. The white-knuckle riff is not there.
There is a reason that on rap albums there is a catchy hook placed in the background. It is called staying power. This song does not have a hook.
I don’t care if it outsells Let it Be by the Beatles 100 times. That doesn’t make it the best thing ever. There is more to music than record sales. There is integrity.
The record labels and their prepackaged artists are ruining that.
Google “industry of cool.”
I love this song.
It makes me feel good, it’s a great song to jam to,
and the lyrics are empowering, esp after someone’s done you wrong.
IDGAF about the pitch, tone, structure, all I know is that it sounds good.
And the lyrics are pretty smart for a pop song.
That’s my opinion, and a popular one that at that.
Part of Me is a good song. You may disagree, but whatever. She can snatch that number one and you can stay….under the gun.
Okay, let’s do this. I’m going to go ahead and put it all out on the line for this.
Prior to joining Under the Gun, I was the Editor in Chief of a website called Popwreckoning. During the 5 years I worked there we covered everything from Rap, to Indie, to Pop and Punk. I personally have interviewed bands like Hanson, Yellowcard, Something Corporate, P!nk, Lights, Ingrid Michaelson, and your beloved Katy Perry. On that site, I praised Perry on multiple articles. I think I speak for everyone on the site when I say we do not limit ourselves to genre, we pride ourselves on promotion quality.
When it comes to music, I have no bias. I will review your dog farting on a snare drum if I think it was made in a talented way.
Now if you look above, you will see that I ripped this song apart. The reason I did this is because this song is nothing more than life support for Katy Perry’s career. It is the label trying to milk her for every cent they can. In that same regards, the label continues to release multiple remixes of songs.
If you can show me clearly how Part of Me belongs in the same conversation as UR so Gay and I kissed a Girl, I’ll hear you out with an open-minded. But, for the conversation to become a discrediting of the site and this staff because we don’t love an artist you do is bullshit.
We are basing it on our opinion (which we stated) of the song. So far, all I get from the comments is that Katy Perry makes your undies wet. I see nothing about what makes her talented in your opinion.
Christ man.
Do you need me to list awful sings that sold a shit ton of records so
that you can see that sales and talent are always one in the same?
Who let the Dogs Out?
The Macarana?
Scrubs by TLC?
Because I Got High by Afroman?
Mmmbop by Hanson?
I think if you look, all of the above sold pretty well. Doesn’t mean that they were quality cuts.
Are you serious? So everything that hits the top ten is quality? Honestly? Tell me then, since both this song and “Let it Be” by the Beatles are both smash number one hits, how Katy Perry compares to John Lennon. I mean, based on your figures, they’re comparable right?
“IDGAF about the pitch, tone, structure”
Exactly. And neither does Katy Perry, as we pointed out in out review of Part of Me.
I do not care that you dislike the song. That is really not the issue I
am trying to point out. Unlike the others, my argument IS NOT coming
from a loyal follower, or even a fan of Katy Perry. She has her
good points and bad points but I really do not have much of an opinion
of her as an artist. I know tons of people out there do not enjoy her
music and that fact doesn’t bother me when I go to bed at night.
My qualm here is what I previously touched on. The fact that this site
has gone through the trouble of writing an article like this. What is
the point? We all know that the top 40 is cluttered with filler “carbon
copy” non-sense.
So it makes no sense for a site to “review” a single where most music
critics can universally agree it’s just more filler. Why? Why go
through this trouble? And this all points to a bigger question, why
Katy?
Based on a previous article written by James, he tried to rally readers
to be against Part of Me reaching number 1 for the “sake of pop music
history” Since he is the main writer, and after skimming previous Katy
Perry articles which have all been written by him, I can’t help but
think he has a vendetta against her. For a writer for a so-called site
that has a focus on alternative music, why so much attention to Katy?
For the sake of pop music history? Because this single DOES NOT COUNT
TO THE MICHAEL JACKSON RECORD.
http://www.billboard.com/column/chartbeat/ask-billboard-can-katy-perry-top-michael-1006185152.story#/column/chartbeat/ask-billboard-can-katy-perry-top-michael-1006185152.story
Because you guys have not yet realized, and I have, you guys – more so
James – have lost credibility to me. Shouldn’t music writers know
this? Shouldn’t you guys be updated with how billboard works? If you
are so up at arms over a chart feat, shouldn’t you research on how it is
calculated? Well, James hasn’t, and that makes him just another loud
mouthed, upset blogger who has nothing better to do in my eyes.
As for the comment on everyone’s tweet: WAY TO POINT OUT THE OBVIOUS. I
especially loved the one by Ethan. You guys just all sound like those
YouTube trolls. When you have an interesting perspective on a
lackluster single; let me know, because really there is no reason Part
of Me should have merited so many articles in the first place.
I also suggest James and the rest of the staff read this article as well. Since this seems to be an issue that hits home for them so dearly.
http://www.billboard.com/column/chartbeat/ask-billboard-are-chart-rule-changes-needed-1005817152.story#/column/chartbeat/ask-billboard-are-chart-rule-changes-needed-1005817152.story
Ah have you seen John Lennon’s glasses? Can you say nerd?
If this isn’t a joke it says everything about what is wrong with music. You’re absolutely right. His nerdy glasses snatches away his ability to be one of the world’s greatest songwriters in the exact same way that Katy Perry’s perfect breasts make her the best that ever lived.
Just, wow.
^Once again proves my point that the writers here lack maturity and insight. Wanna know why I think you guys aren’t credible anymore? Him.
No no. I jest. I love Johnny Lennon more than Yoko
You have NO IDEA what you are talking about with your review. All total bullshit. If you opened your eyes, you would realise that it was only released 2 days ago, and is already number one on iTunes. Also you may notice that the lyric video has had 21000 likes , compared to 500 dislikes. So putting it in the nicest possible way, you are talking total, utter shit and when this reaches no. 1 on the Hot 100, everyone who agrees with me will laugh in your fat face.
Okay Bellisima, I will admit we made a mistake with that particular article that you continue to reference. We are sorry that in 17,000 news stories we missed a tiny piece of information and used it to convey an opinion through the art of editorial writing. God forbid any publication, let alone one that you can read free-of-charge make a mistake. Excuse me while I go and shutdown every publication that has made an error in the last two months. It may take awhile though, seeing as everyone from The New York Times to Variety print mistakes every single day.
If you think you are so much wiser than the rest of us, please, and I truly mean this, start your own site. Seeing as you’re the apparent deity of all things pop music related, we will gladly welcome your competition.
Unless you’re willing to help, there is no need to complain nearly as much as you have. That said, we have all truly enjoyed reading your reaction to our personal opinions. It’s funny how infuriating it can be when people just will not see your way, am I right?
I’m not so much a pop deity as I am an idiot who can google: WILL PART OF ME BEAT MICHAEL JACKSONS RECORD?! And unlike you I don’t even really care about that. You want me to help? I did; I set your facts straight. If you can complain so much about her on an illegitimate issue, I think I can complain about you equally as much.
And as far as I’ve seen, you guys are the only ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC site that has drawn this much attention to a non existent matter. It’s that you guys were wrong, but more so how you claim to have expertise in this area and paint an entirely false story of desperate chart victory. You guys can go through the trouble of dissecting a generic pop song to find the ones and zeros of the auto tune but you can’t do a little googling?
I also don’t see writers at the New York Times or Variety insulting their readers grammar, or responding so immaturely. Most of this is directed at you James since at least Josh isn’t so snotty when he decides to pipe in. Learn something about writers integrity please.
And don’t pull the “go start your own website then.” You sound like a kid whose playing king of the rock. Don’t get upset that you have gotten this much negative feedback, you were obviously asking for it.
Well, that’s the thing, we are not the New York Times. UTG is an opinion driven music news site, we openly promote ourselves as such.
As far as the grammar issue, please inform me why you deem it okay for you to hide behind your fake screen name while sitting cozy in South Bend, IN and tell us what is right and wrong about our efforts, yet I am not allowed to inform others when they have made a mistake?
Because what you are pointed out is completely ad hominem. You are calling someone out for something completely irrelevant to the argument at hand. What I pointed out directly relates to what this whole article is about.
And don’t make comparisons of yourself to the New York Times then. I for one never assumed that you (James, not all of the writers at UTG collectively) had a shred of the same integrity as the New York Times.
minus the first *are* since you have such grievances with grammar and typos.
Everyone has their own opinions, but this single isn’t counted towards her record of beating MJ because it’s technically released on a different album, Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection. So she’s not just doing it to pump out another single just to beat the record. I think it’s catchy but not everyone does, everyone has their own opinion. It’s not like these guys reviewing are hating on her, they admitted they like her somewhat.
Lol so many buffoons out there these days….. This song is terrible I agree 100% with this review. The reason I’m hating? Its because Katy Perry is generic blabber. I’ve read the comments and there are so many idiots ho actually like this song (yes you have no right to your opinion for getting pissed at the guys on this site for telling theirs). Just because it tops the charts does not mean its a good song (Sexy and I know it). This song is very generic and boring I’ve seen many reviews and they all say the same thing. Reading these comments is making me lose hope for the future of man kind…. Oh how far we’ve fallen……
I agree with this 100%. it’s shitty pop that is like everthing else
This song is trash, but her label will make it a hit no matter what. Not a single person on her team cares about quality or longevity. They only care about getting a number one single. Billboard has already said this song won’t count toward the MJ record because it’s on a re-release and I’m glad. Since it won’t break his record, I don’t care if dumb asses want to waste their money buying it.
This song sucks and the reviews are spot on. I dont care if it sells 6 million downloads in a day, it still sucks. I’d really like to know KPs demographic because there is no other way to explain the popularity of this song other than a bunch of 12 to 15 year old girls that are too mesmerized by the fact that its a KP song to realize that its crap. How can the same person who wrote Brick By Brick and Firework write this. She ought to be ashamed of herself for this tasteless and obvious ploy to get herself another #1. Such a joke.