Why I Approve Of Katy Perry's Shady Chart Tactics

It's easy to forget that Katy Perry was a B-List pop star before "Teenage Dream". Her major label debut spawned a couple of big hits but the album failed to move huge numbers and she was dismissed by many as the poor man's Pink. How much difference a year has made! The 27-year-old is now arguably the biggest pop star on the planet. Her run of five consecutive number one US hits blows Rihanna and Lady Gaga out of the water, establishing "Teenage Dream" as a modern classic that will rank alongside "The Fame" and "I Am... Sasha Fierce" as an iconic game-changer. The only question mark over that stunning achievement is the way Mrs Brand snared her last chart-topper. There's no denying the popularity of the album's first four singles but Katy used every shady trick in the book to push "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" to the pole position. She made a blockbuster video, discounted the song on iTunes and released a completely unnecessary remix featuring Missy Elliot.

It was all very desperate but I was willing to turn a blind eye because 1) the song was brilliant and 2) it was already top 3 when Capitol started getting creative. The shady lady is back with the sixth flawless single from "Teenage Dream" and it easily landed in the top 10 with little help. But Team Perry is clearly not content with scoring 6 top 10 hits from the one album. They want to dance on Michael Jackson's grave by scoring another number one and the first step was discounting the Dr Luke/Max Martin-penned mid-tempo ballad on iTunes. With airplay still rising and a rumoured remix on the way, "The One That Got Away" could just make it to the top. And I'm fine with that. Until someone fixes up the rules relating to discounting (hello, Lady Gaga) and the validity of dodgy remixes (I'm looking at you, Rihanna and Britney), Katy is just playing the game. And more importantly, the song has to be genuinely popular in the first place to be in the position to take advantage of these dodgy tricks. Watch the lovely video below and then head over to iTunes to nab yourself a bargain.