It was in 1988 when Michael Jackson’s fame catapulted into something cosmic, reaching for the moon and beyond. Jackson’s seventh studio album, “Bad,” not only sold over 30 million copies worldwide, but became the first album to have five of its singles peak at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.     Fast forward 23 years and a new musician is reaching for the proverbial stars in the pop culture stratosphere; Katy Perry’s  “Teenage Dream” is the only album since Jackson’s to score five number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

At this years MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Katy Perry skipped home with three trophies. One of which, the Video of the Year award (considered by many to be the holy grail of pop production), was awarded for her video for “Fireworks”, a tune that reads like a motivational fizzy drink and goes down just as easy. Perhaps, in this age of instant downloads and ironic twitter banter, a quick sugar rush to the head is all we need to get by, like an extra shot of espresso. Personally, I find brassiere sparklers erupting into the night sky inspiration enough to get out of bed.

No longer a lauded zeitgeist movement, the VMAs have become more like a sardonic mockery of modern music (see Tyler, the Creator’s entire career), so why must its winners be anything else but figureheads?

Many are in disarray over Perry’s accomplishment, denouncing her music as vacuous, contrived, and without substance: words that have lazily been tossed around when describing the youth of our generation. Yet, though art shows civilization changing, rarely does it actually create the change. Therefore, one must wonder if Perry is simply doing her job, feeding the youth the flirty, bubble-gum pop it hungers for.

Take a gander at Jackson’s “Bad” era; a turbulent call-to-arms for self-independence as Jackson acquired an edgier aesthetic. It was an artist tackling different subjects in a new way. And while Perry’s pop parade is anything but Enlightenment, “Teenage Dream” does focus on the universal sentiments of love and all of its dreary gutters, much like “Bad,” but in a manner parallel with the times.

Denouncing one artist for the strengths of another is exceptionally frivolous, for the landscape of popular music in the 80s and the present are vastly different. However, when we look at the “What Makes Music Pop Music?” checklist, we find that the two albums are extremely similar. Bouncy, approachable jams? Check.  Eye-catching visual components? Check. Provocative, risque lyrical content? Check. Flashy persona? Of course.

Believe it or not, Katy Perry has found a niche in today’s music industry. She floats up to her throne on cotton candy clouds and hangs her aqua blue wig on some lofty pop art ideal waiting for you to crown her the teen queen. And if her gilded noise fails to tickle your sweet tooth, maybe her next Billboard success will hit the spot.