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Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream’ Defined a Pop Era — But Also Marked the End of One

Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' era was a peak for her and for pop music, but it also showed why its moment was about to come to a close.

With Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Stargate, and a still-rising young gun named Benny Blanco in her corner, Perry constructed a bulletproof, era-defining pop album – one that topped the Billboard 200 and is today certified diamond by the RIAA. “Maybe CDs will be extinct next time I put out [an] album… so I wanted to go out with a bang for people to remember this,” Perry said when she revealed Teenage Dream ‘s pin-up-inspired artwork a few weeks before the album’s August 2010 release. Streaming afforded a certain flexibility to artists – by the mid-’10s, the surprise release became the trendy strategy for superstars – and reduced the need for major singles to extend an album’s longevity.

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