Never judge a book by its cover

It’s emerged in the press that Katy Perry‘s insurance agents are concerned that, one of these days, she’s going to come a cropper on one of her bizarre stage outfits.

The Pezmeister has upset her insurance company by insisting on wearing a mechanical rotating bra during live gigs, and now they’re worried her hair might get stuck in the mechanism and cause a serious neck injury (I should imagine Katy’s publicists, on the other hand, are rubbing their palms together at the PR jamboree that would follow the headline ‘Popstar decapitated live onstage by malfunctioning brassiere’).

Perry’s insurers are probably justified in their anxieties, although of course her wardrobe antics do somewhat pale in comparison to Gaga’s – a woman who, when she’s not dressing up in pork underpants, is more than likely to be seen accepting a Grammy in nothing but a few strips of rather cleverly positioned duck tape.

But the thing is, insurance issues aside, all of this just exposes the superficial farce that is pop music these days. What are we doing endlessly discussing the outrageous garb of this popstar or that when really we should be debating the quality of their music…? Isn’t that judging proverbial books by their covers? I just think it’s really sad when musicians feel like they have to dress up, like they have to play court jester in ridiculous costumes, when really they should just let their music speak for itself.

I just think it’s really sad.