Teenage Dream is the third studio album by the American singer Katy Perry. It was released on August 24, 2010, through Capitol Records and follows her second album One of the Boys (2008). Teenage Dream contains elements of disco, electronic, rock, funk, house, hi-NRG, and hip hop, that revolve around young love, partying, self-empowerment, and personal growth. Perry co-wrote the album, and worked with a number of producers such as Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco, Stargate, and Greg Wells.
With "California Gurls" (featuring Snoop Dogg), "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", Teenage Dream is the second album in history to have five singles (after Michael Jackson's 1987 album Bad) top the US Billboard Hot 100, and the first by a woman to do so. Its sixth single, "The One That Got Away", peaked at number three on that chart, becoming the third after Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 and George Michael's Faith to have six top-five songs on the Hot 100. Teenage Dream topped the album charts in Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and received Diamond certifications in Canada and the US, while being certified multi-Platinum in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK.
Upon its release, Teenage Dream received mixed reviews from music critics, who complimented its production, themes, and Perry's vocal ability while criticism was largely focused on the lack of focus and image, and vulnerability on the album. However, retrospective reviews have praised the album, ranking it on multiple decade-end best albums lists. Billboard named Teenage Dream "one of the defining LPs from a new golden age in mega-pop" and The A.V. Club called the album "pop perfection". Rolling Stone and Paste ranked it among "The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far" in 2025 at number 134 and 179, respectively. The album and its singles earned Perry seven Grammy Award nominations including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Record of the Year. It also won International Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2011.
To promote the album, Perry embarked on the California Dreams Tour from 2011 to 2012, which was also an international success and featured guest appearances from Rebecca Black and opening acts such as Ellie Goulding, Janelle Monáe, Robyn, and Marina and the Diamonds, alongside others. The Teenage Dream era officially concluded with the documentary film Katy Perry: Part of Me, which featured numerous guest appearances from popular musicians and footage from the California Dreams Tour.
Background and development
Following the success of her breakthrough album One of the Boys (2008), Perry did not want her next record to alienate her fanbase, opting to "definitely keep it pop" and not shift her style, believing it would show "whether I'm meant to do this, or I got lucky". In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, she revealed that the album would focus on the "whirlwind" last year of her life, dealing with her newfound fame, friendships, relationships, further stating that "I'm not just gonna talk about the beat and just dancing, I like to get into the meaning". At that point, the singer described the new lyrics as "very honest, if not more honest than the last ones. But they are a little bit more mature... I know how to handle boys now". Perry also wanted the album to have more tempo than One of the Boys to make her live shows more dynamic. She explained: "I really love going to shows where I'm sandwiched between people, and you don't know if the sweat on you is yours or the person's next to you. I love that feeling, and when I was on tour I would see that I was missing that a bit".
Recording sessions for Teenage Dream began in 2009 and took place at a multitude of recording studios in the United States. Work on the album involved collaborating with numerous artists and producers including Dr. Luke, Greg Wells, Guy Sigsworth, Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Rivers Cuomo, Kuk Harrell, Greg Kurstin, Benny Blanco, Darkchild, Cathy Dennis, Esther Dean, and Tricky Stewart, who told Rap-Up in December 2009 that the sound of the album would be pop and rock, like One of the Boys, though calling it a "different gear" for himself. Perry also desired to collaborate with Calvin Harris on the record, "but he got really famous so it didn't happen". According to Luke, Perry gave him a mixtape of songs which inspired her to demonstrate how she wanted the next record to sound. The singer also claimed that working with Martin and Luke was "a wonderful collaborative effort". As for the visual component, the singer likens it to "going from Shirley Temple, Betty Boop to more of a Betty Paige [sic], pop art-sarcastic-fun-Lichtenstein picture: still bright, but the colors are more saturated, and it's more metallic fuchsia or purple than bubblegum pink."
Music and lyrics Perry stated about the album "You're getting the sugary sweet but you're also getting the 'Oh my goodness, she had to sit down for a minute and let things off her chest'". The music of Teenage Dream is derived from a wide variety of pop genres, while heavily incorporating different musical styles not heard on her previous releases; disco and electronic are examples. Musically, Teenage Dream is considered to be a departure from One of the Boys (2008), which was pop rock and soft rock driven. The album features a very wide range of rock subgenres, which include disco rock, glam metal, indie rock, pop rock, hard rock, electronic rock, and goth rock.
Songs
The album opens with the title track "Teenage Dream", which is written as a throwback record to Perry's teenage years. It is a power pop and electropop song which features a "distinct retro sound", and contains influences of disco, pop rock, and industrial music. The song has been compared to several disco artists, including Madonna and the Cardigans. The second song is "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", the song recalls a true experience that Perry had while partying in Santa Barbara which included streaking in a park, dancing on tables, and partying at a club. Musically, the song is styled in the genres of disco, indie rock, and Hi-NRG, while also taking influence from dance-pop. Its third track "California Gurls" continues the "retro sound" carried from "Teenage Dream", and is written as an answer song to "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, and pays tribute to the beach lifestyle of California. The song uses the genres of disco, funk-pop, and electropop, while bearing influence of new wave music within its composition.
Teenage Dreams fourth track is the self-empowerment song "Firework". Written in a disco-rock style which runs over the backing track, it consists of a mix of violins and house music. The song has generated comparisons to artists such as Coldplay and Leona Lewis. According to Perry, "Firework" was inspired by Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, and she has said on many occasions that it is her favorite song from the album. "Peacock" is a dance-pop song, with an up-tempo house music beat. Lyrically, the track contains a double entendre with suggestive wording. New York magazine writer Willa Paskin observed that Perry did the obvious with the song's hook ("she used a common word for penis and made it mean penis!"). Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone thought of "Peacock" as a sequel to Gwen Stefani's 2005 single "Hollaback Girl" by noticing the two songs shared a drum hook. The album follows with "Circle the Drain", a disco-rock song where, lyrically, Perry is telling off a self-destructive drug-addicted ex-boyfriend. Its candid lyrics also discuss the strains his addiction put on both of them. In the track's chorus, she sings about how she wants to be his lover, not someone who has to take care of him, such as a maternal figure. She also sings about how he had ultimately lost large opportunities. The song is styled in the genres of disco-rock, and gothic rock tones. Following this track is "The One That Got Away", which is a pop ballad. Perry stated that she wrote the song "about when you promise someone forever, but you end up not being able to follow through. It's a bittersweet story. Hopefully, the listener learns from hearing it and never has to say they had "the one" get away."
The eighth song, "E.T." is a song about "falling in love with a foreigner". A remix of the song features Kanye West. Musically, the track is an electronic and hip hop ballad influenced by drum and bass, rave, and techno. The eleventh track, "Hummingbird Heartbeat", was inspired by Perry's boyfriend at the time, Russell Brand. Musically, it is a 1980s-styled hard rock song that contains a mixture of elements from rock and electronica. Lyrically, the song compares the feeling of being in love to the speed of a hummingbird's heartbeat. The last track is "Not Like the Movies" a power ballad about a love relationship where a woman does not feel in love and still waits for the man of her dreams, or "charming prince", as a Terra reviewer put it. Its melody was compared to Britney Spears' "Everytime" (2003) and Evanescence's "My Immortal" (2003).
Release and artwork
On June 14, 2010, a beach-themed listening party took place in New York, where a number of tracks from the album were played. Before the album's release, "Not Like the Movies", "Circle the Drain", and "E.T." were made available exclusively on iTunes Store as a countdown to Teenage Dream. Capitol Records first released Teenage Dream in the United States and Canada on August 24, 2010, as a standard and deluxe edition, which contained remixes of "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream". A two-CD edition titled Dream On was later released, consisting of a CD featuring the 12 original tracks, plus another one with two tracks on which Perry had previously appeared as a featured artist — 3OH!3's "Starstrukk" and Timbaland's "If We Ever Meet Again", and remixes of "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream". The album was distributed by EMI Music Japan on August 25 in Japan, and released three days later in the United Kingdom. Teenage Dream was eventually released worldwide on August 30, 2010, by EMI. It was re-released on October 20, 2023, as a two-edition vinyl.
The album's title was revealed as Teenage Dream in May 2010, with Perry explaining it was named after a song on the album she wrote on her hometown in Santa Barbara, which "kind of exudes this euphoric feeling like everyone remembers what their teenage dreams were", Perry explained. The title attracted controversy as it had a similar title to duo Beach House's Teen Dream, released earlier that year. A member of the duo addressed the issue on Twitter, writing they "can't believe this, and not in a good way" when linking to the Teenage Dream Wikipedia article. Their fans also reacted by posting comments on Perry's Wikipedia page, including one that read: "Mrs. Perry's album title may or may not be ripping off the brilliant indie duo Beach House and their critically acclaimed record Teen Dream. It will be a challenge for her to achieve the same aural masterpiece".