This Is How We Do

Album: Prism (2013)
Charted: 33 24
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Songfacts®:

  • This 1990s New Jack Swing-influenced dance track is a girls night out anthem that pays tribute to those ladies who party all night. Perry called it "the sequel to 'Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).'"

    The lyrics also reference La Super Rica, Perry's favorite taqueria in her Santa Barbara hometown.
  • The song was produced by Klas Åhlund, who was the man behind the boards on the Prism track, "Walking On Air." The Swedish producer is best known for his collaborations with the synthpop singer Robyn, but he has also worked with Britney Spears ("Piece Of Me") and Kesha ("Blow").
  • Perry explained in a tweet that the inspiration for this song was: "My OG crew, our parties & my hometown Santa Barbara."
  • The colorful music video was filmed by Australian director Joel Kefali (Lorde's "Tennis Court") and pays tribute to pop culture. Perry wears, for instance, an Saint Laurent dress inspired by the early 20th century Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, who was a major figure in the De Stijl art movement, (it inspired the White Stripes' second album title). Look out also for references to Pee-Wee Herman, Mariah Carey and Aretha Franklin.
  • Let's take a closer look at some of the pop culture references in the video. The opener, which shows a man sitting on a bench and looking at a portrait of Perry, was inspired by Duane Hanson's "Man on a Bench," a famous 1977 mixed-media sculpture that often perplexes museum-goers with its realism. According to Kefali, the camera's shift into the stylized world inside the portrait was inspired by a scene from the 1949 musical On the Town, starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. The film also partially inspired the dancing style of Perry's back-up dancers.

    The animated ice cream bars and snack foods were taken from the classic "Let's All Go to The Lobby" advertisement shown in '50s movie theaters.
  • Brooklyn Nets basketball player Jason Collins makes a cameo appearance in the clip, where he is in mid-dunk against a cloudy backdrop with floating basketballs all around him - a nod to '90s hoops-themed movies like Space Jam and Air Bud.

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