How Katy Perry's Teenage Dream Avoided The Sophomore Slump

Katy Perry's just-released album Teenage Dream already has two gigantic hit singles in "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream" and is well on its way to debuting at the top of the Billboard albums chart. With all those accomplishments already on her résumé, it's safe to say Perry has beaten the dreaded sophomore slump.

The landscape of popular music is littered with one-and-done artists who aren't able to parlay the success of a debut into a second effort. Consider the likes of Ashanti or James Blunt, both of whom had chart-topping hits and then struggled to keep it going the second time around. Neither Jessica Simpson nor Mandy Moore managed to come anywhere close to the heights of their first releases, and there are too many boy bands in this predicament to count. But Perry is part of a new wave of pop stars who have managed to overcome the sophomore slump and do it with aplomb. Perry joins Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift among the many other names who have taken their second releases to even greater heights than their chart-busting debuts. What are they doing that other people aren't?