Teenage Dream

This is the second single and title track from American singer-songwriter Katy Perry's third studio album. On the song, Perry sings about a boy who makes her feel like a teenager again. She explained to MTV News why she named the album after this track. "I want to call it Teenage Dream because there's a song on the record [called that] and I wrote that song in Santa Barbara and it was a very pure moment for me, because that's where I'm from," she said. "And it was, like, where I started my creative juices. And also it kind of exudes this euphoric feeling because everybody remembers what their teenage dreams were - all the girls that were on your poster walls." In her 2010 London Live special, Perry elaborated: "'Teenage Dream' is a euphoric feeling. It gives off this feeling that a lot of people have been through. I remember my teenage years, and I remember falling in love for the first time and how impressionable that was. How sensitive I was to every feeling. Heartbreak was really hard. Of course heartbreak is really hard now, and love is still intense, but it's a different type of feeling, that teenage love. I want people to have that feeling again of falling in love unabashedly - those teenage dreams."

Perry re-teamed with her "I Kissed a Girl" co-writers Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and Max Martin for both this track and her previous hit, "California Gurls." Gottwald told Billboard magazine: "Katy definitely knows what she wants and doesn't want. She has an amazing voice, great taste and she makes great videos. It's nice to work with an artist who can deliver your music so well. I love what I get out of them." Perry added regarding Gottwald and company: "It's just pure, unabashed pop, and they definitely have the Midas touch when it comes to radio."

Perry wrote the lyrics with her friend Bonnie McKee, a singer/songwriter who released her own debut album in 2004 but found herself working on a string of Perry's hits, including "California Gurls" and "Roar," with "Teenage Dream" being the first. Perry and McKee rewrote the song five or six times until Martin and Dr. Luke were satisfied. An early version had Perry singing the line, "And the next thing you know, you're a mom in a minivan."