People seem to forget that Katy Perry was actually a legit musician before she became a popstar. She wrote and still writes her own material, wrote for other artists, worked the NYC bars, went on tour at 16 years old with just her and her guitar and was trying to make it for 2-3 years in LA. Her unreleased songs and her debut Christian album show that she has great musical ear and taste apart from her pop stuff right now.

So even if she fails as a popstar in about 2 years, she still has something to fall back on - her musicianship. Other popstars however like Britney and Rihanna have nothing to fall back on. If only she'd stop smoking though...