Being raised as a girl, I was exposed to plenty of girls' media as a kid. There is overall a much lower standard for Girl Media than there is for works that are made to appeal to more neutral or masculine audiences, and I really wanted to focus on appreciating the really girly stuff that often goes overlooked when people talk about "good" girls' cartoons, which tend to skew toward more action-focused, "boys can watch too"-type media.
This song combines two very different eras of women in music, and that's something I wanted to focus on, too. My mom grew up as a girl too, of course, and she has her own era of girly media to reminisce on. Some of those things even had equivalents or reboots in the 2000s, connecting us further. Our relationship may have its issues, but as I get older and am able to comprehend her more as a person rather than a vague authority figure, I realize we have a lot more in common than I ever thought we did.
A sort of side thing I really want to point out in this one is the MLP:FiM clip used in this video. If you weren't there in 2011, you probably have no idea why it seems so strangely fitting with the song. No, I didn't make a separate AMV just to put in the background of the beginning of this song, and no, I didn't take a fanmade one. That there is an official AMV complete with an official parody of California Gurls recorded in Pinkie Pie's voice, and it aired on The Hub. I listened to it more than I did the original Katy Perry song. I am not proud of it, but I was 12 years old, so I'm not really ashamed either.