The story of pop music in 2017 can be summed up in a tale of two comebacks. Both Lorde and Katy Perry rejoined the fray over the summer with their first albums in four years. Lorde's Melodrama is an utterly self-assured song cycle about partying, break-ups and entering adulthood. Rather than tie herself in knots trying to repeat the success of her surprise hit "Royals", Lorde and writer-producer Jack Antonoff crafted a new vessel for her mordant wit and emotional honesty - somewhat reminiscent of Taylor Swift's 1989, but full of peculiar twists and subversions. It received almost unanimous hosannas.

The rollout of Perry's Witness, meanwhile, was painful to watch. First single "Chained To The Rhythm" seemed to represent the "purposeful pop" she'd been talking about since campaigning for Hillary Clinton, but then "Bon Appétit" was a crass double entendre featuring rap trio Migos and "Swish Swish" was a dance track that reheated Perry's tedious beef with Swift. Perry launched Witness with a bizarre 72-hour live stream in which, among other things, she hosted a tense celebrity dinner party and started crying to her therapist about wanting to be Katheryn Hudson (her birth name) instead of Katy Perry. It was impossible to work out what she was trying to say. Did she want to be woke, sexy, bitchy or vulnerable? Did she even want to be releasing a record? Witness topped the US charts on starpower alone but dropped 89 per cent in week two - the kind of high-profile flop that causes palpitations in record company boardrooms.

Artists who want to flourish in a period when authenticity is king should take their own advice - if the industry lets them

You could see the contrast between the two women on stage at Glastonbury. Lorde, who tours the UK this month, dramatised the themes of Melodrama via an audacious theatrical spectacle reminiscent of Kate Bush's Before The Dawn shows, perfectly calibrating every step, every syllable. Next to that, Perry's performance was as cluttered as a child's bedroom. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't explain it to you. It was just a bunch of stuff happening.

Perry's identity crisis might be a symptom of a deeper upheaval in the bowels of the industry. Witness enlisted such blue-chip hitmakers as Max Martin and Sia without yielding a single song fit to touch the hem of Perry's 2013 anthem "Roar". At this ruthless end of the industry what's good is what works, so Witness' nosedive isn't just Perry's problem; it's a collective failure on the part of the writers, producers and executives who are paid to deliver the goods.

Lorde is playing a different game. Despite her Top 40 positioning, she's a serious singer-songwriter at heart so she doesn't need (nor, I suspect, want) radio bangers. Working with Antonoff on every song reveals an artistic confidence that bodes well for the future. Successful artists need a coherent story to tell and that's a lot easier if you can settle on one songwriting voice. Take the unstoppable Ed Sheeran: he's not exactly a Prince-style auteur, but whoever he works with his lyrical identity is unmistakable, so each album has an immediately persuasive narrative.

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There's no point being purist about authorship in pop, but in practice a tighter team makes for a clearer identity and several major stars seem to be leaning towards that model. Lady Gaga, who tours in October, used a jumble of cowriters on 2016's deliberately downsized, indie-curious Joanne, but got Mark Ronson and BloodPop to produce the whole thing. Harry Styles' surprisingly likeable attempt to teleport himself to the Sunset Strip in 1975 was facilitated by a consistent squad led by writer-producer Jeff Bhasker.

The saddest thing about Perry's predicament is that she chose (or was cajoled into choosing) the wrong path. Perry is no longer the joyfully inauthentic pop-art confection who released the bright-eyed "Teenage Dream" seven years ago. She's a 32-year-old who wants to be heard and understood and she needs a creative partner to help her get that across. A woman whose best songs champion female empowerment appears trapped inside a machine that no longer works for her. It made her performance of "Roar" at Glastonbury weirdly poignant.

Today's pop stars are constantly telling their fans, "Be yourself." It's the mantra of our age. Artists who want to flourish in a period when authenticity is king should take their own advice - if the industry lets them.

Solo artists need a little help sometimes

We chart the number of writers on these hit albums:

Katy Perry, Witness, 201734 songwriters, including Perry

Katy Perry, Prism, 201322 songwriters, including Perry

Adele, 21, 201113, including Adele

Adele 25, 201512, including Adele

Lorde, Melodrama, 20173, including Lorde

Lorde, Pure Heroine, 20132, including Lorde

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