Katy Perry On Seeking Madonna-Like Success & Dating After A Break-Up

Katy Perry has a handful of hit songs, including “I Kissed A Girl,” under her belt, but mega stardom, she believes, will elude her.

“I’d like to say I’d like to be as big as a Gwen or a Madonna, but I think those days of achieving that level are over,” Katy told Esquire’s April issue. “The media is bringing everybody down.”

In fact, the star said that the tabloid attention she has received has made her stop the e-mail alerts that tell her about new Katy Perry stories on the Internet.

“I don’t ever do anything to try and bring it upon myself,” she said of the paparazzi attention. “There are ten thousand other restaurants besides the Ivy. I’m not obsessed with getting my picture taken. You know, there’s just so much taken out of context. There’s so much nit-picking. I turned my data alerts off.”

But while the Google alerts are off, Katy is interested in dating again — eventually (she and Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy split over New Year’s).

“I have a soft spot for musicians,” she told the mag. “If a man could ride this roller coaster with me and come out alive, then I guess we’d deserve each other’s company. But I don’t really have the right energy to be with somebody right now, because when I love somebody, I love somebody. Like, I want to marry them. I don’t date around. I haven’t been on a date. “

Katy may not be interested in men at the moment, but the 24-year-old is in love with unique fashion.

“It’s Lucille Ball meets Bob Mackie,” she said of her style. “It’s about innuendo. I want everybody to get the joke, but I want them to think about it for a minute.”

And she hopes people see her image as related to her music too.

“It’s the whole package,” Katy said. “But people who want to tag along for the ride, they’ll understand and they’ll get the joke and they’ll realize that I wrote the f******g joke.”