Summary: The new music video by Katy Perry provides a warning and a call to action for America. Looking deeper, it reveals much about America. The video deserves attention as entertainment, as art, and as a mirror in which we can more clearly see ourselves. Below is the video, followed by analysis.
Are we crazy?
Living our lives through a lens
Trapped in our white picket fence
Like ornaments
So comfortable, we’re living in a bubble, bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, trouble
Aren’t you lonely
Up there in utopia
Where nothing will ever be enough?
Happily numb
So comfortable, we’re living in a bubble, bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, trouble.
So put your rose-colored glasses on
And party on.
Turn it up, it’s your favorite song
Dance, dance, dance to the distortion
Come on, turn it up, keep it on repeat
Stumbling around like a wasted zombie
Yeah, we think we’re free
Drink, this one is on me
We’re all chained to the rhythm
To the rhythm
To the rhythm.
Are we tone deaf?
Keep sweeping it under the mat
Thought we could do better than that
I hope we can
So comfortable, we’re living in a bubble, bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, trouble
So put your rose-colored glasses on
And party on.
[Skip Marley sings.]
It is my desire
Break down the walls to connect, inspire
Ay, up in your high place, liars
Time is ticking for the empire
The truth they feed is feeble
As so many times before
They greed over the people
They stumbling and fumbling
And we’re about to riot
They woke up, they woke up the lions
(Woo!)
Turn it up
Turn it up
It goes on, and on, and on
It goes on, and on, and on
It goes on, and on, and on
‘Cause we’re all chained to the rhythm
Thoughts about “Chained to the Rhythm”
This is a powerful counterpoint to the advertisements by Apple, Microsoft, and the interchangeable cell phone companies showing fashionable upper class professionals rocking with their techno-toys. And the innumerable TED talks to that market about the glossy 21st century of fashionista libertarianism, security, and prosperity.
Rather than the avant garde insiders who all get it, Katy Perry plays the outsider — an ingénue who wanders into the Oblivia amusement. She see things familiar to the others but wondrous to her. She begins with a desire to join but ends in doubt.
Offstage there are the other 80% of America slowly (or rapidly) getting crushed by the unrestrained forces of capitalism (cutely called “markets”) unleashed by the bipartisan alliance riding under the banners of neoliberalism.
Here Katy Perry speaks for the small number of Millennials living in the world built by the Boomers, those who party in palaces but warn of stress gathering in the crowds outside the gates.
But she uses an exhausted perspective.
The tropes Katy Perry uses to show of 21st C America are retro, based on the false leftist picture of the 1950s as an era of sterile conformity. After two generations of leftist propaganda, that’s all the Millennials know about it. A critique of today’s America based on a false vision of the distant past can rouse emotions — but can produce neither individual change nor political action. She might as well warn of the velociraptor menace, or film a reboot of the mad Reagan-era Red Dawn
In “Chained to the Rhythm” Katy Perry takes the safe path by criticizing the present as a continuation of long-dead trends. Doing so offends no powerful economic or cultural forces. Our taste-setters hate the 1950s, and robotically applaud condemnations of it (even if dumbed-down to the level of Pleasantville
It’s always about class.
An oddity of modern America is that we’re inspired and even instructed about social problems, by wealthy pop stars. They’re not shy about flaunting their wealth.
In this video Katy Perry — net worth $125 million — breezes into Oblivia like a princess (the best dressed women there). In “Blank Space” Taylor Swift — net worth $250 million — introduces her boy toys to life in the aristocracy (nice mansion!). In “Touch My Body” Mariah Carey — net worth $250 million — a working stiff visits her mansion and fantasizes about the fun life of the aristocracy.
Contrast this rock stars of the past. Bruce Springsteen, a man of the people. Rebels like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Working class singers like Johnny Cash.
These inspirational lectures from the rich — with the 1% of stars collecting 3/4 of the revenue — mirror the America of which they are a part, as our new aristocracy slowly dominates all aspects of society. This reaches theater of the absurd levels in our elections, where representatives of wealthy clans vie for office — the winners are those who best portray populists on TV.
The bottom line.
We are a transitional stage, as people slowly realize what is happening to America. Find insights and inspirations to action where you can, however imperfect. As we develop clearer visions and deeper understandings, artists will reflect this in their work. In turn this will help us grow more.
For More Information
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about reforming American (steps to a new politics), especially these …
- Katy Perry shows us the permanent militarization of America.
- Listen to Katy Perry describe the state of America (and its cure) in song.
- Forgotten what political reform looks like? See this reminder by Taylor Swift.
- Taylor Swift shows us love in the 21st century.
- Our biggest films reveal dark truths about us.
I want to ride this roller coaster someday.
