"Chained to the Rhythm" Hits Home

This new song by Katy Perry is FIRE! I'm digging the smooth dance hall groove and the danceable melody. It's already stuck in my head.

But the lyrics are really quite powerful, matched with a killer video that really drives the message home. I think both can easily match our emotions regarding our current state of affairs. And if you're an adult in America, at least one of the messages is heavy on your mind these days.

The video starts with Katy walking into a Utopian theme park with a crowd of oblivious citizens. Horrible, inhumane things are happening all around them, but the crowd remains unconcerned.

Katy boards a roller coaster with seats marked "male" and "female". Two people of the same sex can't sit together. They're scored at the end of the ride: the male gets 9500 points, the woman only gets 17 (gender inequality).

She passes a catapult that literally sends families home by hurling them over a wall (sound familiar?).

Not so subtle messages about the housing market, conservatism, immigration and how we're glued to our technology. (I love how the crowd enters the park, too busy taking selfies to enjoy themselves.) You'll even catch some references to nuclear war and the Flint water crisis (look for the people drinking the blue fire water).

But check the lyrics:

Chained to the Rhythm
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, a bubble
So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, the 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
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


Okay, so maybe I've listened a few too many times. But the lyrics hit a nerve (or seven or twenty) on a more personal level for me. If I'm listening but not watching the video, it feels like Katy's lecturing me about my life. All aspects therein.

Pretending everything is okay. My work. My friendships. My health. My world. Day by day, I pretend everything is okay.

Well, everything is definitely NOT okay. Keeping my opinions and frustrations about outrages shown to me and others every day, pretending to only see the topical and ignoring the strong current below, pretending everything is just perfect.

Katy's right. I'm stumbling around like a wasted zombie.