Description

Chained to the Rhythm – Katy Perry

Chained to the Rhythm – Katy Perry for String Quartet

Instrument :  Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello

Key : A minor

Duration : 4’15”

Chained to the Rhythm is a song recorded by American singer Katy Perry for her upcoming fifth studio album. It features vocals from Jamaican singer Skip Marley. Capitol Records released the track on February 10, 2017 as a digital download. “Chained to the Rhythm” is a dancehall and disco song, with lyrics about societal awareness. Commercially the track has reached number one in Latvia and Mexico. Reach the top five in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

On February 18, 2017, Perry released a preview of the music video on her alter ego Kathy Beth Terry’s Twitter account. On February 21, 2017, she released the official music video on Vevo, with Mathew Cullen as director. The video was mostly shot at the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia, Santa Clarita, California. In the video Perry rides a stylised version of the Full Throttle roller coaster.

The video is set in a futuristic theme park called “Oblivia”. BBC’s Mark Savage noted the theme is a metaphor for the infinite distractions of modern society. According to the Gil Kaufman from Billboard, the video has “a number of not-so-subtle hints at Perry’s feelings about the current political climate in the nation.” The video opens with Perry walking though the gates of the theme park, where she stares at her surroundings in fascination. In the video, the guests are all taking selfies, eating child-sized sticks of candy floss and crowding around a sign for “the greatest ride in the universe”. Perry is awestruck like the other guests until she pricks her finger on a rose near “The Great American Dream Drop” and becomes more alert.

Perry next goes on a roller coaster. Savage also noted that the ride’s name is “The New Revolution”, the world’s first vertical loop coaster.  The scene changes to “The Great American Dream Drop,” where it showed a couple who snuggling in a tiny house and swung around in the air. Then they plunged toward the ground.

The next scene takes place at a petrol station, where Perry is whisked off her feet by men in sailor costumes. The scene shows another attractions as flaming glasses of blue “Inferno H₂O,” a tainted liquid that makes patrons belch. And we can see a hamster wheel attraction scene, with arrows pointing guests to the wheel. Near the end, she sits down to watch a 3D movie. Perry notices a disturbing homogeneity among her fellow park guests. Then she join in a giant dance number after Skip Marley jumps out of a 3D movie to rap his cameo. After waking up, Perry sings a panic-stricken final chorus. A mindless dance routine trapped her in the middle. The wake up call leads to the final scene. It shows Perry’s worried face staring into the camera in a moment of fear-filled awakening.