【Beauty Salon Special Service 4】

"Chained to the Rhythm" is Beauty Salon Special Service 4a new kind of Katy Perry song, certainly.

"Are we tone deaf / Keep sweeping it under the mat / Thought we could do better than that / I hope we can," Perry sings. "So comfortable, we're living in a bubble, bubble / So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, trouble."

Still, the song's lyric video features a very cute hamster, eating tiny versions of people food, because this is still the girl behind "Last Friday Night."

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TheLA Timesquestioned if "Chained to the Rhythm" is, "the first major pop song about fake news." While it evokes the warped reality of the Trump era for people who are consumed by constant terror, it doesn't make any concrete declarations. It does what pop music does best and provides a beat for your own projections. It hints at political awareness without actually being political, which would require some specificity.

Instead, Perry relies on her audience's awareness of extra-curricular political activities, like her tireless support of Hillary Clinton, to send the message, often through social media.

And sure, it's a fair for anypop star in 2017 to assume that their audience is tracking their moves on social media. Perry isthe most followed Twitter user after all (sorry, @realDonaldTrump).

Lady Gaga pulled the same trick at the Super Bowl. Conservatives applauded her for putting politics aside, while liberals insisted that her performance was a multi-layered middle finger. Indeed, Woody Guthrie's “This Land is Your Land” was written in response to “God Bless America” -- Gaga literally played to both teams.

It's a sly move. Lady Gaga and Perry are able to keep things nice with sponsors like Pepsi while convincing their Instagram followers they're pulling off acts of resistance for the masses.

But let's be clear for a second: Katy Perry has no moral obligation to create overtly political pop songs, but it does make sense for her to at least dip her toes in the waters of activist music.

Spending a couple years putting in the time on the campaign trail proves that this is pretty important to her. And from a more cynical perspective (and we should always be cynical with celebrities), it's the only way to get attention right now.

At some point, the need for pure pop escapism will return, probably stronger than ever. But for now, people crave entertainment that addresses a dystopian reality. They want 1984and Melissa McCarthy as a slightlyexaggerated version of an unhinged Sean Spicer.

Less than a month into Trump's presidency, being apolitical just isn’t good branding, as celebrities like Taylor Swift found out by skipping the Women's March and generally staying out of all political discussion. Swift’s sample size girl squad version of feminism isn’t going to cut it anymore -- especially if she intends to profit from the social movement without concrete action.

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Most white women, after all, voted for Trump. Identifying yourself as a proud member of that demographic amounts to no more than a declaration of complacency if it's not backed up by action. For fellow A-List pop stars like Beyoncé, just performing while embracing their identities is considered an aggressive move -- remember #BoycottBeyoncé? So it's important for their peers to step up.

If we're using the Super Bowl as a way to gauge the the intersection of pop stardom and politics now -- as perhaps we should have in the aftermath of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's performance -- Perry's performance in 2015 is a good time capsule. Is there a greater symbol of carefree entertainment than Left Shark? Now, with lyrics like "stumble around like a wasted zombie," she's calling people, and perhaps marine life, out.

Perry has come a long way, especially in the last two years. Let's not forget that she splashed into the mainstream with her queer tourism anthem, "I Kissed a Girl." On that same album -- with the groan inducing title, One of the Boys-- she offered three minutes of pure pop homophobia with, "Ur So Gay." In the years since then, she's had a few notable slip-ups, particularly with cultural appropriation, practically a rite of passage for pop stars.

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But lately, Perry's been a much better champion for human rights. In addition to her campaigning, she's been supporting Black Lives Matter, producing a pro-Muslim PSA and showing up for the Women's March. Though a far cry from political anthems, her Olympics single "Rise" and even Prism's lead single "Roar" are small signs that Perry is thinking about the bigger picture.

There is a difference between being a high profile activist and making political art. Whether Perry will cross that threshold with this album remains to be seen. But we'll definitely be looking to her Grammys performance on Sunday night for clues.