Katy Perry gets political on her new song ‘Chained to the Rhythm’

You know America’s in a troubling spot when even Katy Perry is singing about the illusion of freedom.

That’s the subject of “Chained to the Rhythm,” the once-carefree pop star’s new single, which appeared online Thursday night amid a series of Perry tweets and retweets about revolution, George Orwell’s “1984” and the need to “question everything.”

“Are we crazy? / Living our lives through a lens,” she sings, “Trapped in our white picket fence / Like ornaments.” The song goes on to point out how comfortable we are “living in a bubble” where we “dance to the distortion.”

Then Perry – whose Twitter bio now reads “Artist. Activist. Conscious.” – really drops the hammer: Turns out that distortion is leading each of us to stumble around “like a wasted zombie.”

Is this the first major pop song about fake news?

The initial sampling from Perry’s upcoming studio album (her follow-up to “Prism” from 2013), “Chained to the Rhythm” was co-produced by the singer’s old pal Max Martin and features a guest appearance by Skip Marley (a.k.a. Bob’s grandson), who announces in his verse that “time is ticking for the empire.”

AP-WF-02-10-17 1716GMT