Military Propaganda in Katy Perry's Music Video "Part of Me"
In Katy Perry’s recent music video for her single: “Part of Me”, she is
shown joining the US military after discovering her boyfriend has
cheated on her. Some may analyse the video on its artistic merit - the
use of the military as a good metaphor for relationships in real life
maybe – but I shall be analysing how on a sociological level, this music
video unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally?) serves as propaganda
for the US army.
Katy Perry’s status as a celebrity first of
all, makes her a strong influencer of behaviour in society, especially
among children and the 14-25 demographic. It is a well-noted social
phenomenon that impressionable teens tend to emulate their idols, and
treat them as a source of information in understanding the world around
them. At this young age, they have not have fully formed views or
opinions on the issues of their society, and they tend to lean towards
the same kind of political views of their idols, with celebrities
leveraging on their popularity to push forward their own ideas and
agenda on a new generation of teens and future adults. For example, Lady
Gaga has constantly mobilised her fan-base, which she dubs her ‘little
monsters’ to support the LGBT agenda by protesting Proposition 8 in
California, as well as fighting for and celebrating when same-sex
marriage legislation was passed in New York.
The music video
itself shows Katy Perry going through the United States Marine Corp
training and then fighting a all out battle with her new comrades, and
these scenes are presented as the backdrop to lyrics about empowerment
and standing up for yourself.
So when Katy Perry talks about
the great service that soldiers have provided for her country and her
admiration of their service: "Even though I was sore and exhausted, I
was so educated on people in the service, who I've always respected but
the stuff they go through, and the kind of loyalty they posses, it's
very communal, and community. Not to sound weird, but it seems like the
heart of America. Seriously, the heart." This, combined with the
elements present in her video, firstly, implants the suggestion in her
fans’ minds that she appreciates people who join the military, and the
subliminal implication of if I were to join the army, it would please my
idol Katy Perry.
The immediate consequence of this is a
greater interest in the armed forces, and in the age of social media,
many positive sentiments and feedback aired online. One can imagine
hordes of rabid Katy Perry fan responding on forums, video sharing sites
or social networks with comments such as: “My brother is in the army,
I’m so proud of him and I am so glad Katy is showing appreciation for
these great men and women! God bless our troops!” Indeed similar
comments have already been aired on Youtube.
In society, one’s
understanding of the world directly co-relates to their field of
experiences, and what they are exposed to. That’s why isolated Mormon
communities in the United States for example still has misogynistic
views of women, and subjugate girls as young as 9 or 10 to be sex slaves
for the old patriarchs of their community, under the guise of being a
dutiful wife.
So now, the large communities of Katy Perry fans
online, and teenagers and children (yes, a large portion of Katy
Perry’s fans are between the ages of 7 and 12, hence her appearance on
Sesame Street) who don’t know any better at their relatively young and
naïve age and deliberately expose themselves to this point of view, have
this idealised idea of the army and recruitment.
Needless to
say, these ideas could change as they grow up and learn more about the
world, but given the fanatical nature of a lot of these fans, and their
almost religious devotion to their pop idols, it would be no surprise to
me that if Katy Perry were to continue producing pro-army content, it
would foster a pretty strong pro-army conviction in her fans as they
grow into adulthood.
It’s not that hard to believe: Look at
the kids who grew up in the cold war generation when pro-war, and
pro-army propaganda hit them in all directions from movies like Rambo
and Red Dawn to animated children’s shows like GI Joe, kids from their
generation grew up wanting to be soldiers for the US military and dying
for their countries to defeat the ‘commie bastards’
Since such
explicit propaganda cannot pass through our censors anymore these days,
the propaganda machine has to use more nebulous ways to inculcate their
message, and Katy Perry would be a good choice to help them along, if
she hasn’t already been employed to do so. Besides, why do they think
the US military so willingly allowed Katy Perry access to such a large
range of their facilities and equipment? Of course, they didn’t do it so
that Katy Perry could execute her artistic vision for the song, they
did it because they saw there was some good propaganda purpose in
allowing Katy Perry to do so. So Katy Perry unknowingly or quite likely
knowingly, let herself be used as a pawn for the US army.
Cultural icons like Katy Perry are extremely adept at propagating ideas
or desired behaviour because of their possession of an in-built target
audience of unbelievably loyal consumers, who wittingly or unwittingly -
most of the time it is the latter – subscribe to their view and
understanding of the world. Given that Katy Perry has already shown some
success in imbibing these pro-army sentiments among her followers, I’d
reckon the US army would be more than willing to let her continue using
their facilities and resources for her next video if she so chooses,
which I have a good feeling she will, if not sooner, then later.
PS: This follows the trend among our current music and pop culture
icons of using military elements in their videos, Rihanna's music video
for her single "Hard", almost seems to fetishize the army.
