Who Run The World? Politics in Pop

The camera pans up from the belly of the Super Bowl arena and up into the rafters of the NRG stadium’s roof. A lone figure stands, ahem, on the edge with Houston’s skyline illuminating the horizon behind. Cut to a close-up. Lady Gaga appears clad in an entirely sequinned one-piece. The shoulders jut out in angles straight out of Bowie’s Cat From Japan era, before she launches into a gutsy rendition of Woodie Guthrie’s seminal folk song, This Land Is Our Land. A digitally generated red and blue starlight forms into the US flag before she plunges down to the crowd. 

Forget the MTV Awards, the national anthem at a presidential inauguration, or even a 15-night residency at Madison Square Garden (looking at you, Styles!), the Super Bowl is now considered one of the biggest showcases for pop’s brightest stars. The Lady Gaga performance in question saw the superstar fly from the roof to the stage in one of the most acrobatic and showstopping Super Bowl halftime shows of all time. Of course, music has had a long-standing relationship with the NFL’s annual final playoffs. Two decades prior, Michael Jackson took to the stage as part of the 1993 broadcast in a bid to keep viewers from changing the channel. And, in the last 30 years, the coveted half-time slot has become synonymous with a star-studded show, with everyone from Madonna to last year’s Mount Rushmore level of hip-hop royalty (Snoop, Eminem, Dre, Kendrick, Mary J. Blige, to name but a few) entertaining millions. 

But, in more recent years, politics have collided with the programmed pop on stage. Beyoncé’s appearance during Coldplay's 2016 show might have been one of the most radical political statements from the superstar in her career to date. The Grammy-award-winning songwriter was flanked by a dance troupe donning Black Panther-style berets and black leather. They posed with raised fists evocative of the black power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympic Games. The stylisation felt particularly significant too given 2016 marked 50 years since the formation of the Black Panthers. The African-American revolutionary group also had its roots in Oakland, a city positioned less than 50 miles from the stadium where the Super Bowl took place.

Fast forward four years and Jennifer Lopez and Shakira tag-teamed for a staggering celebration of Latino culture while making an essential comment on the ongoing border crisis between the US and Mexico. Lopez’s 11-year-old daughter Emme Maribel Muñiz sang a ballad rendition of Let’s Get Loud from inside an illuminated, cage-like dome. In front of the stage, more young girls sat in similar structures – a reference to the conditions many immigrant children were facing under the Trump administration after being separated from their parents and detained in horrifying conditions. 

Yet despite tackling such heavy subjects in their stage shows, these buoyant pop personas didn’t see their following thin out. Far from it, in fact, with Beyoncé’s post-Bowl Formation World Tour grossing $256 million in ticket sales. Meanwhile, according to Spotify, streams of J.Lo’s music rose by 335% following her performance. Remarkably, as government politicians continue to squabble over Partygate and hand out internal bullying reports, mainstream music stars are addressing the rising concerns of the populace. 

This act of musicians galvanising around a cause or movement isn’t new. The Secret Policeman’s Ball began life in 1976 to support human rights charity, Amnesty International. Two years later, 100,000 people marched six miles from Trafalgar Square to the East End of London (a National Front hotspot) for the first Rock Against Racism; an open-air concert at Victoria Park in Hackney, the event welcomed The Clash, X-Ray Spex, and Jimmy Pursey (of Sham 69 fame) all onto the bill. While the 1970s might’ve found crowds campaigning for change in collective green spaces, the last few years have seen singular pop titans using the mic to amplify political expression. 

Could it be that rather than simply performing songs as a soundtrack to societal issues, artists are now feeling a moral obligation to make an impact with their platforms as the headlines get bleaker by the minute? The same year that Jennifer Lopez was working hard on her Super Bowl setup, the platinum-selling country trio the Dixie Chicks announced they would become simply The Chicks. This was the latest example of sweeping cultural changes brought on by nationwide protests spotlighting racial inequality. As the US questioned removing Confederate monuments that have ignited debate for years, The Chicks made the decision to drop ‘Dixie’ due to its connotations of the pre-war slavery era. 

Elsewhere in the South, the Netflix documentary Miss Americana shows 12-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift agonising about whether to speak out to her legions of fans during the 2018 elections. She weighs up publicly endorsing two Democratic candidates from her home state of Tennessee. By doing so, she would denounce [eventual winner] Marsha Blackburn who voted against the reauthorisation of the Violence Against Women Act and is against gay marriage. On an Instagram post a few months later explaining why, she finally makes her decision clear: “I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin colour, gender, or who they love.”

Not all examples of exposing an artist’s true colours are quite as positive though. Social media has presented our favourite musicians with the opportunity to share more of their values and beliefs with their fans. But what if the audience you garnered some 20 years ago has now wised up to a darker underbelly? An increasingly divided world is suddenly reflected starkly in pop’s bubblegum-sweet sheen. In 2020, Vice ran an investigative report into the mutiny that teen idols Hanson are now facing.

Closer to home, the 67th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest comes to British shores this month. While the event is often shrouded by a level of inter-country allegiances and tactical voting between entrants, the pop pantheon continues to push its otherwise camp, skirt-flinging legacy to become a safe space for self-expression. You might remember back in 2014, Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst took home the title for their country with blinding banger, Rise Like a Phoenix. This moment marked almost 20 years since Dana International, a trans woman, clinched the same top spot for Israel with Diva. Eurovision isn’t explicitly a queer extravaganza but there’s no doubt that the annual ceremony is entrenched in LGBTQ+ culture. 

It will be a tough brief for the host city Liverpool to land this year though. The UK will be the surrogate home to the ceremony on behalf of last year’s winners in Ukraine, as the war against Russia continues for its people. And so the dichotomy between pop and politics rages on, just like those Super Bowl stadium shows laden with more subtle messaging than just powering Pepsi’s soda sales. And, perhaps, that’s why we need these lightning rods of change now more than ever. 

With millions of millennial voters across the globe disconnecting from democracy, is it any wonder a new generation is looking to alternative figureheads? Pop giants like J.Lo and Queen Bey with decade-spanning careers who have displayed a razor-sharp commitment to hard graft and bucketloads of business acumen. These stadium-sized statements don't just represent a political statement but a humanitarian emergency. Let the (pop) sirens sound.