Savannah Pope blends rococo fantasy and brutal honesty in “Panopticon”
Savannah Pope’s “Panopticon” explores how certain people’s gaze can remain in our consciousness long after an experience has ended.
Drawing from her own history with body image and sexual trauma, the artist examines the feeling of still being watched, measured, and judged by figures who are no longer present but whose influence continues to shape how we perceive ourselves.
In “Panopticon,” surveillance is understood as an internalized presence, a gaze that survives in our memory and continues to alter our relationship with our own bodies. In this way, the song addresses a complex consequence of trauma, where the person who exercised control may be gone, but their judgments continue to occupy space in our minds. The title captures the tension between feeling free and continuing to behave as though someone were still watching, referencing the panopticon, a design based on constant surveillance in which the possibility of being observed is enough to make people regulate their own behavior.
Musically, the song combines influences from film scores, opera, and the theatricality of artists such as Florence + the Machine and The Last Dinner Party. The orchestral arrangements, baroque pop drama, and intimacy of cabaret amplify the conflict without concealing Pope’s vulnerability. In this way, a deeply personal experience becomes a firm statement against what held power over her for so long.
The music video develops the same idea through imagery inspired by Rococo painting, chiaroscuro, fashion editorials, and dressing-room mirrors. Pope calls this aesthetic “Rococo drag” because it combines exaggeration, fantasy, and humor. This rich display of visual elements helps show how beauty and fashion can also become spaces where the body is observed, judged, and controlled.
This pressure becomes evident in a scene featuring a measuring tape. Rather than serving as a simple sewing tool, the tape represents how bodies are measured and forced to meet other people’s expectations and standards.
The scene’s humor helps Pope confront that pressure from a different position. Although the discomfort remains, she is now the one deciding how to present her body and tell her story.
“Panopticon” also previews the direction of her forthcoming EP, conceived as a musical fever dream that will move between the expansiveness of operatic rock, the drama of baroque pop, and the intimacy of cabaret. The single shows that Pope does not intend to separate emotional exposure from visual spectacle. Instead, she uses theatricality to make the weight of trauma visible while also intervening in the representation of her own story.
The Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and visual artist works across art rock, cinematic pop, glam, cabaret, and performance art. This combination has allowed her to create a body of work in which music and imagery are part of the same artistic language.
With “Panopticon,” Savannah Pope invites us to recognize the external gazes that remain in our minds and question the power they continue to hold over us.
Listen to “Panopticon” and follow Savannah Pope on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook to discover the next previews of her forthcoming EP.