LANA DEL REY‘Video Games’

INTRODUCTION Artist- Lana Del Rey Year it was released- 2011 Director- Lana Del Rey directed the video herself, even using

footage of herself singing on a webcam Album- Born to Die Place in charts- Number 1 in UK indie chart. Number 1 in

Germany and Luxemburg and Top 10 ranking in France,

Belgium, The Netherlands and United Kingdom.

Genre and characteristics- The artist has the nonchalant attitude throughout the video, as her facial expression remains mutual with no sense of happiness. There are many close ups of her singing to emphasise her emotions through the lyrics too which is typical of the genre. The locations are simple and not extravagant making it easier for the audience to relate with the audience.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS

The music video involves many scenic shots of America and Intertextual

references of footage from old films or home movies, making it difficult to create a relationship between lyrics and visuals, however there are a few

shots in the video which link them together, to create a greater

understanding of the lyrics to the audience.

LYRIC: WATCHING ME GET UNDRESSED  

The visuals aren’t accurately linked to the lyrics, however the idea of ‘watching’ is portrayed through the emphasis of using cameras to record what they are watching. The lyric also

suggests a male gaze of a woman as she is getting undressed and this uses the notion of looking by using cameras.

LYRIC: SINGING IN THE OLD BARS

There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals here as Lana sings about old bars, and a hand held mid shot shows an American bar/club sign, relating to the lyrics ‘old bars’ as the audience are able to visualise the type of bar she meant.

LYRIC: HE HOLDS ME IN HIS BIG ARMS, DRUNK AND I AM SEEING STARS

The visuals represent the lyrics at this point as there are previous long shots showing the female falling over in a drunken manner, and as the lyrics ‘he holds me in his big arms’ is heard, the mid shot shows the male

holding up the drunken female.

LYRICS: WATCHING ALL OUR FRIENDS FALL

There appears to be an old home video styled piece of footage to represent these lyrics, as a male on a

skateboard attempts a trick and falls to the ground. This links the lyrics ‘fall’ however does not imply that it is the artists friend which has fallen, so the lyrics do

not have a direct relationship with the visuals.

LYRIC: THEY SAY THAT THE WORLD WAS BUILT FOR TWO

The webcam footage that the artist has taken of herself, show her singing to the camera in a close up on this

particular lyric and when she sings the word ‘two’ she raises her hand to gesture the number, linking the lyrics

to the visuals.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS

The music and visuals link together well throughout this song, although there are not

many tempo changes which can be represented, instead the volume increases as more instruments can be heard in the music,

and some shots demonstrate this well.

The instrumental music at the beginning is slow with a steady paced beat, and the shots of the people on the

motor bikes has been edited with slow motion to show a relationship between the music and visuals.

The volume of music increases as more instruments are introduced and this footage of a cartoon orchestra links to the music well

as it represents the music’s volume increasing.

HOW IS THE ARTIST PORTRAYED AS A STAR

The record company have clearly aimed to represent Lana Del Rey as her normal self, as she isn’t dressed in designer dresses etc and is wearing casual clothes which keeps to her

style and genre as it is an alternative approach for music videos. This is similar to most of her music videos as she wants them to be relatable to her audience and although she has star image, it isn’t due to the money spent on her appearance and locations in the videos as she films them herself, often off a

webcam at home.

STAR IMAGE

This close up of a sign or graffiti (unclear in video) has the stars name on it, suggesting her fame and success giving her star image. Although it may be inspiration for her star name, and this makes the audience feel as though they are learning about her history.

There are a range of close ups of the artist in this video, showing her in different costume against different backgrounds, representing her importance and star image as there are no other distractions on these shots, so everybody’s focus immediately goes to her. The image on the left shows her cheeky personality too, giving her more star quality rather than just an image.

This downwards tilt shows the Hollywood stars, and this gives the impression that the artist will have one or knows the people that do,

giving her star image in a unique way.

NOTION OF LOOKING

The artist is portrayed in a sexualised way in elements of the video, mainly through the close

up’s of her singing as she often makes eye contact with the camera, and body language such as

winking and touching her skin can be interpreted as flirtatious. I think she does this as it fits in with the particular lyrics of the song at those shots, and it shows her cheekier side which the audience may like, improving her sales of the song. There are many old fashioned shots of men with camera,

suggesting the notion of looking as they are often followed with footage of a female in a evening

dress who is drunk, however represents the males as looking at her in a different way through the

male gaze.

BODY LANGUAGE AND ACTIONS

As the lyrics say ‘I heard that you like the bad girls’, the artist raises her hand suggesting the gesture makes her seem like a bad girl, and winks to the camera which shows a flirtatious

side to the artist and demonstrates her in the male gaze which supports Laura Mulvey’s theory.

In this mid shot, Lana’s body language appears to be seductive as she is hugging herself in a

way, and her eye contact with the camera supports this sexualised body language.

The many shots in the video involving cameras, all appear to be males behind them, which

suggests the male gaze and notion of looking. I also personally think it supports the meaning of the song as it is showing stereotypical men, as the song demonstrates the idea of males being more interested in video games than

their girlfriend etc, and these shots represent the stereotype of men that only appreciate

attractive women in slinky clothes.

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES

I am unsure if the intertextual references come from TV or film, however there are many

shots which she has either filmed herself or gathered from another source. These relate

to the meaning of the song and help develop the narrative of the video, especially the

black and white images, as these back up the previous ideas I had of her appreciating

vintage styles.

PERFORMANCE/NARRATIVE/CONCEPT BASED?

The music video contains about a third of performance from Lana Del Rey singing into the camera, as this is the only performance

we see and only shots of the artist throughout. The rest of the video is narrative and concept based as she has created videos

of locations close to her heart in America, famous locations such as Hollywood, and

then videos of her friends or which she has found which link to the meaning of her video. This is what makes her videos so unique, as

the focus isn’t always on her, and relates more to the meaning of the song.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT HER VIDEO

After analysing this video, I like the artist’s unique approach to a narrative, as she uses

handheld shots the majority of the time which give a home video feel to the whole

music video, therefore seeming more personal to the artist. I also like the simplicity of the performance shots, however when we film our video, I want to interpret elements of

her style, but also develop and challenge them by adding more performance and having the focus on the artist instead of

others, to increase star image and quality.