LEARNING OUTCOME TWO PART I

Lana Del ReyBlue Jeans

American singer songwriter Elizabeth Woolridge Grant introduced the world to her stage persona Lana Del Rey in 2010 with herself titled debut album Lana Del Rey a.k.a Lizzy Grant. But she did not reach her high level of commercial success until 2012 when she realised her second and official chart topping album born to die.

Lana Del Rey is known and loved for her indie pop/alternative sound that is fused with element of hip hop and dark gothic lyrics. This makes Lana Del Rey a visually intriguing artist, as she conveys these themes into her music videos. This is evident in music videos such as video games, born to die, national anthem and most obviously video games, as all videos consist of an emotionally upsetting narrative.

LANA DEL REY

Lana Del Rey worked with French music video director, graphic designer, and musician Yoann Lemoine twice (on music video for Born To Die and Blue Jean), whose known for his eccentric style that has an unclear narrative and hidden meanings, shown in such videos as take care by drake and Moby ‘Mistake, but Yoann Lemoine illustrated this technique best in music video blue jeans.

YOANN LEMOINE

CAMERA WORK The camera work in the music video for blue jeans is as sensual as the song itself and the concept of the music video. The majority of the shots within the music video are close-ups mid shots, these intimate and close shots are done in order to emphasise both the desperately clingy and affectionate lyrics (such as “I will love you till the end of time, I would wait a million years” and “You fit me better than my favourite sweater”). There are also long shots in the video, which are used to show the bazaar, yet glamorous scenery within the location of the music video.

GENRE CHARACTERISTICSLana Del Rey’s music genre can be describes as indie-pop or alternative, either way, her music video for blue jeans follows the genre characteristics of both very well, as it consists of a complex and original narrative (rather than the video to follow the lyrics very basically, they took a unique approach and filmed the majority of the video in a swimming pool) and most alternative videos strives in being different and run away from having music videos that follow the lyrics very simply. The video of consists of the one element most modern commercially successful pop genre music video have, ‘sex’, as the video is very sexy and features some explicit innuendo

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS

This scene of the video illustrates Lana Del Rey being drowned by the man she is singing about, exemplifies the lyrics that state ‘I will love you till the end of time’.

What makes this music video unique and eccentric, is it’s indistinct yet noticeable relationship between the video and the lyrics. The music video seems to aim to illustrate the lyrics in a metaphorical manner, although the visuals within the video do not match the lyrics in a way that’s obvious, there are some parts of the video that express the lyrics meanings e.g.

‘You were sorta punk rock’, these lyrics are expresses within the music video as the lead actor/model has a punk rock look to him, further example are shown in such lyrics as ‘Then they took you away- stole you out of my life’, during this part of the song, Lana Del Rey is shown being drowned in the pool after being pulled away violently from a passionate kiss, which expresses the ‘took you away’ part of the lyrics.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS (REPRESENTATON)

The song ‘Blue Jeans’ is a mid-tempo and almost slow track, and for the most part, the visuals match this as the movement and editing pace (cuts) are fairly slow-moving, however, the track changes tempo speed in the middle very briefly, and the cuts within this brief moment become dramatically rapid, and the visuals become more intense, violent and action-packed.

Mid- tempo/slow and mellow part of song with slow and mellow cuts and visuals

Faster tempo part of song features more dramatic and rapid visuals and cuts.

CLOSE-UPS OF THE ARTIST AND STAR IMAGE

Lana Del Rey is a commercial artist who faces a lot of competition in the market. And so her record label aim to amiss her from other commercial female artist by giving her an unique, alternative and unconventional sound and image, which they try to express within her music and visual aspects. This unique image is quite Morden-day bohemian/urban vibe, with a lifeless tone, this is expressed within the music video throughout, as the music video is black and white (which can exemplify a lifeless nature) and the quite dark, twisted and violent narrative to the video (the drowning and strangling of the artist). This video is not the only example of the image Lana Del Rey’s record label is trying to sell, as other music videos such as ‘born to die’ and ‘summertime sadness’ all consist of these glamourized depressing and dark themes and images.

NARRITIVEThe narrative of the video is very surreal (rather than showing footage of Lana Del Rey in a depressed state longing for her long lost love, which would have been more predictable and over-used), the director of this music video wanted to the play and expend on the lyrics of the song to create a music video that is more artistic, original, interesting and give the audience a ‘more that meets the eye’ effect.

VIDEO STYLE AND ICONOGRAPHY/ MISE EN SCENE

This music video features a lot of iconic images and themes, most of which relate to the song. This music video seems to be inspired by old Hollywood, which is conveyed by the classy black and white theme and scenery, and also the model who is styled after major old Hollywood star James dean (who is mentioned in the song). The actor/ model used in this music video is Bradley Soileau, who has starred previously in Lana Del Rey’s ‘born to die’ music video, using familiarity in her music videos, Lana creates iconic and memorable statements .

INTERTEXTUALITY/ VOYEURISMVoyeurism and intertextuality can be used in order to sell the artists image or music (as sex sells), or (in this case) it can be used to make a statement. some scene within this music video are quite vulgar and sexual, but this is not intended to promote a sex-like-vibe, but only to match the eccentric and amusing yet shocking elements to the music video narrative and themes.