Lana Del Rey Analysis

These images of Lana Del Rey suggest that she is a vulnerable, yet sexualised young american independant woman. The top image shows her retro 1950s, 1960s fashion with the sunglasses and big hair. The second Image displayed shows her breast being held by a man, her facial expression is gived the impression that she is vulnerable and shy. The 3rd image displayed shows a close up of her infront of an American flag, conoting her American mentality and her stern facial expression makes the viewer believe she is serious. In the next image she is layed on her back with short shorts on looking into the eyes of the viewer, she looks vulnerable yet sexual due to what she is wearing. The next image shows her standing infront of a classic American suburban home, making the viewer believe that she is from that sort of background and not very priveledged. The bottom image shows Lana Del Rey singing at a live performance, her facial expressions shows passion for her singing and performance. All of these images add up to the final image of a very individual woman with integrity and a raw talent and love for music.


Lana Del Rey became a massive internet hit after posting her video single Video Games online in August 2011. The YouTube video was watched worldwide and she gained commercial success at number one in many countries. The main question though, was, Who is Lana Del Rey?

Lana Del Rey - Video Games (2011)  

 

The video displays lots of American symbolism, including the American flag, Hollywood, American teenager. The Video is said to have been directed by Del Rey herself. The video is extremely retro, with shots of old newsreel, the use of retro film cameras to film things going on in the current time. The video itself has no narrative and has a few performance shots of Lana Del Rey actually singing, these shots are filmed infront of a plain white wall, giving the audience the impression that she is a normal person in a normal home. During the video there are shots of a very drunken Hollywood actress, Lana here I believe is mocking Hollywood. The general atmosphere of the music video comes from a 1950s home video, documenting nothing particular important. The song itself is very individual and unlike anything in the UK charts at the time, it has been compared to songs by Nancy Sinatra such as Bang Bang due to the melancholic drone to the lyrics and her voice in particular. Overall, the video and the single was very different to anything in the charts at the time, so there was no surprise that it was a big talking point in the 'blogosphere'.