Indepth Analysis of Video From Chosen Genre - Lana Del Rey

Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Rey

I have chosen to analysis this song as Lana Del Rey is an alternative artist, like the artist I have chosen to make a video for, and also because the video is similar to what we want to make and something we take inspiration from.

 

In terms of Goodwins Theory's on music videos, Young and Beautiful presents a lot of characteristics and really displays Goodwins Theory well.

 

Firstly, this video displays stereotypical genre characteristics of both the genre but also the artist, Del Rey is an alternative artist, and videos for this genre of music tend to be very mysterious and often very emotional and full of feeling as this is typically what music in this genre sounds like. The fact Del Rey has two tear drops on her face shows the emotion in the song, and also the use of an orchestra is not typical in any music video, this is done because Del Rey's video is alternative.

 

Secondly Del Rey is presenting a vague link between the lyrics and the visuals of her video, this is present when there is a shot of Del Rey in a long black dress with curly hair, some people viewing the video could say that she looks older than her age and is dressed slightly old fashioned, this shot has links to the lyrics 'When I'm no longer young and beautiful'. Links to this lyrics are also present when there are close ups of Del Rey as she looks youthful and young.

 

Like the link between lyrics and visuals there is a vague link between the visuals and the music, this can be seen when the orchestra are in shot. As the music lifts and build, so does the conductors body language and the rest of the people with instruments, although this is obviously going to happen as they are playing the music, it still aids in building the song and giving the audience more enjoyment by linking the music and visuals.

 

One of Goodwin's Theory points with regards to music videos is having multiple close ups of the artist in their video, this is very obvious and achieved in this video as for a long period of time at the start and also throughout the video, close up's of Del Rey lip syncing can be seen, this adds a performance aspect to the video which audiences and record labels alike also require or expect.

 

In this video there is no obvious attraction to the notion of how people look or dress, or any voyeuristic attitudes towards women. Due to the fact Del Rey is the only obvious female in the video, she gets the audience full attention, this is already going against what most music videos do where men are the central attraction. To even further the turn away from how women are typically represented in music videos, Del Rey is full clothed, not dancing or doing anything provocative, this will gain some of the audiences attention as this is something they might not expect to see when watching a female singer.

 

The song is featured in the film The Great Gatsby, although there are no clips of the film featured in this video, there are still underlying themes of the film present. Because the film is based in the 1920's the whole theme of the video and the people in it are dressed to suit a 1920's theme.

 

Class is represented slightly in the video as it is quite obvious the Del Rey is of an upper class as she is presented to the audience as someone with wealth and power by the fact she is wearing a large amount of diamond and nice dresses but also because she has an orchestra performing behind her and is centre stage despite being a female.