Lana Del Rey “Young and Beautiful”

• Young and Beautiful, a song by singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey, was released on the 23rd April 2013.

• It was the first single from The Great Gatsby: Music from Baz Luhrman’s Film Soundtrack.

• Many contemporary critics praised the song, calling it “haunting” and “sombre”.

• The lyrics of the song follows a young lover and her apprehension of ageing.

• The genre of the song is Indie Rock

The music video to Young and Beautiful is a clear conformerTo her usual styles, especially when in comparison to someOf her other music videos. Usually, in most of her music Videos she uses a variety of editing; such as dark, blurryEdits and filters to create a vintage, dated effect to the clips;Seem in videos such as “Born to Die” and “Summertime Sadness”.

Also, as the music video of Young and Beautiful features anOrchestra in the background, which creates the effect ofSynchronous sound; coloured lights are used to foreground The orchestra members, as it connotes that they are anImportant part of the song and music video also. This featureIs also included in her music video of “Summertime Sadness”.

Another convention of many of her music videos, which Features in Young and Beautiful, is the use of similar Cinematography; with several close up shots of her face, Showing her use the common convention of lip-synching. This adds to the music video mainly being performance Based and suggests that it is used to create a connection Between the artists and her fans; which encourages her Audience base to grow.

Young and Beautiful

Ride

Summertime Sadness

• A common convention of Indie Rock music videos is the use of lighting within mise-en-scene. The lighting is usually dark to create a dated and natural atmosphere, which the video “Young and Beautiful” follows this convention.

• The use of lighting in this video is very effective as, it creates Lana Del Rey to appear dark and hard to see, apart from the silhouette of her figure, which is accentuated by the light. This emphasises her curves and sensual figure, portraying her as attractive and desirable, as it follows Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory.

• In addition as the lighting being very dark to connote the convention of the indie-rock genre, there is also a colour scheme of reds, blues, purples, browns and cream, decorating the orchestra in the shots. These are all associated with Lana Del Rey and therefore create cohesion, connecting the artist to the music video.

• However the music video challenges a convention of both Alternative Rock and her own style, as there is no inclusion of any shots of nature or any camera pans with scenery, in favour of a 1920’s performance-themed piece.

• However, in the chorus, the line “will you still love me..” is rhetorical and personal, which is related to the artist. The use of sound then links with cinematography, as a cross cut then shows a close-up shot of the artists face, creating a link between the artists personal question and the artists face.

• In addition, when Lana Del Rey begins the verse “Dear Lord, when I get to heaven”, the footage flickers to an image of the artist standing in beam of light. This is effective as the light symbolises the light from heaven and the use of cinematography and lighting represents the artists silhouette about to go up to heaven. Then, during the line; “He’s my sun, he makes me shine” the sue of lighting shows a circular glow around the artists silhouette; this suggests it could be a halo or that the Lord has engulfed himself around her, guiding her. This further draws a connection between the lyrics and the visuals.

• Moreover, a theme within the lyrics is a fear of growing old alone, this is demonstrated throughout the music video with the use of cinematography, as the artist is only ever viewed in the shots alone, although she is backed up by an orchestra, she is never in the same frame as them, and this establishes a sense of isolation.

The music video to ‘Young and Beautiful’ is a largely based on performance and thus the lyrics have very little relation to the visuals, particularly in terms of illustrating them, although this is a common convention of music videos.

As well, there is a link between the music and the use of editing in the video.• Such as, the tone of the music is very melancholic and

dreary, and this is highlighted in the visuals, through the use of the misty, fuzzy effects added to the shots, along with the use of mise-en-scene portraying dark lighting to capture this mood.

• In addition, throughout the song there is a heavy drumbeat during the bridge of every chorus, which is reflected by the use of shot reverse shot from a close-up of the artists face, to the orchestra and conductor playing, which demonstrates a rise in dynamics.

• The jump cuts between the shots match the same pace of the song, which creates the video to appear very professional.

Close up shots of the artists face, lip-synching, appear numerous times throughout the video; However there is only ever focus on the focal points of the artists face, such as the lips, cheeks And eyes in extreme close-up shots, and close-up shots of the full face, yet in a variety of camera Angles. This contrasts with the few wide and long shots in the video which feature Lana Del Rey,However the use of mise-en-scene and lighting make the shot appear very dark and you canOnly see the silhouette of the artists figure. This puts emphasis on her face, and develops aClose, personal relationship between the artist and the audience, allowing the viewer to feel Connected and sympathise with Lana Del Rey.Also, the use of cinematography here, links back to the lyrics, as the close-up shots allow the Audience to identify the artists melancholic and disparaging expression, matching the tone of The song.

• There is a reference to ‘looking’ throughout the course of the music video, as the action of the screen is framed throughout by a black border. This portrays the footage in a screen within a screen and proves the rule in Goodwin’s theory.

• As well, the video features voyeuristic treatment of the female body, which relates to Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory. The camera is subtle in the sense that in its perusal of the artists body, it does not focus on the highly sexualised areas of the body, including the breasts, thighs and bum. Yet contrastingly, the camera is blatantly sexual when perusing her figure as a whole. Following the silhouette of her body, the lighting is dim and creates shadows across her form, focusing the audiences attention on the clear silhouette of her body, blacking out the rest of the frame.

• Furthermore, during a close-up of the artists face, the camera focuses on the sexualised area of her lips, which have been made to appear more prominent with the use of mise-en-scene in make-up; by the dark lipstick contrasting with her pale skin, as well as her eyes being accentuated with dark make-up. This technique, popularises the artist with the audience and creates her to appear attractive, appealing to the male audience (according to Laura Mulvey) and to her fans who appreciate her sexually, as well as musically.