Lana Del Rey Case Study- Manufactured or Indie?

         Write a word analysis of the construction / representation of Lana Del Rey as an “indie” artist. Your analysis should include:
·         Some textual analysis of her music videos
·         The identification of recurring themes / images in her music videos and lyrics
·         Some analysis of the effect of media “hype” on the construction / representation of Del Rey
·         Links / quotes / images from articles, interviews, reviews etc.

·         A personal opinion on the success of Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey- A Brief Summary

Lana Del Rey was born on June 21, 1986 by the name Elizabeth Woolridge Grant  in New York City but grew up in Lake Placid, New York.  At the age of 19 she was signed up by an indie recording label, however the label went bust shortly after.

She released an EP called "Kill Kill" in 2008 under the name Lizzy Grant and then a full-length studio album in January 2010 as Lana Del Rey a.k.a. Lizzy Grant. It was with her father Robert Grant's help, a multi-millionaire,  that the album reached the market. This is where a lot of the controversy around Del Rey stems from and something I will explore in much more detail later on.

Del Rey wrote "Video Games" with a composer called Justin Parker and uploaded her performance of the song on YouTube in July 2011. The song catapulted her into the limelight and she was promptly snapped up by recording label Interscope. They then re-released the song to a wider market and Del Rey began making appearances on TV shows and performing her single. This caused major backlash on Del Rey, as many critics said that she was awful live and was a manufactured star who couldn't pull off the kooky vocals with which she had hit fame with. These critics also dragged up her past, exposing her as the daughter of a millionaire who had tried (and failed) to hit it big and had not risen from a trailer park to where she was today.

She released her album "Born to Die" in January 2012 and it released to a wide mixture of criticism, with some critics absolutely slating the singer and others coming in with a more balanced approach.

Del Rey is a great artist to analyse as she was much media controversy around her and her music video's and appearance are clearly manufactured to appeal to a certain market.

Appearance

Photoshoots

In photoshoots of Del Rey, she always seems to have a 60's vibe about her. In this first picture, her makeup and hair are both typical of the 60's era, and her clothing again helps to represent this. Clearly this 60's vibe is being used to represent Del Rey as someone who is new and fresh, as she is different to mainstream artists as they wear much more modern clothing.

In this second photo we see another side of the portrayal of Lana Del Rey. In the photo we see that Del Rey is bleeding, this is a recurring theme throughout all Del Rey media, as she often attempts to portray herself as a naive girl who gets hurt often. We will see much more of this in both music video's and lyrics. Also in this photo Del Rey wears white, a symbol of purity and possibly connoting her as heavenly and a "good girl".

This photo is in black and white, which again brings back the 60's representation of Del Rey, her hair is typical of the era too with the "beehive" style. She is also again wearing white, and this again gives her the "good girl" representation. As you can see there are quite a few recurring themes throughout Del Rey's press photographs, especially the 60's feel about her to reinforce her as an "indie artist" and the use of white to represent her as angelic, along with the use of blood and violence to show her as a girl who "likes the bad guys"

Lyrics

Lana Del Rey's lyrics also often carry many meanings and themes that recur in all of her media.

A first example is Blue Jeans:

I will love you till the end of time 
I would wait a milion years 
Promise you'll remember that you're mine 
Baby can you see through the tears? 
Love you more 
Than those bitches before 
Say you'll remember, oh baby, say you'll remember 
I will love you till the end of time 

He went out every night 
And baby that's alright 
I told you that no matter what you did I'd be by your side 
Cause Ima ride or die 
Whether you fail or fly 
Well shit, at least you tried. 
But when you walked out that door, a piece of me died 
I told you I wanted more-but that not what I had in mind 
I just want it like before 
We were dancin all night 
Then they took you away- stole you out of my life 
You just need to remember... 

In these lyrics we can see the recurring theme in the majority of Del Rey's lyrics- That she is a naive girl falling in love with a bad guy. With the line " I will love you till the end of time" we are shown that Del Rey is naive, as despite all the things this man has done to her she continues to love him. The line "He went out every night" also shows that the guy is a bad guy, as he plays with Del Rey's feelings and leaves her alone. Clearly these lyrics are engineered to appeal to a very wide target audience, as they are reasonably vague and address very general problems, something that many mainstream artists also target.

Another good example of Del Rey's lyrics is National Anthem:

Tell me I'm your National Anthem 
Ooh, yeah, baby, bow down 
Making me so wow, wow 
Tell me I'm your National Anthem 
Sugar, sugar, how now 
Take your body down town 
Red, white, blue's in the skies 
Summer's in the air and 
Baby, heaven's in your eyes 
I'm your National Anthem 

Money is the reason 
We exist 
Everybody knows it, it's a fact 
Kiss, kiss 

I sing the National Anthem 
While I'm standing over your body 
Hold you like a python 
And you can't keep your hands off me 
Or your pants on 
See what you've done to me 
Give me Chevron 

These lyrics are quite different to some of Del Rey's other lyrics, as the song is a lot more towards the hip-hop genre than usual. The use of the line "Money is the reason, We exist" is an interesting one as it is a comment on todays society, something that indie artists tend to do a lot more than mainstream artists, showing Del Rey has some indie influences. Another recurring theme comes up in this song, the theme of patriotism and the USA. The song is titled "National Anthem and "Red, white, blue's in the skies" is used. This theme is used to make Del Rey appeal to America, the key audience she is trying to hit. These lyrics are also very sexualised, with "You can't keep your hands off me" being used to show her as desirable and wanted, a key attribute for mainstream stars of the music industry.

A final example of Del Rey's lyrics is Diet Mountain Dew

You're no good for me 
Baby you're no good for me 
You're no good for me 
But baby I want you, I want you, I want you 

Diet mountain dew, baby, New York City 
Never was there ever a girl so pretty 
Do you think we'll be in love forever? 
Do you think we'll be in love? 

These lyrics are another example of the recurring themes of "Bad guys" and love in Del Rey's songs. "Baby you're no good for me" immediately shows this recurring theme, as Del Rey directly references the fact that the man is not good for her, however she still asks "Do you think we'll be in love forever?". Clearly these recurring themes in her lyrics are used to relate to the target market she is aiming at and make her seem like a young, naive girl, someone who listeners can sympathise with and feel sorry for, something that helps her representation and makes her likable.

Music Videos

Another aspect of Del Rey's representation in the media is her music videos. Del Rey's music video's are seen to be quite powerful and are very effective. They seem to have a kind of narrative and many recurring themes running between music videos. Below I will analyse some of these music videos.

Summertime Sadness

This music video is quite different to some other Del Rey music video's, as there is no male antagonist involved. The video uses two different types of video quality, one of a homemade feel which uses old school flickering to help portray Del Rey as an indie artist, however it also uses a more manufactured look in some parts to ensure Del Rey appeals to a wide target audience. It also has a very fast editing and cutting speed in the video, this is odd as most slow songs have very slow cutting speeds to help convey emotion, however this video uses fast cutting to show the frantic nature of life and death. Symbolism is also heavily used in the video, with lots of symbolism of suicide and death used throughout to keep a serious feel about the video. The video maintains a 50's/60's vibe, a recurring theme throughout all media portrayal of Del Rey and it helps portray her image of being like a singer of the time. The shot variety isn't very much, as shots are repeated and the majority are front or side-on shots of Del Rey in slow motion, an editing effect which has been used.

Blue Jeans

Blue Jeans is a music video which begins to build on common themes in Del Rey's video's. For starters we can notice that this video is much more polished than other video's- it seems much more manufactured. This shows the transition as Del Rey changes from an indie to manufactured artist. The entire video is in black and white, an editing effect which tries to retain some of the retro feel to her music video's, a common portrayal throughout all Del Rey's media. Del Rey is also highly sexualised in the video, as long shots of her body are used and sexualised costumes are utilised to make her seem desirable and help her appeal to the male audience more. A long running theme is also used in this video, with the use of an abusive male  antagonist. The male is represented as a crocodile, and at the end he appears to drown Del Rey. This is another attempt at showing Del Rey as a girl who likes the "bad guys" and is sexually naive. The use of editing effects like the ripple are stylistically effective and help to add to the feel of the video. The shot framing is also very professional and well done, with some interesting shots of her and the male antagonist being used to show him as dominant and her as naive.

National Anthem

This music video is extremely effective as well as being highly controversial. This video has an extremely strong 1950's vibe, whilst being professional and manufactured it still is all about the 1950's and that time in history. In the video Del Rey is represented as Marilyn Monroe, who happens to be JFK's wife. This is something Del Rey uses a lot, as she often represents herself as other celebrities. The representation of JFK used in the video is also extremely controversial, as he is black, and seems very typical of the hip-hop and rap genre's (The artist acting as JFK is A$ap Rocky, a rapper who is big in America). All of this seems to be a comment on american society, a convention typical of indie artists who are against society and the norm. This video also has a lot of narrative and is very thematic. The narrative shows Del Rey with JFK until the moment he dies, a controversial yet powerful topic. Recurring themes also return, such as male abuse towards Del Rey, as the black JFK seems very abusive and again this is used to show her as sexually naive. There is also a lot of white to display purity, and finally there is a recurring use of the american flag and imagery of America, another theme ripe in Del Rey media.

Media Controversy

Lana Del Rey has had a very tough time in the media, but whether this is justified or not is still up for debate. The main criticism began after Del Rey performed for the first time on Saturday Night Live. Although nobody can deny this was a pretty bad performance, the backlash was huge and critics and celebrities alike took to bashing her like she was a murderer.

Celebrities such as actress and musician Juliette Lewis who wrote a scathing review, “Wow, watching this ‘singer’ on SNL is like watching a 12-year-old in their bedroom when they’re pretending to sing and perform #signofourtimes.”

After this controversy, the critics quickly began to dig up more and more coal for the Del Rey hate train, with them uncovering things such as the fact that her real name was not Lana Del Rey, and was instead Lizzie Grant, the name which she had tried and failed to release herself under previously. On top of this, it was discovered that she had a millionaire father, and suddenly all the indie "built from the bottom" feel about her was lost- clearly Del Rey seems to be somewhat manufactured, and many fans were angered at this fact as they had liked the "indie" version of her. Also it was later revealed she had had plastic surgery on her lips, and this also caused backlash as it seemed as if she had been completely manufactured to be prettier and more attractive, making it seem more about Del Rey's appearance than her music, something that is a lot more typical in mainstream artists rather than indie artists.

Interviews

In this radio interview, Del Rey seems quite down-to-earth and normal, something we rarely see from her due to her media portrayal. She talks about normal day-to-day things such as her musical inspirations, and these make her seem a lot more normal than the media will have us believe.  However, she does seem to still retain a kind of 50's feel, as she lists quite old singers as her inspirations and just seems very old-fashioned. Overall this is quite a positive representation of Del Rey, as she is shown as down-to-earth and normal.

In this video interview with NME however, Del Rey seems a lot more manufactured as she seems made-up and wears clothing typical of her usual representation. She seems much more sexualised and the interview seems to be a lot more manufactured, with no questions and only basic answers from Del Rey. This again seems to shroud some doubt onto just how "indie" Del Rey is.

Live Performances

Both of these performances are clearly better than her first performance on Saturday Night Live, showing she does have some actual talent and can perform quite well, so it seems she certainly is slightly better than critics completely taking her apart think. However, she still doesn't seem to have the talent that she showcases in her singles, and this is something that shows she is quite manufactured. It seems some music industry tricks have been applied to Del Rey to make her seem a lot stronger performer than she actually is, such as the use of autotune and audio editing software to make sure her songs are in tune and sound as good as they possibly can. In both these performances she also maintains her image, with the use of 1950's-esque clothing and white to show her innocence and purity and someone that can be looked up to by younger listeners.

Personal Opinion 

My personal opinion of Del Rey is overall quite biased towards her being manufactured, as there seems to be overwhelming evidence that she is infact a very well manufactured artist who has been modelled as an indie artist to appeal to that market, whilst generating as much profit as possible. The controversy she has gained through her performances and scandal such as the plastic surgery have all clearly contributed to her success, as the saying goes "No publicity is bad publicity", and I certainly feel Del Rey is a fantastic example of this. Clearly her image has been tailored to ensure that she appeals to the "indie" market as much as possible, and whilst critics have hit out hard at her, clearly this didn't matter as she topped the album charts in over 10 countries. However, I do feel that her music video's are extremely well done, and this is something I certainly can give credit to Del Rey for doing. Her video's are very thematic, and I feel that this style of music video will be extremely popular in the future, as it allows artists to set themselves up an image and stick to it, appealing to a wide market of people.

Overall I still feel Del Rey is manufactured, however critics have been slightly harsh and her music video's are something which should certainly be taken into account by other artists.