Carter Gamache
Professor Kissel
ENG170-144
25 November 2024
Final Thesis Write Up Draft
The massively influential 2011 Lana Del Rey song “Video Games” is her debut single and is seen as a once in a career song. We could talk endlessly about how impressive this is it being the first song she ever released, but the piece is even more impactful than it is impressive. The song is monumental in the way that it promotes you see the world, made possible by Lana Del Rey’s unmatched level of poetry and world building. Additionally, its success could be measured by the song’s shock factor and backlash, and inversely by the younger generation’s appreciation for Lana Del Rey from then on, as Gen Z shares her same fatalistic outlook on American culture. “The world is burning, and we cannot change it, so we might as well be beautiful while it happens,” (Charak). Of course, this song has changed the music industry in numbers, but the real impact is the individual journey listeners have experienced in connecting to her music. When exposed to Lana Del Rey’s aesthetics, listeners are introduced to seeing the world through new eyes, and find themselves seeing the beauty in everything, whether physical or not. This is especially reinforced in her music videos. The “Video Games” music video is the reason she became famous, but the video is merely a collage of random clips that hardly relate to the song. What we know, is that we’re living a roaring ‘20’s LA summer, love being famous, and have a thing for skater boys, motorcycle drivers, pool parties, off shoulder tops, and America. “To say that the lyrical content and visual imagery of ‘Born to Die’ drastically contrasted the cultural tone of its period is an understatement. Lyrically and visually, the album romanticized the aesthetics of old America; an America we had worked endlessly to improve,” (Charak). Something also interesting and significant about her impact is her evolving journey and vision that she bestows upon her fans. For example, in her 2019 Normal F****** Rockwell album cover, is LA burning in the background, a city that she mentions so frequently in her music and is strongly associated with her. Fans are now left wondering again LA’s significance and meaning in her past and present releases. Regardless, every clip in the video is deliberate and is up for the viewers interpretation.
Ultimately, her poetry and corresponding video for “Video Games” sparks growth and reflection, as there’s so much to appreciate and interpret. She’s a visionary for connecting to her fans in this way and it’s made her an icon. For example, in 2023 she won the Visionary award, but “has embodied that word for over a decade,” (Robinson). The song uniting different people on different endeavors speaks volume about the power of the song’s lyrics and meanings.
Works Cited
Charak, Abby. “Lana Del Rey Is the Defining Artist of a Generation – but Not Her Own.” Emory Wheel, edited by Hayley Powers, Emory University, Sep. 2023 libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/wire-feeds/lana-del-rey-is-defining-artist-generation-not/docview/2866435066/se-2?accountid=12761.
Robinson, Kristin. “Visionary: LANA DEL REY.” Billboard, vol. 135, no. 2, Feb. 2023, pp.76-79. EBSCOhost, libdatabase.newpaltz.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=162100894&site=ehost-live.