Lana Del Rey

Elizabeth Grant, going by the stage name of Lana Del Rey, is an American singer songwriter, born June 1986. She grew up in New York with her parents until 18, when she moved to uni. Her music career began in 2005 and 2006, when she performed at a songwriting competition, and was noticed by an independant label, after performing at undergroud gigs previously.

She released her album 'Lana Del Ray' in 2010, but this was unnoticed. After uploading some songs onto YouTube, interested was gained in her, and she was signed by Stranger Records, who she released her debut single with. Her second album 'Born to Die' was much more successful. It was released in January 2012 and reached no.1 in 11 countries, which was followed by her 'Paradise' EP released in November, which sold over 60,000 copies a week after release in America. Lana Del Rey's most recent album 'Ultraviolence' was released in June 2014, and became the no.1 album in the UK. There is often much controversy and dislike surrounding Lana Del Rey, and many critics had labelled her as 'melancholy', but depsite critics she is undoubtedly successful.

Her songs and sound have developed since the start of her career. Her sound started off as pop, like in her first ablum 'Born To Die', but more recently her sound has changed to more of a rock genre in her latest album 'Ultraviolence'. Lana Del Rey's voice and topics of song are often criticised as being too depressing, as said earlier. When singing, predominantly in a lower toned voice, it can come across as being too sad and people have had a lot of negative comments on her style of music. Many others disagree with this view however, as many others would also, but for such a mainstream atrist it can be difficult to avoid criticism, others actually view her voice and songs as interesting and deep personal value of music. One of her most famous and successful songs is 'Summertime Sadness' released from her album 'Born to Die'. This song was originally at a slow and unique style, much like a lot of her other work, however there was a remix made of this song, by Cedric Gervais, which was to date her highest chart single, reahcing a peak of no.6. she has gained many different influences from great artists, of variosu different genres, including Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Nirvana, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, and Britney Spears, as well as from poetry and film noir.

Songs:

Here are some of the songs by Lana Del Rey and the type of story or features of the video, and the views and impressions she is trying to get from them.

Ride-

For this video Lana Del Rey has gone created a narrative story telling style video, similar to a lot of her others. This video is about a young woman travelling, and looking for love in older men . This video has parts at the start and end specifically about the story of the video, and also inbetween the scenes of the music video. It's a music video that is mostly about the story, where the music almost seem to be an added extra. Story telling is a frequent use in music videos, and something we will consider using in our production

Young & Beautiful- This is a love song Lana Del Rey recorded for the film 'The Great Gatsby'. The video is showing the singer performing in front of red curtains, symbolising love, but also conversly death . In this video she has gone back to her 'homemade' video concept and mixed in golden ages filmography, making the video look and feel older than it actually was, fitting in with the 20s time period of the film and book. As well as the way it was shot, Del Rey herself looks more classic from the way she is dressed etc.

West Coast- This is probably one of the more simple types of videos for Lana Del Rey's songs. It has shots of her and a man, in black and white, and is quite a slow cut simple production. The whole feel of the video is rather low production, but it is effective. Her videos tend to change between ones of clear high production and quality, and also low production own-made videos that seem to be more personal, showing she can adapt and change her videos for interest, and also maintain a unique style