Lana Del Rey's music video for "Young and Beautiful" is primarily performance-based, featuring close-up shots of Del Rey singing and an orchestra playing. There are some relationships between the lyrics and visuals, such as shots focusing on Del Rey when she sings personal lyrics. The dark color scheme and blurry/misty effects also amplify the melancholic tone of the music. Intertextually, the song and video reference The Great Gatsby novel and film through their 1920s aesthetic and themes of love and aging.

1. Music Videos
Media Language

2. Lana Del Rey – Young and Beautiful
• Young and Beautiful" is a song by American recording artist
Lana Del Rey used for the soundtrack to the drama film The
Great Gatsby (2013).
• It was released on April 23, 2013 by Interscope Records as
the lead single from the record.
• Contemporary music critics lauded the single, calling it
"haunting" and "somber". Lyrically, "Young & Beautiful"
follows a young lover's apprehension about whether love
can last.
• The music video was directed by Chris Sweeney and filmed
by Sophie Muller, and was released on May 10, 2013.
• The genre of this song is Indie-rock.

3. “Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. Stage
performances in metal videos, dance routines for boy/girl
bands)” “Young and Beautiful”
• After seeing ‘Young and Beautiful’, in comparison to her
other videos, its clear that it conforms to her normal
style of song and aesthetics'. Dark and sometimes
blurry effects are added to the footage, to give help
give an old and vintage feel, while also aiding it to feel
dated. (Also seen in videos like ‘Born to Die’ and
‘Summertime Sadness’.
• The orchestra in ‘Young and Beautiful’ have various
coloured spot lights on them which also seen in
‘Summertime Sadness’ where, a dull coloured
atmosphere would be lit up by random spots of light
consisting of blue, red and green. Presenting a certain
‘motif’ as such that Lana uses in most of her work.
Young & Beautiful Summertime Sadness

4. Lana Del Rey’s music videos also tend to feature a lot of close-ups. Especially on her face while singing and are
nearly always performance-based, with perhaps a slight narrative-spin. To possible help create a closer
relationship between the artist and the audience.
This video has a very dull and dark colour scheme consisting of reds, purples and blues, while again
decorating the shots of the orchestra. The close-ups of her used dark browns, creams and black. However,
‘Young and Beautiful’ challenges a convention of both Alternative Rock and her own style music videos by
not including any shots of nature or panning shots of scenery. (Mainly due to how it was in favour of a
1920’s performance-themed piece.)

5. “There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
(Either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)”
‘Young and Beautiful’ is mainly a performance-based music video. The lyrics don’t particularly have any
relation to the visuals.
The chorus of the song, “Will you still love me...” is rhetorical and personal piece of lyrics, sung by the
artist referring to the artist. As this part of the song (the
chorus) is sung, the footage then cuts to a few close-ups of
Del Rey, thus creating a link between her personal question
and the visual of the her face.
There is some relation to the lyrics in the visuals. When she
begins the verse saying “Dear Lord, when I get to Heaven”,
the footage focuses on image of Lana Del Rey standing in a
shaft of light, which connotes it. Then, as the line “He’s my
sun, he makes me shine” is sung, a circular glow appears
around Del Rey’s figure, representing a halo and further drawing a connection between lyrics and visuals.

6. “There is a relationship between the music and the visuals
(Either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)”
• The relationship between the music and the visuals in this particular Lana Del Rey music video is
amplifying. Most of Del Rey’s music has a melancholic tone and feel, which is exactly what this one
connotes to as well. The tone is emphasised and evident through the misty, blurry effect and dark
lighting the footage features.
• There is an illustrative relationship between the music itself
and the visuals in this music video; the shots of the
orchestra playing is illustrating the music heard in the on the
track.
• There is also the presence of a distinctive drum beat at the
start of chorus, which is reflected in the cut from a close-up
to Del Rey to the orchestra. The jump cuts between shots
are timed well and in sync to the song and tempo and beats.

7. My video does use both aspects Goodwin’s theory and connects the lyrics to the visuals and a
relationship between the music and visuals
When the lyrics “to the forest we will gather and run” are said we used a shot of the tow girls
running through a forest.
Also for the lyrics “grab my heart” here the characters grab one another’s hands.
My music video also presents a relationship between the music and visuals. This is particularly
evident at 1.43 seconds, where I use some quick cute to link our separating of our hands with the
drum beat.

8. The demands of the record label for lots of
close-ups is met in “Young and Beautiful”.
• There are many close ups of Lana Del Rey when she is singing, most with the
focus on the focal points of the face such as cheeks, lips and also her eyes in
extreme close-ups.
• By using close-ups it
helps develop a close
and personal
relationship between
the audience and the
artist, helping the viewer
to feel more involved.

9. “There are frequent references to the notion of looking (screens
within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic (sexual)
treatment of the female body”
• The voyeuristic treatment of the female body is evident in this video where the camera is subtle in the sense
that in its perusal of Del Rey’s body. It doesn’t however focus on the highly sexualised areas like breast and
bottom.
• But when presenting Del Rey’s figure as a whole the
camera seems to show a vey sexualised image, presenting
her womanly curves. Following the line of her body, the
lighting is low-key and creates shadows across her form.
• Also, the camera focuses in on the sexualised areas of
the face, like lips (which are darkened by lipstick and
creates a nice contrast with her pale skin), her eyes
(which also are emphasised by make-up). This is a
technique mainly used in consideration that the artist will
get a larger following fan base if they appreciate her
music and find her visually pleasing.

10. There is often intertextual references (to films,
TV programmes, other music videos, etc)
• Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” is intertextually related to the 2013 film
“The Great Gatsby”. Released on 23 April 2013, it was the first single
from the The Great Gatsby: Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film
soundtrack.
• Del Rey's dreamy vocals are draped over
sedated strings and canned percussion, falling
in line with Del Rey's retro affectation, fits the
atmosphere of the 1920s when the novel is set.
The lyrics rotate around the themes of pleasing
a lover and the gloom of aging and change, all
of which are explored in the novel “The Great
Gatsby”.

11. “Whether the video is primarily performance-based,
narrative-based or concept-based and how elements of
each is used in it”
• “Young and Beautiful” is a performance-based piece. The main concept is shots of Del Rey
and the orchestra performing the song, combined with a few shots of the artist’s figure,
facial features and silhouette shots.
• Major footage of the artist and musicians playing the music is a key convention of
performance based music videos and identifies this video as performance.