How Lana Del Rey helped to popularise specific movies
Popularly known as Lana Del Rey, Elizabeth Woolridge Grant has been making music under various pseudonyms since the early 2000s. Del Rey spent much of her spare time writing music and performing at open mic nights using names such as ‘Sparkle Jump Rope Queen’, ‘May Jailer’, and ‘Lizzy Grant’. She claims that, initially, despite the fact she was always singing, she “didn’t plan on pursuing it seriously”. It’s a good thing she decided to keep playing her music, for she is now one of the most successful and influential musicians of the past decade.
Many of Del Rey’s unreleased projects were leaked onto the internet years after their conception, such as the album Sirens (recorded under the name May Jailer) and the No Kung Fu EP. However, her first official full-length release was 2010’s Lana del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant, (for a short period Del Rey used the spelling ‘Ray’), which was available digitally for three months before being pulled, with Del Rey stating she no longer wanted the album in circulation. The record is a beautiful collection of songs that blends hypnotic vocals and Americana themes that come to define much of her future work.
However, Del Rey gained mainstream success when she released her famous single ‘Video Games’ in October 2011. The mellow ballad, which features angelic harps and violins as an accompaniment to Del Rey’s heavenly vocals, was received overwhelmingly positively, with comparisons drawn to the likes of Nancy Sinatra. Del Rey herself made a music video featuring her singing to her webcam, spliced between archival footage of California skaters and couples on mopeds, film clips, and paparazzi videos. The clips reflect Del Rey’s imagery in her lyrics, evoking a bittersweet image of young love, Americana style, and nostalgia.
Upon the success of ‘Video Games’, Del Rey released her album Born to Die in January 2012 to critical praise. Soon after, Del Rey began to develop a cult following of fans, especially on image-based social media sites such as Tumblr. Fans quickly discovered more homemade music videos that Del Rey had made for unreleased songs such as ‘Kinda Outta Luck’ and ‘On Our Way’ floating around YouTube, which were all made with the same lo-fi aesthetic.
Her obsession with the illusionary nature of the American Dream can be seen within her lyrics, which are preoccupied with Hollywood in all of its opulence and tragedy. These music videos employ images that reflect these lyrical concerns, such as clips from old Hollywood movies, classic Americana symbols, motels, the Chateau Marmont, Elvis, and swimming pools, alongside blurry webcam videos of Del Rey herself – a figure of both femininity and melancholy.
Given her committed following, fans began to make their own music videos for Del Rey’s unreleased tracks, which were constantly getting leaked online. Hundreds of unique videos began to appear over the years – and still do – taking visual cues from her lyrics to craft aesthetically pleasing videos that suit the songs’ themes. Listening to Lana Del Rey not only became an auditory experience but a visual one, too.
Del Rey became widely associated with the rising popularity of Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita and its film adaptations. Many of her unreleased songs reference the controversial tale, such as ‘1949’, and ‘Put Me in a Movie’, alongside Born to Die tracks ‘Lolita’, ‘Off to the Races’, and ‘Carmen’.
In 2010, Del Rey made a music video for a demo version of ‘Lolita’ which featured clips from both Stanley Kubrick and Adrien Lyne’s film adaptations of the novel. Much of these clips were reused in fan-made videos, which sparked a new wave of teenagers enthralled by the tragedy of Lolita.
Although Del Rey has been widely accused of romanticising the novel – which revolves around a paedophile who becomes obsessed with a 12-year-old girl – it is clear that she uses the cultural figure of Lolita as symbolism to illustrate the personal experiences she alludes to within her lyrics.
But is it not just Lolita that Del Rey has come to popularise. A wealth of fan-made music videos for Del Rey’s released and unreleased music began using clips from films that drew similar aesthetic or thematic comparisons. These videos often amassed millions of views, leading her supporters to seek out the films for themselves. Some of the most prominent examples include The Virgin Suicides, American Beauty and Picnic at Hanging Rock. These movies feature sublime visuals undercut with tragedy, very reminiscent of Del Rey’s music.
Furthermore, much of Del Rey’s unreleased music playfully explored images that aligned with movies such as True Romance, Natural Born Killers and Bonnie and Clyde. Her song ‘Live or Die’ is perhaps one of the best examples of this, as she sings: “Are you gonna be my lover? / Are we gonna be true love’s suicide? / It’s either live or die” as gunshots and a thumping beat play in the background.
Of course, these are already extremely popular feature films, and Del Rey was not responsible for their success; rather, her music brought these movies to a new audience, particularly young girls, able to relate to the themes they explore. It can be argued that Del Rey’s music has been a major influence in the cult-like status that has come to define The Virgin Suicides on apps such as Tumblr, Pinterest, and TikTok. A fan-made video for the song ‘Jump’ – which contains the lyrics “last thing I saw before I died” and “do you wanna jump?” – was edited to clips of Coppola’s iconic film, which is very apt considering the first suicide shown in the film is of one of the girls jumping from a window.
Del Rey’s fan-made music videos have also led to the popularity of otherwise lesser-known films, such as The Love Witch, Valerie and her Week of Wonders, The Neon Demon, and Shangri La Suite. These would not have perhaps reached such a wide audience outside of the arthouse and independent realm if not for their frequent use in these music videos.
The impact Lana Del Rey has had on music and pop culture is undeniable. From her mainstream debut with ‘Video Games’ to her most recent album Blue Banisters, Del Rey’s evocative use of imagery will undoubtedly continue to inspire musicians, filmmakers, and artists alike.
