FEATURE:
Groovelines
PHOTO CREDIT: Nicole Nodland for British Vogue
Lana Del Rey - Video Games
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I have written about…
PHOTO CREDIT: Nicole Nodland for British Vogue
Lana Del Rey recently. I think that she is the greatest American songwriter of her generation. Possibly one of the best songwriters from any nation. Such is the individuality, evocative nature and quality of her music, I cannot think of anyone like her. Rather than focus on her new music, I am going back to the start for this Groovelines. Her major label debut single, Video Games, was released on 7th October, 2011. Co-written with Justin Parker and produced by RoboPop (Daniel Omelio), I am going to highlight why it is one of the most revolutionary and important Pop songs ever. Not that you can put it in that genre. When it comes to Lana Del Rey and her style, it is cinematic, moody, beautiful, lush, baroque and divine. From her 2012 major label debut album, Born to Die, Video Games is often placed at the top of lists when it comes to Del Rey’s best songs. In fact, as you can see from Rolling Stone, The Guardian, GQ, and udiscovermusic.com, it is the queen! A song that everyone is compelled and fascinated by. I think Born to Die is an album criminally underrated. There was this mystery around Lana Del Rey in 2011. Her real name is Elizabeth Grant. That is the credit she used for the songwriting, so people were not sure who she really was or whether Lana Del Rey was a creation or someone else. It was a strange time. Maybe the media were confused by such a different sounding artist. Nobody like her was in music at that time!
I am going to get to articles about Video Games. The song’s co-scribe Justin Parker was interviewed by the BBC in 2012. A moment when Lana Del Rey was on everyone’s mind, it is bewildering nobody at the label liked her song! A big success in the U.K. but only a minor success in the U.S., there is no denying the fact that, now, Video Games is a hugely important song - and one that changed the face of modern music upon its release. Something blew through a mainstream that was struggling for inspiration or a move away from a lot of samey artists:
“The man who co-wrote Video Games with Lana Del Rey has admitted that "no-one liked it" from the record company when they first played the track.
Justin Parker co-wrote five tracks on Del Rey's Born to Die album, released by Polydor in January 2012.
Video Games is up for best contemporary song at the Ivor Novello Awards.
"They didn't think it was a single," Parker said. "It was quite amazing because me and Lana thought it was brilliant."
It was the weight of public approval that helped the pair convince record executives, he said.
"I think the video changed everyone's mind. It just took off didn't it?
"I mean they had no choice, they had to release it, it was forced upon them."
The video accompanying the song has now been viewed more than 38 million times on YouTube.
Quick hit
Justin Parker and Lana Del Rey wrote together for about 12 months, completing 12 songs together, five of which made the cut for Born to Die.
Despite the sombre tone of Video Games, Parker found composing it "a lot more fun than it sounds like musically".
"We wrote it in about three hours. It's quite a dark song, but it was an absolute blast."
The pair would meet up to write in London at weekends, Parker getting the train in from Lincoln, Del Rey flying in from New York "when she could afford it".
Parker found their collaboration simply worked: "It was a bit like writing with your younger sister by the end of it because we just got on so well - it just seemed so easy."
'The Adele effect'
Lana Del Rey joins the female-heavy nomination list for the 2011 Ivor Novello Awards.
Adele has four nominations while the album award is an all-female category for the first time in the ceremony's history.
Justin Parker feels "the Adele effect" can only bring good to the British music scene.
"It's great to have really classic song-writing being represented with Adele," he said.
"I think without Adele, perhaps Lana may not have happened because it kind of opened a door for people to look at that kind of song writing, a bit more classic style of song-writing”.
I will come to the reception and reaction for Video Games. Still hugely admired to this day, it is this beguiling and dream-like song that draws you into this amazing world! American Songwriter went behind the song for a feature in 2020. I think I first heard Video Games when it came out. I was awestruck by its sound. It provided this instantly reaction:
“Del Rey wrote the song with Justin Parker, who came up with the eerie, seesawing piano chords at the heart of the instrumental backing. When it came to the lyrics, the singer-songwriter looked to a pair of recent relationships, as she told the website Socialstereotype.com. “The verse was about the way things were with one person, and the chorus was the way that I wished things had really been with another person, who I thought about for a long time,” she said.
In the verses, Del Rey paints scenes of domestic tranquility and socializing with friends, 21st-century style. Her days and nights are filled with beer, darts, billiards and, of course, video games. “This is my idea of fun,” she sings at the end of the verse in a voice somewhere between deadpan and narcotized. These seemingly trivial pursuits are given meaning by the presence of the man in her life. With his strong arms, fast car and sexy patter, he seems more like an action-movie screenwriter’s construct than a living, breathing human.
The humanity comes in the chorus, when Del Rey snaps out of her monotone and confesses the depth of her feelings with genuine longing in her voice. “It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you,” she sings, and you can’t help but believe it. As opposed to the detached cool of the verses, Del Rey peppers the refrain with the moony sentiments of a schoolgirl, going so far as to borrow a line from Belinda Carlisle (“Heaven is a place on earth with you”) to get her point across.
IN THIS PHOTO: AJ Numan/PHOTO CREDIT: for Wonderland Magazine
There is an undeniable hint of desperation in her voice when she sings the chorus, as if this bliss she’s describing can’t possibly last much longer. The haunting atmosphere in the music seconds that notion, that this love affair, rhapsodized by the lyrics, is actually built on fragile ground and doomed to expire.
In an interview with Q Magazine, Del Rey tried to put a fine point on the appeal of the song. “I know that it’s a beautiful song and I sing it really low, which might set it apart,” she said. “I played it for a lot of people (in the industry) when I first wrote it and no one responded. It’s like a lot of things that have happened in my life during the last seven years, another personal milestone. It’s myself in song form.”
When Del Rey appeared on Saturday Night Live in January of 2012 to perform the song and promote her debut album Born To Die, she found out about the downside of hype. Her shaky performance took a beating on social media, and the possibility that Del Rey would be swallowed up by the backlash seemed very real.
That she rebounded with 2014’s critically-acclaimed Ultraviolence is a testament to Del Rey’s talent and toughness. The hype machine has run its course, and the good news is that “Video Games” now seems like it will more likely be the first act of a long, impressive career rather than the product of a one-hit wonder”.
Before coming to another article about the song, this i-D interview from 2011 captured the thoughts of an artist who was creating a lot of buzz and fascination. It is wonderful seeing how she has blossomed and progressed since 2011:
“Video Games” went viral long before its release date. Did you anticipate its success?
I've been putting my music online for so long that I didn't expect “Video Games” to get more attention than any other song. It's strange that people would react to a five-minute ballad, it's great though.
What's the song about?
I spoke to some journalists yesterday and they told me they thought “Video Games” was a sad song, but to me it feels happy. Things hadn't been working out for me musically for such a long time. I wrote “Video Games” after I let go of my ambitions of becoming a noteworthy artist, and was just enjoying being with my boyfriend instead, living in a trailer park, watching him play video games. That was all my life consisted of and I was at peace with that, so to me it's a happy song.
How do you think your boyfriend of the time felt when he heard the song?
I think he would find it rad. It captures the simple things about our relationship — getting dressed to go out, sitting down to watch TV. The melodies are pretty; they're the perfect match for what I was feeling. It's like, when you get a lot of things you want, and you lose them, then you get them again, then you lose them, you become a simpler person. You realise that stuff is going to keep leaving… what you really want is to find someone you can have fun with and spend all your time with.
Do you remember the first time you saw someone perform and thought, ‘this is what I want'?
When I saw Kurt Cobain on MTV Unplugged I thought 'Fuck my life! That is so sexy!' I was young but you could tell there was something tragic going on. The undertone was dark, even the funeral flowers and candles on the MTV set. He was so much more epic than anyone else I had ever encountered on television, or in real life.
Who inspires you today?
Eminem. He's a big truth teller and a mastermind rhymer. He's completely autobiographical; he's funny and as smart as they come. He's smarter than anyone else in pop music, other than Weezy. Everyone knows that.
Were you hesitant about how people would perceive you as a singer?
If I had realised just how many people were gonna watch “Video Games” then I would have had my hair and make-up done. And maybe I wouldn't have shot it on my laptop! The downside of having the video online is that for as many people who really like it, there are an equal number who fucking hate it. The amount of hate mail I get in my inbox is crazy. They always talk about my face and say terrible things. It's one of the worst things I've ever encountered in my entire life. It sounds like a luxury problem, but it's not. I'm a pretty simple person. I don't know many people and I've kept myself to myself for a really long time, so it's not something I anticipated. I anticipated no one really listening to it.
In Video Games you show a clip of Paz de la Huerta falling down drunk at the Golden Globe Awards. Why?
She's perfect. She's perfect because she's a person who wanted fame all her life and then she got it, and she loves it.
Do you identify with her?
No, I mean yes. I guess that's why I put it in. I don't want the same thing, but I know what she meant. She loves falling down, she fucking revels in her own disaster. She knows exactly what's happening and she loves it. I put it in because I thought it was right for the song, in the same way the Super 8 footage of the kids by the pool was right. I let my intuition guide me. I have a very strong narrative in mind. Maybe you could say it's my take on the dark side of the American Dream… fame gone bad, but I just think it's funny.
Does writing come naturally to you?
It used to. Francis Ford Coppola said if you sit down at the same place, at the same time, every day, the muse will know where to find you. I was so inspired by the visions I was having and the sonic world I was creating [that] it was easy, but now I only sit down to write when it comes to me.
Do you enjoy performing?
Ummm I really like writing. I really like singing, taking pictures is easy, but performing is pretty fucking terrifying. Really fucking terrifying actually.
How do you prepare?
Fucking pray all night, I get sick, whatever. I'm hoping it will change. I haven't been on a stage in 16 months”.
I am going to get to an article that writes how Video Games altered the Pop landscape. At a time when there was this bright Pop music that wasn’t necessarily that deep, along came something that was much more substantial, serious and deep. It was a turning point. In 2010, the Lana Del Ray album came out. Her career was not in a terrific state in 2011. Even if Video Games was more of an international success, it would not take long until the New York City-artist was a much bigger and acclaimed name around the world (and in her native U.S.):
“Few songs have had as much impact on the direction and marketing of popular music as Lana Del Rey’s breakout hit. Officially released on October 7, 2011 (it had leaked months earlier), “Video Games” arrived at a time when Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Ke$ha dominated the airwaves with their upbeat, electro-pop bangers. Lana, however, offered an entirely different proposition. Here was a sullen songstress with an understated ballad that sounded a hell of a lot sadder than the lyrics gave it any right to.
Not only was the sound completely different to her contemporaries, so was the aesthetic. Instead of rocking outrageous costumes, face paint and body glitter, LDR looked like she had just stepped out of a Life magazine shoot circa 1955. In other words, “Video Games” should never have worked and it was predictably ignored by pop radio. Instead, “Video Games” became one of the first songs to chart on the back of an outpouring of love from music blogs and, subsequently, rabid support on social media.
While going viral is considered a standard launching pad for a music career in 2019, it was uncharted territory in 2011. And Lana doesn’t get enough credit for mapping those badlands. “Video Games” also ushered in the age of the DIY pop star. All of a sudden, artists were not only expected to write their own music, but also corral fans online. Moreover, the success of the self-directed video resulted in a demand for greater input visually. In the wake of “Video Games,” authenticity (or at least the perception of it) was king.
However, the impact of “Video Games” goes well beyond marketing. It birthed the dark-pop movement that still persists to this day. While morose pop music has been a thing since Nancy Sinatra picked up a microphone (and probably well before it), Lana made it cool and commercial again. Suddenly, the interwebs were clogged with a flood of sad girls and even sadder boys with copycat sounds. On a more uplifting note, the song also introduced fans to Lana’s influences and opened the door for other artists that didn’t fit the industry mold.
“Video Games” ultimately peaked at number 91 on the Billboard Hot 100. Happily, it was received very differently abroad. The crushing ballad topped the charts in Germany and cracked the top 10 in major markets like the UK and France. A phenomenon was born, and America could no longer ignore it. On its 8th birthday, take some time to revisit one of the most influential songs of the 2010s. It sounds every bit as mesmerizing today as it did in 2011”.
There has been a lot written about Video Games, though I don’t think that enough has been written in the past five years or so regarding how Lana Del Rey’s Video Games changed Pop. How her evolution and influence since then has been profound and hugely unexpected – given the fact Video Games was such a slow-burning in many countries. In October 2016, five years after its release, DAZED discussed the enduring legacy of the song. I think its influence has widened and strengthened in the ensuring seven years:
“It was five years ago that Lana Del Rey first entranced the world with her distinctive, dreamy brand of what she called ‘Hollywood Sadcore’. The first glimpse came in the form of “Video Games”, a simple yet brilliant ballad which stopped an EDM-obsessed music industry in its tracks. Its instrumentation is minimal; the song opens with church bells and slowly develops as harps, strings and a plodding piano swell underneath the beauty of Del Rey’s distinctive vocal. Lyrics seem to be sighed instead of sung; there are hints of melancholia as well as that sweeping, cinematic sadness with which Del Rey has since become synonymous. It’s aged incredibly well due to its lack of reliance on musical trends: “Video Games” is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime track destined for critical acclaim regardless of its release date.
Then, there was the video. It’s a moving collage comprised of archive footage – think Disney vixens, American flags and flickering clips of a faded Hollywood sign – interspersed with webcam videos of a doe-eyed Del Rey singing wistfully at the camera. The song lyrics themselves rely on a juxtaposition of fantasy and reality; the verses depict a doting Del Rey dressing up to distract her lover from his aforementioned “Video Games” whereas the cinematic chorus sees the starlet romanticise the concept of romance, cooing “Heaven is a place on Earth with you.”
“The verse was about the way things were with one person, and the chorus was the way that I wished things had really been with another person, who I thought about for a long time”, she explained in a Dazed profile back in 2011. “‘Swinging in the backyard, pull up in your fast car, whistling my name’. That was what happened, you know? He’d come home and I’d see him. But then the chorus wasn’t like that. That was the way that I wished it was – the melody sounds so compelling and heavenly because I wanted it to be that way.”
“Retrospectively, the contrast between the reality of a relationship and a wistful longing for old-fashioned love remain the perfect introduction to Lana Del Rey’s work”
Retrospectively, the contrast between the reality of a relationship and a wistful longing for old-fashioned love remain the perfect introduction to Lana Del Rey’s work; the same themes continue to permeate her more recent work, and her commitment to her singular aesthetic remains unflinching. Back in 2011, the commercial viability of that aesthetic was astounding – “Video Games” went platinum in Australia, Austria, Belgium and the United Kingdom as well as going double platinum in Switzerland and selling over 2.6million copies worldwide. To date, the video has been viewed over 128,000,000 times on YouTube alone and the song won a prestigious Ivor Novello award for Best Contemporary Song in 2012. Her most recent work may have never have reached the same commercial peaks as “Video Games” but the reference points remain the same – even if the budgets are now bigger.
It’s undeniable that the timing of “Video Games” release was pivotal – its unique soundscape seemed even more unique in a mainstream increasingly dominated by identikit EDM. In an interview with T Magazine, Del Rey explained that record labels saw her downbeat, melancholy output as a commercial risk which deterred them from taking a chance. “I would play my songs, explain what I was trying to do, and I’d get ‘You know who’s No. 1 in 13 countries right now? Kesha. ‘Video Games’ was a 4-and-a-half-minute ballad’”, she explained. “No instruments on it. It was too dark, too personal, too risky, not commercial. It wasn’t pop until it was on the radio.”
The moment the song did hit the radio, the reception was unprecedented – and also extremely short-lived. There was a quick backlash following “Video Games” success which saw Lana Del Rey elevated and subsequently crucified by the media before she even released her first album. It seems the backlash started around the time that ill-fated debut LP was unearthed online; entitled Lana Del Ray a.k.a. Lizzy Grant, the album hinted at the sonic potential that would later flourish; much like “Video Games”, these were downbeat, lovelorn ballads rooted in grainy, lo-fi Americana. Media outlets were, on the other hand, more incensed at the discovery of Lana Del Rey as a pseudonym; shattered was the illusion that she had appeared from nowhere on YouTube, a revelation which sparked a subsequent mission to crucify the starlet for a supposed lack of authenticity.
This criticism was bolstered by a widely-panned Saturday Night Live performance which many argued as a demonstration of her lack of talent. Del Rey was forced to defend herself, explaining that she wasn’t yet a trained performer and was, in fact, finding her feet in front of a global audience. Articles were soon released attempting to expose Del Rey as a case of style over substance; headlines exposed a millionaire father and drew attention to claims that Del Rey had been pushed by managers and lawyers to create an alias name for her music. Things went to such an extreme that SPIN published an article entitled Deconstructing Lana Del Rey – a meticulous analysis of fact and fiction designed to clear up the facts and myths surrounding the star.
From day one, Lana Del Rey was forced by press to deny rumours that she was the meticulous creation of a record label seeking success. She explained that her moniker choice stemmed from spending time with her Cuban friends, speaking Spanish frequently and eventually settling on Lana Del Rey due to it being exotic and beautiful. “Once you have a name, you expect certain things from it, so it was like something to aim towards,” she explained in the same Dazed profile. “I could build a sonic world towards the way the name fell off my lips. It’s helped me a lot.” Despite her honesty, the mainstream media was unsurprisingly reluctant to believe that Del Rey, a woman whose visual universe centred around archetypes and female sexuality, could truly have agency over her own image.
Still, the true legacy of “Video Games” lies neither in its commercial nor its critical success. Instead, it can be found on Tumblr. A quick search of ‘Lana Del Rey’ on the blogging site spews up thousands and thousands of gifs, photos and lyric quotes which draw from the same breed of cinematic melancholia so synonymous with Del Rey. Her lyrics have drawn criticism for glamourising death and depression, whereas “Video Games” seems to evoke a desperate longing for the affections of an unresponsive lover; it’s this distinctive juxtaposition of references that concisely encapsulates the self-coined term ‘Hollywood sadcore’.
“The mainstream media was unsurprisingly reluctant to believe that Del Rey, a woman whose visual universe centred around archetypes and female sexuality, could truly have agency over her own image”
On the other hand, the link between depression and Tumblr is well-documented; a combination of online anonymity, communal spirit and an endless well of content on sadness and struggle turned the site into a beautiful safe haven for sufferers to share their stories. Coincidentally, Tumblr was experiencing a boom in popularity around the same time that Del Rey emerged as a mainstream figure and immediately became a figurehead of what is still known as ‘sadcore’. A Dummy article written in 2012 succintly describes her appeal: “A beautiful woman with a curious voice, Lana portrayed a quasi-Perks of Being A Wallflower perspective on tortured young love with a wistfulness that appealed to an access-all-areas Internet generation desperately grasping for nostalgia”.
Such a distinct and astoundingly powerful song, Video Games might be a tad overproduced…though it is this dreamy, epic and almost haunting song that transports the senses. It was alien and an amazingly refreshing change in music in 2011. Announcing this immense and original talent who has since gone on to become one of the most important and talented songwriters in the world, I feel Lana Del Rey will go down in history as someone who radically changed music and opened the door for so many artists coming through. She plays Primavera Sound Barcelona next year. Her ninth studio album, Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, came out earlier this year (and is one of the best from this year). Video Games arrived back in 2011. It sounded like nothing else in music. Twelve years later, I still think that this…
IS the case.