“It’s December 2. 2021. And it’s a Thursday. Here in LA, a heavy, dense fog. Very still right now. Fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit. Around 11 Celcius. Today I was thinking about Lana del Rey and her song “Video games” from 2011”. Obviously, these words were like an explosion in Twitter.
David Lynch’s career has always been quite unpredictable, surrounded by mystery and inexplicable things. Certainly, some would say the same about his films. But when he pronounced these words in his daily weather report in Youtube, was like a light in the middle of a tunnel. Thousands of Lana del Rey’s and David Lynch’s followers would definitely being more than pleased if this charismatic film director decides to direct a Lana del Rey’s videoclip, even more since the singer publicly shown her interest in Lynch’s work. 

We could find infinite examples in which the term “Lynchian” is absolutely ill-advised and nothing has to do with the Lynch world. But this is not the case.

Analyzing Lana del Rey’s “Video Game” videoclip, we notice sort of an unreal and density atmosphere we use to find in Lynch’s films. However, its production differs from Lynch’s: Her videoclip was directed and edited by her. Using other’s footage and a webcam, she presents us through these low cost tools and techniques her dreamy and depressing world. Even in 2011 this DIY performance was plenty to talk about. The reason could be linked to what Gina Arnold, Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough, and Michael Goddard pointed out: “there is no doubt that the wide dissemination and reach of the music video, and the technological advances that have occurred in cameras, videography, digital compression and the Internet, have changed both how they are made and who can make them, altering forever the way that popular music is actually experienced” (Arnold, Cookney, Fairclough, Goddard, 2019).

It is not worthy to still watching “Video Games” videoclip just because we can denote influences between cinema and videoclips history. It is as well a good example of how videoclips can add meaning to a song. In other words and using Nicholas Cook’s terms, in this case the interaction between music and image is a complementing one, because it shows off or brings light.

Once we watch Lana del Rey’s videoclips, we are unable to separate her songs from her images. Her “aura”, or as Vernallis explain as the reason why one remembers a song, “its halo of memories” (Vernallis, 2004) becomes into a whole product.

Today is November 28. It is a Monday and I have been thinking about Lana del Rey too.

By Clara Heras Aguilar

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References:

· Gina Arnold, Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough, and Michael Goddard ‘Introduction: The Persistence of the Music Video Form from MTV to Twenty-First-Century Social Media’, Music/Video: Histories Aesthetics, Media.

· Carole Vernallis, ‘Music Video’s Second Aesthetic’, Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema.

· Silman, Jon. We Got this Covered. Just David Lynch interrupting his daily Youtube weather report to stan Lana del Rey. (Accesed: November 28, 2022): https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/just-david-lynch-interrupting-his-daily-youtube-weather-report-to-stan-lana-del-rey/