Lana Del Rey "Rides"

Lana Del Rey’s most recent music video/short film “Ride” has over 8 million views in just over two weeks on Youtube. This comes as no surprise since her first single “Video Games” was a viral internet sensation that placed her on the map as Lana Del Rey, her most recent stage name, and served as the catalyst for her recent success.

The ten minute music video is flanked by a preface and epilogue in which Lana Del Rey addresses her audience in a quasi-confessional monologue. “I was always an unusual girl” she states, and the film showcases her many personalities, always retaining an element of fragility. In the first few minutes she is filmed buying an Orange Crush soda in her red converse appearing childlike in contrast with her sultry jazz singer performance in five inch heels which follows. However, these elements are outshone by the consistent ultra American Lana Del Rey which undercuts the entire video and song.

Before the monologue audio is played over the scene, Del Rey is shot swinging on a tire swing in the open desert. The sky opens expansively behind her and as she swings back and forth the fringe on her jacket splays behind her, her cowboy clad feet kick out in front showcasing long legs in cut off jean shorts. This scene, followed by another of her on the back of a motorcycle in a faux Budweiser t-shirt, contributes a hyper American feel. She later drapes the American flag around her shoulder and dons a Native American feather headdress in two different scenes. The plethora of beer and guns and cigarettes harkens back to the days of the Marlboro man and the desert scenes create the idea that Del Rey is the last cowboy standing.

In the midst of the visually striking shots, Del Rey challenges her audience morally. Throughout the video she has a multitude of lovers, gets in a strange man’s car, appears to be a prostitute at a gas station in the middle of the night, and constantly has biker gang men around her. In one scene, she has a large red bow in her hair and is sitting on the lap of a biker who is brushing her hair. This chronic contention between childhood and adulthood is unsettling. Del Rey explains these are the people she sought comfort in and it becomes evident that the nomadic spirit implicit in what she calls the “road dogs” is not necessarily desires, but what she knows.

In the closing epilogue Del Rey asks three rhetorical questions: “Who are you? Are you in touch with all of your darkest fantasies? Have you created a life for yourself where you can experience them?” “Ride” invokes the audience to question their own lives in the most unconventional manner. Through her monologue and songs, Del Rey suggests that being comfortable can be more threatening than indulging in our desires. Lana Del Rey calls on her audience to ride.