Ride

For my music video that I will be analyzing, I chose Lana Dey Rey's new video from her song "Ride." On the surface, it is a video about what the character she is portraying believes what freedom is. Lana's character believes "in what America used to be." I chose this video, because for one, I enjoy listening to her voice. Second, didn't think that anyone else would choose this video. Thirdly, I thought that there are a few points of slight controversy that could be discussed in it. Also, some parts of the video reminded me of a This I Believe speech, only a bit more sensual…

The video starts out with her character speaking a monologe about her life, and a few of the struggles within it. Throughout the video she is portrayed to be promiscuous, and takes some sort of happiness from it. She says that the men she meets give her some summer in a life of winter. This video may seem like one about sexual freedom on the top of it, but in my opinion, it's definitely not. It embodies some ugliness that isn't spoken of enough. The sexuality that Lana's character portrays is about how she has a deep emptiness inside, and somehow, the men she meets and her experiences with them seem to fill her in some way. It's not really meant to be an empowering song.

One reason I liked this video, as well as this song, is because in the video, it shows so much of what we've been trying to learn is important in art. That would be vulnerability and this video shows so much vulnerability. However, although I love her vulnerability, there are parts that I don't particularly enjoy about this video. The lyrics, and the video itself describe a freedom in which is delivered by the company of various men. It's quite sexist as well. The whole song is about riding, and she is portrayed riding on the back of mens motorcycles and atop them throughout the video. She is also hyper-sexualized throughout the entire video. The men in the video could be described as the opposite. They appear to be quite disgusting, at least from my point of view, while Lana's character is gorgeous and again, overly sexualized. I feel as though the video glamorizes promiscuity and evokes a feeling of freedom through that promiscuity, which I do not support. I will admit that she isn't trying to be a role model in anyway, which is ok and fine with me, but I did have a moment where I actually did want to be her character in the video, as yucky as that sounds. She is amazingly beautiful, and like I said, she definitely glamorizes promiscuity and sexual vulnerability in which I felt compelled to want to be kinda like her. Realizing that kind of scared me a bit.

Overall, I do like this video for enjoyment, since Lana is gorgeous and her voice is like silk, but there are a few underlying things that just grind my gears like her promiscuity and the glamorization of her characters lifestyle.