\u201cVideo Games\u201d is about loving somebody during the quiet, ordinary parts of a relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
private jets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Champagne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dramatic proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Literally sitting around while your boyfriend plays video games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lana Del Rey took that mundane experience and turned it into something cinematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That contradiction helped launch one of the most influential pop careers of the 2010s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Del Rey has discussed the song as drawing from a real relationship in which she would watch her boyfriend play video games while she wrote or spent time nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interesting thing is that she doesn’t present the situation as boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She romanticises it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s the Lana Del Rey trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A completely normal afternoon can feel like a lost Hollywood film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where listeners disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the surface:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator is devoted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She enjoys simply being around the person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there is also imbalance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She appears considerably more emotionally invested than he is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He’s playing games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She’s turning the experience into an enormous declaration of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That can sound beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It can also sound lonely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the title deliberately undercuts the grandeur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine the same orchestral recording being called:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEternal Love\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVideo Games\u201d makes you curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The phrase is mundane and modern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The music sounds ancient and romantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That tension is the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because Del Rey made it herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The video combines footage of her singing into a webcam with old film clips, paparazzi footage, cartoons, American imagery and nostalgic fragments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today that aesthetic feels familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2011, it felt unusual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It looked less like a conventional major-label pop video and more like somebody’s internet scrapbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
YouTube helped turn it into a phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not in the form we know now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had already released music under her real name Lizzy Grant and experimented with different identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVideo Games\u201d was the moment the Lana Del Rey persona suddenly connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then everything accelerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baroque pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dream pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alternative pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indie pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song uses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
piano<\/p>\n\n\n\n
strings<\/p>\n\n\n\n
slow percussion<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and Del Rey’s deliberately languid vocal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It sounded radically different from much of the mainstream pop surrounding it in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because it helped prove that pop didn’t have to become bigger and faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The early 2010s were full of enormous EDM-influenced productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVideo Games\u201d moved in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cinematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can hear pieces of that shift in artists who came later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Billie Eilish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lorde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halsey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Numerous alternative-pop singers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Del Rey didn’t invent melancholy pop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She helped make a particular internet-era version of it mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because her music constantly mixes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
real memories<\/p>\n\n\n\n
imagined nostalgia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
cinema<\/p>\n\n\n\n
celebrity<\/p>\n\n\n\n
romance<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and American mythology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That means you are rarely supposed to treat every image as documentary fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She builds worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVideo Games\u201d established the template.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lana Del Rey \u2013 Blue Jeans<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mazzy Star \u2013 Fade Into You<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beach House \u2013 Space Song<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cigarettes After Sex \u2013 Apocalypse<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weyes Blood \u2013 Andromeda<\/p>\n\n\n\n
London Grammar \u2013 Strong<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daughter \u2013 Youth<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Billie Eilish \u2013 when the party’s over<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mitski \u2013 My Love Mine All Mine<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love often happens while nothing interesting is happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s the beautiful interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sadder interpretation is that the narrator is creating a huge romantic fantasy around somebody who may not be giving her the same intensity in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both can be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that ambiguity is probably why the song still feels interesting rather than merely sentimental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cVideo Games\u201d is about loving somebody during the quiet, ordinary parts of a relationship. Not: private jets. Champagne. Dramatic proposals. Literally sitting around while your boyfriend plays video games. Lana Del Rey took that mundane experience and turned it into something cinematic. That contradiction helped launch one of the most influential pop careers of the 2010s. Is \u201cVideo Games\u201d based on a real relationship? Yes. Del Rey has discussed the song as drawing from a real relationship in which she would watch her boyfriend play video games while she wrote or spent time nearby. The interesting thing is that she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2903,2293,2316],"coauthors":[2],"class_list":["post-4737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-lana-del-rey","tag-meaning","tag-video-games"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n