An analysis of Lana Del Rey's 'Born to die' the music magazine album advert.

2. Lana Del Rey ‘Born to die’ music magazine advert
analysis
Background
“Born to Die is the second studio album and major label debut by American singer-
songwriter Lana Del Rey. It was released on January 27, 2012 by Interscope Records,
Polydor Records and Stranger Records. Del Rey collaborated with producers including Patrik
Berger, Jeff Bhasker, Chris Braide, Emile Haynie, Justin Parker, Rick Nowels, Robopop and
Al Shux to achieve her desired sound. Their efforts resulted in a primarily baroque pop
record, which sees additional influences from alternative hip hop, indie pop and trip hop
music.
Born to Die received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics; some
commended its distinctive production, however, its repetitiveness and melodramatic
tendencies were a recurring complaint. The album debuted at number two on the US
Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 77,000 copies; it was later certified platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) after moving one million units. Born to
Die reached the peak positions on eleven international record charts.
After attaining online success after its initial premiere on June 29, 2011, "Video Games" was
released as the lead single from Born to Die on October 17, 2011; it peaked at number ninety-
one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its follow-up singles "Born to Die", "Off to the Races",
"Blue Jeans", "Summertime Sadness", "National Anthem", and "Dark Paradise" performed
sporadically across Billboard component charts and international record charts. The Cedric
Gervais remix of "Summertime Sadness" was released on July 11, 2013 and became Del
Rey's highest-charting single in the United States, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot
100. Del Rey additionally promoted Born to Die with several televised performances,
including a widely criticized appearance on Saturday Night Live. It was reissued on
November 9, 2012 as an expanded version subtitled The Paradise Edition, which was
packaged with her third extended play Paradise (2012). Born to Die has sold 7 million copies
worldwide as of June 2014.”
The main image
The album’s picture is used to promote the sale of the album, this way the audience become
familiar with the album and remember its imagery as its constantly repeated. The image is a
portrait/mid shot of Lana against a blurry background of what would appear to be sheds,
some trees and a blue sky. Lana gives the stereotypical lost, angry model pose to look edgy
and cool. Her make-up I kept somewhat natural except for a big, bright red pout which
sexualizes her instantly as studies have shown that men are drawn to this part of a woman’s
face the most, therefore her lips are exaggerated to draw even more attention to this facial
feature. Her hair is also used to sexualize her as she has it long, in sexy voluptuous waves- a
hairstyle that has been favored for women in popular culture as seen through the pin-up girls

3. in the sixties to the Victoria’s secret angels of today. She wears a collared, buttoned to the top
white shirt- that is sheer. You cannot see her nipples but you can see her red bra, the image
makes a point of showing off her skin and figure underneath the shirt. The connotations of a
white shirt depict a smart, intelligent, middle class office worker however the fact that it is
sheer enough to see her underwear and Lana is a female suggest the image wants to play into
the fetish of a ‘sexy, young, female secretary’ with Lana’s appearance. Her Jewelry is rather
unexpected- she wears big, gold hoops which are seen as ‘trashy’ or ‘ghetto’ within society
and is typically associated with black women in rap/hip hop. This could imply that Lana is
unconventional as she is an alternative pop artist, she mixes assorted styles to create a style
unique to her. Furthermore, this appearance suggests she’s quite bold and isn’t afraid to push
the boundaries on this album. The background itself is a very stereotypical image of a sunny
day in America, this contradicts the title of ‘Born to die’ as the sun shining and death aren’t
synonymous with and other. We could interpret this as Lana views death as something
common- like a sunny day and maybe to her it isn’t seen as such a scary thing as society
portrays it to be. It is natural like the trees and the sky after all. There appears to be a grainy,
vintage filter applied over the top of the image- the recent obsession with making today’s
products look vintage stems from the fact that there is a shared-nostalgia for simpler times, as
today’s society seems over complex and it appears that in comparison to the past there are
more issues in the world. Overall the image itself is so familiar and expected with a slight
undertone of melancholy- a possible reflection of the feel of the album?
The title, font/font size and text
As expected, following the codes and conventions- Lana’s name is in block capitals at the
top, in the skyline of the print piece as although this is an advert promoting her new album-
she is the thing which must be promoted constantly, no matter what. The subheading of the
album’s title is in a significantly smaller font to the skyline of Lana’s name, this is slightly
unconventional as in comparison to other adverts I have analyzed the album title hasn’t been
so downplayed. This advert follow’s the style of the Olly murs ‘Right place, right time’
album’ as there is the release date (January 30th), featuring singles (‘Blue Jeans’) and Lana’s
website (Lanadelrey.com) allowing the audience to connect with Lana on all media
platforms. Unlike the other adverts I have analyzed, Lana uses intertextuality to promote the
popular online shopping site ‘amazon.com’. This is most likely because she has a deal with
the distributor in which she could see her album sales excel as her ad can be featured on their
website as well as their offspring sites such as ‘amazon prime’. The Fonts used are again very
simple, and common- this appears to be popular amongst music magazine adverts. This could
be because, regardless of distance they’re clearly readable as well as they look classic and
hold a professionalism about it. Too wild of a font can come off as childish. The fonts differ
between the headlines and the accompanying text to distinguish between the two types of
information.